Assignment 1: Introduction to Statistics

Instructions:
Answer all questions, clearly show workings, and upload to D2L
Question 1-7 is worth 1 point each, question 8-9 is worth 5 points, and question 10 is worth 2
points.
Total points: 20 points

1. A psychologist decides to test who is more likely to help a stranger in need; males
or females.  A confederate asks both male and female passersby for 50p for a parking
meter, as he has accidentally dropped his change down the street drain.  The researcher is
observing to see who will help and records a tick for every male who helps, and a tick for
every female who helps.  At the end of the research, the total number of ticks in each
category are added up for comparison. What kind of research DESIGN has been used?
a. Matched participants
b. Independent groups
c. Repeated measures

2. You are conducting a survey of the people of the United Kingdom to find out how popular
the racket sports are. You randomly choose people to call and make 1,000 phone calls to
people scattered across the country. In this study, what is the statistics term for THE
PEOPLE IN THE U.K., and what is the statistics term for THE PEOPLE YOU CALLED?
a. Both the people of the U.K. and the people you called are POPULATIONS
b. The people of the U.K. are the POPULATION, and the people you called are the
SAMPLE.
c. The people of the U.K. are the SAMPLE, and the people you called are the
POPULATION.
d. Both the people of the U.K. and the people you called are SAMPLES.

3. You are interested in how stress affects heart rate in humans. Your dependent variable
would be the _____.
a. Interest
b. Heart rate
c. Humans
d. Stress
4. You are conducting a study to see whether a new experimental medication will cause
bald men to grow hair. You divide your patients into 2 groups. To one group you give the
medication. To the other group, you give a placebo. In this study, the correct terms for the
taking of the medication and the growth of hair are the following.
a. Both the medication and the hair growth are independent variables.
b. The medication is the dependent variable, and the hair growth is the independent
variable.
c. The medication is the independent variable, and the hair growth is the dependent
variable.

5. A study measured the Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV, a measure of lung capacity for
which higher numbers mean more lung capacity) on several school children ranging in
age from 6 to 18.  The study also asked the children if they are or have been smokers. 
Surprisingly the average FEV computed for smokers is higher than the average FEV for
non-smokers.  Which of the following should we consider when interpreting results from
this study?
a. Since this is an observational study, we can conclude that smoking causes an increase in
FEV
b. Age and height might be lurking variables because older kids will have larger lungs and
will be more likely to smoke.
c. Since this is a designed experiment, we can conclude that smoking causes an increase in
FEV
d. The study results are different from what was expected and therefore we should conclude
that there is no relationship between smoking and FEV.
e. Children should not smoke and therefore the study must be invalid.

6. A psychologist decides to test who is more likely to help a stranger in need; males or
females.  A confederate asks passersby who identify as male and female for 50p for a
parking meter, as he has accidentally dropped his change down the street drain.  The
researcher is observing to see who will help and records a tick for every male who helps,
and a tick for every female who helps.  At the end of the research, the total number of
ticks in each category were added.   What kind of DATA has been collected? 
a. Ordinal data
b. Nominal data
c. Correlational data
 7. State whether each of the following diagram is skewed right or skewed left
(7a)

(7b)

Instructions for questions 8-10

 Read up on central tendency and dispersion in a distribution and for the next set of
questions, learn how to calculate mean, median, sum of squares, variance, and standard
deviation.
 Go to "Smart Alex's tasks" on pp. 35 of your textbook to answer the questions below
using what you learned from your textbook.

8) Complete #6 from Smart Alex's tasks. Use the numbers: 6, 11, 2, 14, 23, 9, and 16 (5 points).

9) Complete #7 from Smart Alex's tasks. You may check your answers from the companion
website to the textbook (5 points).

10) Explain (in writing) how you calculated the numbers (SS, variance, and SD) from the
previous problem (that is, question #7). Provide a detailed explanation.