Assignment 1

 

 

 

Assignment 1

Answer the following questions using complete sentences by typing directly into this assignment. Show your work where necessary:

 

1. An elementary school teacher is interested in the effects of food packaging for food consumption amongst preschool children. The teacher gives 30 preschool children from Preschool Playland their morning snack in either a brightly colored box or a brown paper bag. He then measures the amount of snack eaten by each child. Identify each of the following for this study:
2. The population:
3. The sample:
4. The independent variable:
5. The levels of the independent variable:
6. The dependent variable:
7. Suppose the mean percentage of the amount of snack eaten in a brightly colored box is 80% and the mean percentage for the paper bag is 40%. Graph this data using word doc.’s graphing function. (Go to insert then chart). If you are unsure of how to use the graphing function, do your best and we will go over it in class discussion. To get you started see: https://www.wikihow.com/Add-a-Graph-to-Microsoft-Word and https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-an-excel-chart-in-word-11a7d2f0-4487-4a9b-bbc6-d50916cd4a57

 

2. Identify at least one confounding variable that undermines the conclusion drawn from the following fictional study description:

 

Prof. Martin was interested in which of two popular statistics textbooks (Statistics: It will change your life and Statistics: Bigger, better, stronger) was better for students. Prof. Martin compared the two texts by assigning one text to a section of statistics taught by Prof. Miller at 10:00 am on MWF and the other text to a section of statistics taught by Prof. Smith from 7-10 pm on Wednesday evenings. At the end of the term, all students took the same comprehensive test. Students who were assigned Statistics: Bigger, better, stronger performed better on the test then did students who were assigned Statistics: It will change your life. Prof. Martin therefore, concluded that the former textbook was the better one.

[Note: possible confounds are within the description—i.e., you do not need to make them up.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Use the following to answer questions 3 and 4:

The following table depicts the annual salary for a sample of 10 Chicago Cubs players during the 2005 baseball season in millions of dollars.

Table: Chicago Cubs Salaries

 

		Player	Salary $ (in millions of USD)
		1	3.16
		2	0.32
		3	1.20
		4	2.30
		5	4.50
		6	2.10
		7	1.05
		8	0.34
		9	8.25
		10	13.70

3. Calculate the mean and median salary for the 10 Chicago Cubs players listed in the table. Show your work.

 

4. Calculate the range, the standard deviation, and the variance of the salaries for the 10 Chicago Cubs players listed in the table. Show your work.

 

5. How would you present these data?:

For each of the following fictional scenarios, (i) state the independent variable and dependent variables, then (ii) state which graph or graphs would be appropriate to depict the data and explain why. Choose from bar graph, scatterplots, time plot, and pareto chart.

 

1. Do gender and music affect video game performance? There were 75 male and 75 female students randomly assigned to play a video game in one of the following 3 conditions: no music, rock music, or rap music. Their scores on the video game were recorded.

 

10. A social psychologist studied the effects of height on perceived overall attractiveness. Students were recruited to come to a research laboratory in pairs. They were left to sit in the waiting room for several minutes, then they were brought into separate rooms, where their heights were measured. They also filled out a questionnaire that asked, among other things, that they rate attractiveness of the person who had been sitting with them in the waiting room on a scale from 1-10.

 

1. Do people remember expletives better than other words? Students were asked to memorize a list of 20 expletives; on day later, researchers recorded how many words they remembered. Either a couple of days before or after memorizing the expletives, the same students were asked to memorize a list of nonexpletives that were equally common in the English language. A day later, researchers recorded how many words they remembered.

 

20. A social worker tracked the depression levels of clients being treated with cognitive behavioral therapy for depression. For each client, depression was assessed at weeks 1-20 of therapy. She calculated a mean for all her clients at week 1, week 2, and so on, all through week 20.

 

1. An epidemiologist determined adolescent suicide rates for 20 countries.