Why learn statistics with CogStat?

There are various advantages of learning statistics with CogStat.

  • One main advantage is that CogStat runs the analyses automatically, so you don’t have to know in which menu you’ll find the appropriate procedure, but you only have to set the question together with your variables and all other details will be handled by the software. So you can focus on the statistical knowledge instead of the technical details.
  • Another important feature of CogStat is that it presents the results in a more systematic way, so it is easier to understand different aspects of your data. You’ll spend less time with searching for the specific details in long outputs with arbitrarily organized details, but you can focus on conceptual understanding of your data.

Textbooks for CogStat

There are two introductory textbooks that build upon the way CogStat analyses data:

Using CogStat with other textbooks

However, if you have your favorite textbook with demo data, there’s a high chance that you’ll be able to simply drag and drop the data file onto the CogStat window and start analyzing it because CogStat knows various file formats. Datasets of some popular textbooks are already distributed with CogStat – open them from the Data > Open demo data file... menu.

When you’re using a textbook that is not optimized for CogStat, you may sometimes find it difficult to find the appropriate analysis, because in an individual analysis software, you must find the analysis in the menu (e.g., two-sample t-test), while, in an automatic analysis software, you have to find the task (e.g., compare groups). So to find the appropriate analysis in CogStat, you simply have to look for the appropriate task/question in the Analysis menu, and after setting the appropriate variables you’ll get the needed result (assuming that CogStat knows that analysis). If you still cannot find the needed analysis, you may search the documentation.

(If you are a teacher, check out the Teaching with CogStat page.)