Stats Ch. 3

________ are an efficient way to visually display the data to identify any outliers that may skew the distribution.

Histograms

________ are an efficient way to visually display the data to identify any outliers that may skew the distribution.

NOT scatterplots

Lionel is presenting data on how often parents give fast food to their children. He uses pictures of a French fry for fast food and an apple for healthy food in a graph of the data. Although this graph may look interesting, why should Lionel think about using a different type of graph?

Pictorial graphs may mislead the audience and detract from the actual relation between variables.

Juanita bought a chain of video rental stores in the late 1990s and business was very strong for a couple of years. The number of video rentals was increasing yearly and she was very confident that it would continue indefinitely. However, she did not foresee the rise of video on-demand and consequently her business has been in a slow decline for the past several years. Juanita's assumption that the upward trend in video rentals would continue could be referred to as:

an extrapolation lie

The _______ lie refers to using evaluation scales that encourage a particular type of response--for example, by including more positive than negative options.

biased scale

You pick up a copy of Pop Psychology Weekly and notice a big graph on the cover displaying the results of a recent happiness survey. The graph indicates that almost everyone answered "very" when asked "How happy are you?" However, survey respondents were only given the options of "extremely," "very," or "somewhat" when answering the question. You are concerned that the graph may be misleading because of the _____ lie.

biased scale

Which of the following techniques for misleading with graphs involves using survey items that do not include the full range of possible responses—resulting in information that is slanted in a particular direction?

biased scale lie

The _______ lie can occur when we assume that a pattern of data will continue indefinitely.

extrapolation

Below is a frequency table for ownership of various breeds of dog..... What type of graph would be appropriate to display this data?

histogram

If your professor would like to graph scores from a recent exam, what type of graph should she use?

histogram or polygon

Using a graph to distort data-for example by changing graphics to emphasize one piece of information over another-would be an example of the _____ lie.

inaccurate values

One of the ways that graphs may mislead is by assuming that some value between the data points lies on a straight line between those data points. This is referred to as the _____ lie.

interpolation

A private high school wants to show that students' test scores are superior to those of another school in the district. The administration creates a bar graph showing a very tall bar representing the private school's mean test score and a very low bar representing the mean score for the other school. What part of the graph would show if the private school is exaggerating the difference between schools?

range of values on the y-axis

An insurance company hires Ulrich to explain car accidents that are the result of people who look at the road while driving but do not see an oncoming car, a type of accident labeled as "driver looked but did not see." Ulrich creates an experiment in which participants see two pictures flashing on a computer screen. Both pictures show the same scene but one is slightly different. Ulrich records how long it takes people to notice the change (reaction time) and how many sets of pictures they view during a 5-minute session. What should Ulrich include on a scatterplot to most effectively describe these data?

reaction time and number of pictures viewed

Michael wants to graph the relation between scores on the SAT and first semester grade point average in college. What type of graph should he use?

scatterplot

The line of best fit, which is used to make predictions for y variables on the basis of values of x, is constructed using a:

scatterplot

Imagine you saw a graph in the fictional magazine Metropolitan Woman showing that over 50% of their married readers had an affair within the last year. You concluded correctly that the graph was misleading because readers of Metropolitan Woman are not necessarily representative of all married women. This is an example of the _____ lie.

sneaky sample

Which of the following techniques for misleading with graphs involves selecting people to participate in a study so that the results turn out a certain way

sneaky sample lie

To test whether a chemical found in many common plastic items is toxic, researchers fed different amounts of the chemical (from 0 to 20 micrograms) to mice and later performed a blood test to determine the amount of toxins present in each mouse. To create a scatterplot of the data, what variable should be listed on the vertical y-axis?

the dependent variable, which is the amount of toxins present in the blood test

Displaying graphical data from a non-representative sample and making unwarranted conclusions could be referred to as:

the sneaky sample lie

The graph in your text comparing the cost of higher education with the quality of education at Cornell University was used to illustrate:

ways that graphs can be misleading