ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 serves as a primer for the rest of the chapters in the book, as it establishes some basic terminology and introduces many fundamental concepts, such as sampling, population parameters vs. sample statistics, sampling error, statistical inference, and levels of measurement. The chapter also differentiates between independent and dependent variables, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, and parametric and non-parametric tests. Examples are included throughout the chapter to demonstrate how the concepts that are introduced can be applied to address research questions related to health, medicine, and rehabilitation. The concepts discussed in this chapter are revisited and expanded upon in subsequent chapters.
