PART C: ANALYSING A QUANTITATIVE DATASET

1. From the dataset given, the string characters are changed to numeric characters for easy

calculations. From the Interruption Type, represented the following, 1=absent, 2= Ignore

whereas 3= Take. From the Trial Type, 1 represented Practice while 2 represented

Experiment. The Interruption Alert; 1 = Present while 2= Absent. The Interruption

Position has 3 variables where 1 represents absent, 2 represents Between Subtasks

whereas 3 represents Within Subtasks. R program was used for analysis.

 Trial Types – The following was retrieved from the data set.

> mean(x, na.rm =T)

[1] 1.8, the mean showed a value close to 2. This suggests that the Experiments

had the average number in measuring the central tendency in the data given.

> sd(x, na.rm =T)

[1] 0.4001334, the standard deviation was low, suggesting that the values were

close to the mean of the dataset.

> min(x, na.rm =T)

[1] 1, this was the minimum number showing that the practices were less than the

experiments.

> max(x, na.rm =T)

[1] 2, suggests that the Experiments recorded the highest number in the set.

 Interruption Position – The following was retrieved from analysis;

> mean(y, na.rm =T)

 [1] 1.72, this shows that the mean was close to 2. The number 2 represents the

variable “Between Subtasks”. This shows that the dataset was more centered in

the variable

> sd (y, na.rm =T)

[1] 0.825866, the standard deviation recorded was low. Hence, the data values

were more close to the mean.

2. The Histogram below represents each variable, that is; Trial type and Interruption

Positions.

Histogram of Interruption Positions

2.5
2.0
1.5
Density

1.0
0.5
0.0

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Tasks

It is evident that “Absents” recorded as 1 records the highest number of entries,

followed by “Within Subtasks” variable recorded 3. The between subtasks

recorded the lowest number of entries as shown in the graph.

The graph below shows a box plot to show outliers within the data set. The

outliers as shown are beyond the frequency of 2. Suggesting that values are

centered at the value of 1 to 2.

 A box plot showing outliers in Interruption Positions

3.0
2.5
Frequency

2.0
1.5
1.0

Sorting out the data sheet is an effective way to deal with outliers. This is by

looking for high or low values within the data set. When the value observed is

totally different from the other, then it should be assumed in the future. This can

only be done by sorting the data sheet from the highest to the lowest in order to

find the extreme values.

The Trial Types variable showed no outliers as shown in the box plot below

suggesting that all the values were within the central data.

A box plot showing outliers in Trial Types

2.0
1.8
1.6
Frequency

1.4
1.2
1.0

3. The summary showing Interruption Types is as shown below;

> Summary (q)

Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max.

1.00 1.00 1.00 1.72 2.00 3.00

The mean shows a value close to 2 (1.72). 2 value represents “Ignore” which is the mean.