Low Hui Hui

U1330127K
HP1100 Assignment 2
Due: Nov. 15, 2013
Question 1.Some studies suggest that having a low birth weight impacts mental
development (e.g, delayed language, motor skills). You are part of a research team that
is interested in whether their IQ differed when they were in primary school. You
recruited, from a local primary school, a group of 8 children who was previously born
with low birth weight and another group of 10 children born with normal birth weight.
You then measured their IQ. Their measure IQ scores are below. With =0.05, test
whether having a low birth weight during birth affects IQ. Perform hand calculations
with your workings to show how you derived your answer.
Low birth weight

Normal birth weight

85

100

100

89

82

97

90

110

93

98

88

90

109

92

88

115
93
107

A. Perform a non-directional test:

1) State the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis:
(Null Hypothesis) H0: There is no significant difference in IQ levels between low
birth weight and normal birth weight, 1 = 2
(Alternative Hypothesis)H1: There is significant difference of IQ levels between the
low birth weight and normal birth weight, 1 2 (i.e. alternative hypothesis is
non-directional).

2) Locate the critical region:

For = 0.05, df = n1 + n2 -2 = 8 + 10 - 2 = 16
From the t table, we found that the critical t value is tcrit = 2.120
Since the alternative hypothesis is non-directional, where we reject H0 when the
mean difference is very positive (1-2>>0) or very negative (1-2<<0),
we should have 2 critical regions --- 1 at the upper tail and 1 at the lower tail of the
t-distribution.
Hence, the tcrit values = 2.120

3) Compute the test statistic

M1=

91.875
n1

SS1 ( X i1 M 1 ) 2 = 538.875
i 1

M2 =

99.1
n2

SS 2 ( X i 2 M 2 ) 2 = 712.9
i 1

Hence,

sp
2

SS1 SS 2 538 .875 712 .9

78 .23594
df1 df 2
16

To calculate tobt:
( M 1 M 2 ) ( 1 2 )
t obt
2
2
sp
sp

n1
n2

(91.875 99.1) 0
78.23594 78.23594

8
10
1.72204
1.722

4) Make a decision and conclusion:

Since |tobt| = 1.722 < |tcrit | =2.120, we retain H0. Hence from the calculations, it
is reasonable to conclude that the low birth weight do not have an effect on the
IQ levels of the children.

B. Now imagine you want to test for whether low birth weight children have lower IQ
than their peers with normal birth weight.
1) State the null and alternative hypothesis:
(Null Hypothesis) H0: There is no significant difference in IQ levels between low
birth weight and normal birth weight, 1 = 2
(Alternative Hypothesis)H1: IQ levels from children with low birth weight are
lower than that of the children with normal birth weight, 1 < 2

2) Locate the critical region:

df = n1 + n2 -2 = 8 + 10 - 2 = 16
Given that this is a directional test and = 0.05,
From the t table, we found that the critical t value is tcrit = -1.746

3) Compute the test statistic (this is same as the t-statistic calculated above):

M1 =

91.875
n1

SS1 ( X i1 M 1 ) 2 = 538.875
i 1

M2 =

99.1
n2

SS 2 ( X i 2 M 2 ) 2 712 .9
i 1

Hence,

sp
2

SS1 SS 2 538 .875 712 .9

78 .23594
df1 df 2
16

To calculate tobt:

t obt

( M 1 M 2 ) ( 1 2 )
sp

n1

sp

n2

(91.875 99.1) 0
78.23594 78.23594

8
10
1.72204
1.722

4) Make a decision and conclusion:

Since tobt= -1.722> tcrit =-1.746, we retain H0. Hence from the calculations, we conclude
that the low birth weight does not result in lower IQ levels of the children.

Question 2: Researchers developed a new treatment in order to help people lose

weight. In order to test whether the treatment is effective or not, researchers conducted
a repeated-measures design. Participants weight (kg) was measured before going
through the treatment and after the treatment. With = 0.05, test whether the treatment
could help people lose weight.Perform hand calculations with your workings to show
how you derived your answer.
Pre-test

Post-test

60

62

70

68

76

70

66

65

75

70

77

68

A. Hypothesis testing
(1) State the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis:
(Null Hypothesis) H0: There is no difference in the participants' weights before and
after going for the treatment, D = 0
(Alternative Hypothesis) H1: There participants' weights after the treatment is lower
than the weight of the participants before the treatment, D < 0 .

(2) Locate the critical region:

Given n = 6, df = n-1 = 6-1 = 5.
Given that this is a directional test, = 0.05 and df =5,
from the t table,
tcrit = -2.015

(3) Calculate the test statistic:

Standard error:

xD

2 (2) (6) (1) (5) (9)

3.5
6

SS D
n 1
(2 (3.5))2 ((2) (3.5))2 (6) (3.5))2 (1 (3.5))2 (5 (3.5))2 (9 (3.5))2

6 1
77.5

5
15.5
s D2

Hence,
sx

2
D

s D2 15 .5

2.58333
n
6

To get tobt,

x D D
3.5 0

2.1776 2.178
s
2
.
58333
x
D

(4) Make a decision and conclusion:

Since tobt= -2.178 < tcrit = -2.015 , we reject H0. Hence from the calculations, we can
reasonably conclude that the weights of the participants after the treatment is lower
than before going for the treatment so the treatment does help with losing weight.

B. Compute the correlation between pre-test scores and post-test scores.

Pearson's correlation:
Mean of Pretest=MX = 70.667
Mean of Posttest=MY = 67.167
SS X (X M X )2
( 60 70.667 )2 ( 70 70.667 )2 ( 76 70.667 )2 ( 66 70.667 )2 ( 75 70.667 )2 ( 77 70.667 )2
223.333
SSY (Y M Y ) 2
(62 67.167) 2 (68 67.167) 2 (70 67.167) 2 (65 67.167) 2 (70 67.167) 2 (68 67.167) 2
48.833

SP ( X M X )(Y M Y )
(10.667)(5.167) (0.667)(0.833) (5.333)(2.833) (4.667)(2.167) (4.333)(2.833) (6.333)(0.833)

= 97.333
Hence, Pearson correlation r :

SP
97.333

0.93202 0.932
SS X SSY
223.333* 48.833

C. Find the regression equation for predicting post-test scores from pre-test scores.
Regression equation: Y=bX + a
b

SP
97 .333

0.43582 0.436
SS X 223 .333

a M Y bM X 67 .167 (0.43582 )( 70 .667 ) 36 .369

Hence, the equation of the regression line:
Y=0.436X+36.369

Question 3. You have completed a questionnaire during your tutorials. Please use SPSS to answer
the following questions.
1. A copy of the questionnaire, explanations of the variables (Data File Explanation), and the data
file (in both Excel and SPSS format) have been posted on edveNTUre.
2. Carry out the appropriate statistical test(s) to test your hypothesis. You may choose one of the
following research questions:
Q1: Is there any gender effect in meaning of life?
Q2: Is there any correlation between meaning in life and life orientation?
Save the SPSS syntax used for the statistical analysis and attach it in an appendix in your
answers.
3. State your hypotheses (null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis) according to the above
research question you choose.
Choosing Q1,
(Null Hypothesis)H0: There is no significant gender effect on the meaning of life, 1 = 2
(Alternative Hypothesis)H1: There is significant gender effect on the meaning of life, 1
2 (i.e. alternative hypothesis is non-directional).

4. State your conclusion support or fail to support the hypothesis and what the result means
(refer to your research question in #2).
Using the SPSS with =0.05 for a 2-tailed t test, (Appendix A)
p value= 0.941=0.94
Given that the p-value obtained is significantly greater than 0.05, we choose to retain
H0. Hence it is reasonable to conclude that there is no significant gender effect on the
meaning of life.

Appendix A