A psychology professor wants to know whether age is related to memor quality in current first-year students at her small college. Participants in the study complete an online memory task. The students are first shown a list of 60 words. Next they are shown a list of five new words that are completely unrelated to words on the original list. Then they are asked to identify the words on the second list that appeared on the original list. He uses the percentage of new unrelated words that were mistakenly thought to be on the original list as his measure of memory quality. He also asks the students to report several characteristics such as their age, their gender, and a self-assessment of their memory skills. Each of the 750 first-year students (338 males and 412 females) at his school volunteers to participate. The professor chose 75 students at random to complete the memory task and answer the questions. The average percentage of new unrelated words that were mistakenly thought to be on the original list was 12%. The professor infers that if all 750 first-year students had completed the study, the results would show that an average of 12% (plus or minus sampling error) of new words were mistakenly identified as original words despite being completely unrelated to the words on the original list.
1. Which of the following are variables in the study?
A. The students' percentage of new unrelated words that were mistakenly thought to be on the original list.
B. The students' self-assessment of their memory skills.
C. The 750 students.
D. The 75 students.
2. What is the population in the study?
A. The 12% of new words mistakenly identified as original words despite being completely unrelated to words on the original list.
B. The 750 first-year students at the college.
C. The 75 students who participated in the stud.
3. What is the sample in the study?
A. The 12% of new words mistakenly identified as original words despite being completely unrelated to words on the original list.
B. The 750 student volunteers.
C. The 75 students who participated in the study.
4. What is an example of a statistic in the study?
a. 412 females and 338 males.
b. 12%, the average percentage of the unrelated words expected to be mistaken as being on the original list by the 750 students.
c. 12%, the average percentage of new unrelated words that were mistakenly thought to be on the original list by the 75 students.
5. What is an example of a parameter in the study?
A. 75 students.
B. The actual average percentage of new unrelated words that would be mistakenly recognized as being from the original list by the 750 first-year students.
C. 12% of new unrelated words that were mistakenly thought to be on the original list by the 75 first-year students.
6. What is an example of the professor using descriptive statistics?
A. He infers that if all 750 students had done the experiment, the results would show that an average of 12% (plus or minus sampling error) of new words were mistakenly identified as original words despite being completely unrelated to the words on the original list.
B. He reports that the average percentage of new unrelated words that were mistakenly thought to be on the original list was 12%.
C. He randomly chooses the 75 students to represent the 750 volunteers.
7. What is an example of the professor using inferential statistics?
A. He characterizes the first-year students at the college as consisting of 338 males and 412 females.
B. He reports that the average percentage of new unrelated words that were mistakenly thought to be on the original list was 12%.
C. He infers that if all 750 students had done the experiment, the results would show that an average of 12% (plus or minus sampling error) of new words were mistakenly identified as original words despite being completely unrelated to the words on the original list.