stats unit four review (final)
A certain monthly magazine has both print and online subscribers. Print subscribers are people who pay to have the magazine physically delivered to them each month. Online subscribers are people who pay to have access to the electronic version of the magazine. The editors of the magazine want to study how online subscribers feel about the design of the electronic version, and they will gather data from a sample. Which of the following is a sample of the population of interest?
50 online subscribers
A market research firm is studying the effects of price and type of packaging on sales of a particular product. Twenty-seven stores with shoppers of similar characteristics will be used in the study. The nine combinations of three price levels and three packaging types are the treatments of interest. Total sales of the product over a seven-week period will be recorded. Which of the following describes the best design to use for the study?
A completely randomized design. Randomly assign the nine combinations of price level and packaging type so that three stores use each combination.
Which of the following can be used to show a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables?
A controlled experiment
A study was conducted to evaluate the impact of taking a nutritional supplement on a person's reaction time. One hundred volunteers were placed into one of three groups according to their athletic ability: low, moderate, or high. Participants in each group were randomly assigned to take either the nutritional supplement or a placebo for six weeks. At the end of the six weeks, participants were given a coordination task. The reaction time in completing the task was recorded for each participant. The study compared the reaction times between those taking the supplement and those taking the placebo within each athletic ability level. Which of the following is the best description of the study?
A randomized block design
A researcher wanted to estimate the average amount of money spent on extracurricular activities per school in a certain region. The researcher randomly selected 20 public schools and 20 private schools in the region to use for a sample. Which of the following best describes the type of sample that was taken?
A stratified random sample
A researcher selects a simple random sample of 1,200 women who are students at Midwestern colleges in the United States to use for an observational study. Which of the following describes the population to which it would be most reasonable to generalize the results?
All women who are students at Midwestern colleges in the United States
Which of the following does not describe a sampling method that has a potential source of voluntary response bias for the administration of a survey about college athletics at a university?
Giving the survey to 30 students selected at random from each of the eight dorms on campus
A local television news station includes a viewer survey question about a current issue at the beginning of every evening news broadcast. Viewers are invited to use social media to respond to the question. The results of the survey are shared with the audience at the end of each broadcast. In relation to the opinions of the population of the region, which of the following is a possible reason why the results of such surveys could be biased? I. Viewers with strong opinions about the current issue are more likely to respond than are viewers without strong opinions. II. The opinions of viewers of one television station are not necessarily representative of the population of a region. III. Viewers with access to social media are not necessarily representative of the population of a region.
I, II and III
A well-designed experiment should have which of the following characteristics? I. Subjects assigned randomly to treatments II. A control group or at least two treatment groups III. Replication
I, II and III
A local employer asked for help selecting a new type of desk chair. Thirty employees volunteered, and each employee used the new desk chair for two weeks and the current desk chair for two weeks. To determine which chair was used first, a coin was flipped for each employee. Heads represented using the new chair first, and tails represented using the current chair first. At the end of each two-week period, the employees were asked to rate their satisfaction with the new chair. Which of the following best describes this study?
It is a well-designed experiment because there is random assignment, replication, and comparison of at least two treatment groups.
To check the effect of cold temperature on the elasticity of two brands of rubber bands, one box of Brand A and one box of Brand B rubber bands are tested. Ten bands from the Brand A box are placed in a freezer for two hours and ten bands from the Brand B box are kept at room temperature. The amount of stretch before breakage is measured on each rubber band, and the mean for the cold bands is compared to the mean for the others. Is this a good experimental design?
No, because temperature is confounded with brand.
Under which of the following conditions is it preferable to use stratified random sampling rather than simple random sampling?
The population can be divided into strata so that the individuals in each stratum are as much alike as possible.
A researcher conducted an experiment to study the effects of an herbal supplement on the duration of the common cold. From a sample of 50 people who had a cold, the researcher assigned 25 people to take the supplement each day. The other 25 people were asked to drink water each day and were not given the supplement. The researcher recorded the number of days the cold lasted for each person. What are the experimental units of the study?
The sample of 50 people who had a cold
Some contact lens wearers report problems with dryness in their eyes. A study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a new eye-drop solution to relieve dryness for contact lens wearers. Twenty-five volunteers who wore contact lenses agreed to use the new solution for one month. At the end of the month, 36 percent of the volunteers reported that the new solution was effective in relieving dryness. The company that produced the new eye-drop solution concluded that using the new solution is more effective in relieving dryness than using no solution. Which of the following best explains why the study does not support such a conclusion?
The study had no control group.
A new restaurant is interested in determining the best time-temperature combination for roasting a five-pound cut of lamb. The times to be tested are 45 minutes, 60 minutes, and 90 minutes at temperatures of 350 degrees Fahrenheit and 425 degrees Fahrenheit for each time, with the exception of the 90 minute - 425 degree combination. That combination is being eliminated because it will overcook the lamb, which leaves five combinations remaining. From 10 identical cuts of lamb, 2 are randomly selected to roast using each of the time-temperature combinations in the same oven. The quality of the finished product is evaluated for each roast. Which of the following is true?
The two cuts that are being roasted for each time-temperature combination are an example of replication.
Each person in a simple random sample of 2,000 received a survey, and 317 people returned their survey. How could nonresponse cause the results of the survey to be biased?
Those who did respond may differ in some important way from those who did not respond.
An experiment will be conducted in which 20 pepper plants are randomly assigned to two groups. The plants in Group 1 will receive the current fertilizer, Fertilizer A, and the plants in Group 2 will receive a new fertilizer, Fertilizer B. All other growing conditions, including amount of sunlight and water, will be kept the same for the two groups. The growth of the pepper plants will be compared for the two groups. What are the experimental units in this experiment?
The 20 plants in the two groups
A bank surveyed all of its 60 employees to determine the proportion who participate in volunteer activities. Which of the following statements is true?
The bank does not need to use an inference procedure to determine the proportion of employees who participate in volunteer activities because the survey was a census of all employees.
A school principal wanted to investigate student opinion about the food served in the school cafeteria. The principal selected at random samples of 50 first-year students, 50 second-year students, 50 third-year students, and 50 fourth-year students to complete a questionnaire. Which of the following best describes the principal's sampling plan?
A stratified random sample
At a certain clothing store, the clothes are displayed on racks. The clothes on each rack have similar prices, but the prices among the racks are very different. To estimate the typical price of a single piece of clothing, a consumer will randomly select four pieces of clothing from each rack. What type of sample is the consumer selecting?
A stratified random sample
At a large conference of teachers from a variety of subjects, a random sample of 50 mathematics teachers attending the conference was selected. Among the selected mathematics teachers, 28 percent had taken one or more courses in statistics. For which of the following populations is 28 percent a reasonable estimate of the percentage of those who have taken one or more courses in statistics?
All mathematics teachers who attended the conference
A pharmaceutical company manufactures medicine to reduce pain caused by migraine headaches. The company is investigating whether a new medicine is more effective in reducing pain than the current medicine. A random sample of 500 participants who experience migraines was selected, and the participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups of equal size. The first group received the current medicine and the second group received the new medicine. When a participant experienced a migraine, he or she was instructed to take the medicine and, 15 minutes after taking the medicine, to rate the pain relief on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being no relief to 10 being complete relief. At the end of six months, the average pain relief for each participant was calculated. Which of the following is the best description of the study?
An experiment using a completely randomized design
In a certain school, students can choose whether to eat in the school's cafeteria. A reporter working for the school's newspaper polled students on their reactions to changes in the menu at the cafeteria. For each student leaving the cafeteria in one 30-minute time period, the reporter used a coin to determine whether to stop the student and ask how he or she felt about the new menu. In the reporter's article it was stated that a random sample of the students showed that 89 percent of the school's student population was happy with the new menu. Which of the following statements is true?
Because students self-selected whether to eat in the cafeteria, the sampling method might be biased and the sample might not be representative of all students in the school.
A program that was intended to cure a person's fear of spiders was offered at a local zoo. Volunteers with a fear of spiders participated in the program, which included holding a spider for 15 minutes. One month after they completed the program, the participants were contacted and surveyed about the program. Over 90 percent of the participants claimed they were cured of their fear of spiders. Based on the description of the program, which of the following statements is true?
Because the participants were self-selected, a person's desire to be cured could be a confounding variable.
In the design of a survey, which of the following best explains how to minimize response bias?
Carefully word and field-test survey questions.
Carla wants to investigate whether a person's political party affiliation causes the person to be more vocal about political issues. She plans to administer a survey to a large sample of people. Which of the following describes why the method of data collection used will prevent Carla from achieving her goal?
Causation cannot be determined from a survey.
An observational study found that the amount of sleep an employee gets each night is associated with job performance. The correlation coefficient was found to be r = 0.86. A reader of the study concluded that more sleep causes employees to perform better. Why is such a conclusion not correct?
Causation cannot be determined from an observational study.
The buyer for an electronics store wants to estimate the proportion of defective wireless game controllers in a shipment of 5,000 controllers from the store's primary supplier. The shipment consists of 200 boxes each containing 25 controllers. The buyer numbers the boxes from 1 to 200 and randomly selects six numbers in that range. She then opens the six boxes with the corresponding numbers, examines all 25 controllers in each of these boxes, and determines the proportion of the 150 controllers that are defective. What type of sample is this?
Cluster random sample
A large simple random sample of people aged nineteen to thirty living in the state of Colorado was surveyed to determine which of two MP3 players just developed by a new company was preferred. To which of the following populations can the results of this survey be safely generalized?
Only people aged nineteen to thirty living in the state of Colorado
The owner of a food store conducted a study to investigate whether displaying organic fruit at the front of the store rather than at the back of the store will increase sales of the fruit. At the beginning of each week, the organic fruit display was randomly assigned to either the front or the back of the store, and sales for the week were recorded. At the end of 12 months, the owner determined that the average weekly sales of organic fruit displayed at the front of the store were greater than the average weekly sales of organic fruit displayed at the back of the store. The difference was statistically significant. What can be concluded from the study?
Placing the display at the front instead of the back of the store causes an increase, on average, of weekly sales of the organic fruit.
To estimate the percent of red marbles in a large bag of marbles, Margo will use the following sampling method. She will randomly select a marble, record its color, put it back into the bag, shake the bag to thoroughly mix the marbles, and then repeat those steps. She will perform the procedure many times. What type of sampling method is Margo using?
Random sampling with replacement
A program exists to encourage more middle school students to major in math and science when they go to college. The organizers of the program want to estimate the proportion of students who, after completing the program, go on to major in math or science in college. The organizers will select a sample of students from a list of all students who completed the program. Which of the following sampling methods describes a stratified random sample?
Randomly select 25 names from the female students on the list and randomly select 25 names from the male students on the list.
A polling firm is interested in surveying a representative sample of registered voters in the United States. The firm has automated its sampling so that random phone numbers within the United States are called. Each time a number is called, the procedure below is followed. • If there is no response or if an answering machine is reached, another number is automatically called. • If a person answers, a survey worker verifies that the person is at least 18 years of age. • If the person is not at least 18 years of age, no response is recorded, and another number is called. • If the person is at least 18 years of age, that person is surveyed. Some people claim the procedure being used does not permit the results to be extended to all registered voters. Which of the following is NOT a legitimate concern about the procedure being used?
Registered voters with unlisted telephone numbers may be underrepresented in the sample.
In a recent poll of 1,500 randomly selected eligible voters, only 525 (35 percent) said that they did not vote in the last election. However, a vote count showed that 80 percent of eligible voters actually did not vote in the last election. Which of the following types of bias is most likely to have occurred in the poll?
Response bias
A school nutritionist was interested in how students at a certain school would feel after taking a nutritional supplement. The nutritionist selected a random sample of twenty students from the school to participate in the study. Participants were asked to keep a journal on how well they felt after taking the supplement each day. What possible source of bias is present in the method of data collection?
Response bias where responses are self-reported
A city has designed a survey to collect information about residents' opinions about city services. Which of the following describes a scenario in which nonresponse bias is likely present?
Surveys were mailed to 500 people, and 200 of the surveys were completed and returned.
Mr. Ikeler conducted a study investigating the effectiveness of a new method for teaching a mathematics unit. He recruited 80 students at a college and randomly assigned them to two groups. Group 1 was taught with the new method, and group 2 was taught with the traditional method. Both groups were taught by the same teacher. At the end of the unit, an achievement test was administered and used to make a comparison of the two groups. What is the response variable in the study?
The score on the achievement test
A recent study examined 699 car accidents in Toronto over a fourteen-month period. Records of phone-service providers were used to determine whether the driver was using a cell phone during or immediately before the accident. Overall, the researchers found that drivers using cell phones were 4.3 times as likely to have an accident as drivers who were not using cell phones. The result was statistically significant. Which of the following can be concluded from this study?
There is an association between cell phone use and accidents, but not necessarily a causal relationship.
The quality-control manager of a large factory is concerned about the number of defective items produced by workers. Thirty workers at the factory agree to participate in a study of three different incentive plans to help reduce the number of defective items produced. The plans will be randomly assigned to the workers so that 10 workers received each plan. The reduction in the number of defective items produced by each worker will be recorded two weeks after the plans are implemented. Which of the following best describes why a completely randomized design is an appropriate design to use in this situation?
There is no blocking variable, and incentive plans will be randomly assigned to the workers.
A chemist for a paint company conducted an experiment to investigate whether a new outdoor paint will last longer than the older paint. Fifty blocks made from the same wood were randomly assigned to be painted with either the new paint or the old paint. The blocks were placed into a weather-controlled room that simulated extreme weather conditions such as ice, temperature, wind, and sleet. After one month in the room, the blocks were removed, and each block was rated on texture, shine, brightness of color, and chipping. The results showed that the blocks painted with the new paint generally had higher ratings than the blocks painted with the old paint. However, an analysis of the results found that the difference in ratings was not statistically significant. What can be concluded from the experiment?
There is not enough evidence to attribute the higher ratings to the new paint.
A regional transportation authority is interested in estimating the mean number of minutes working adults in the region spend commuting to work on a typical day. A random sample of working adults will be selected from each of three strata: urban, suburban, and rural. Selected individuals will be asked the number of minutes they spend commuting to work on a typical day. Why is stratification used in this situation?
To decrease the variability in estimates of the mean commuting time