MTH220e

Specimen Examination Paper

Statistical Methods and Inference

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Time allowed: 2 hours

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INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS:

1. This examination contains FIVE (5) questions and comprises FIVE (5) printed
pages (including cover page).

2. You must answer ALL questions.

3. All answers must be written in the answer booklet. Marks will only be awarded
if FULL working is shown.

4. This is an open-book examination.

At the end of the examination

Please ensure that you have written your examination number on each answer book
used.

Failure to do so will mean that your work cannot be identified.

If you have used more than one answer book, please tie them together with the string
provided.

THE UNIVERSITY RESERVES THE RIGHT NOT TO MARK YOUR

SCRIPT IF YOU FAIL TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS.

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Specimen Examination Paper
Question 1

(a) A company noted that in the year 2012, its employees average µ = 4.8 absences
during year end period (from early November to end December). In an attempt
to reduce absences, the company offered free flu shots to all employees in year
2013. From a sample of n = 100 employees who took the flu shots, the average
number of absences in the same period in year 2013 was 3.6 absences. The
sample variance was 4. At 5% level of significance, perform a hypothesis test
to determine whether these data indicate a significant decrease in the number of
absences.
(10 marks)

(b) People with agoraphobia are so filled with anxiety about being in public places
that they seldom leave their homes. Knowing that this is a difficult disorder to
treat, a researcher tried a long-term treatment. A sample of seven individuals
reported how often they had ventured out of the house in the past month. Then
they received relaxation training and were introduced to trips away from the
house at gradually increasing durations. After 2 months of treatment,
participants reported the number of trips out of the house they made in the last
30 days. The data were as follows:

Participant A B C D E F G
Before Treatment 0 0 3 3 2 0 0
After Treatment 4 0 14 23 9 8 6

Table Q1(b)

Using α = 0.05, perform a paired t test to determine whether the treatment has a
significant effect on the number of trips a person takes.
(10 marks)

Question 2

Violence and lack of discipline have become major problems in schools in the United
States. A random sample of 300 adults was selected, and they were asked if they favour
giving more freedom to schoolteachers to punish students for violence and lack of
discipline. The two-way classification of the responses of these adults is presented in
Table Q2(c) below.

(a) You wish to investigate whether the two attributes, gender and opinions of
adults, are dependent. State the null and alternative hypotheses.
(2 marks)
(b) Compute the expected frequencies.
(8 marks)

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Specimen Examination Paper
(c) Perform a chi-square test and discuss whether the sample provide sufficient
information to conclude that the two attributes, gender and opinions of adults,
are dependent. Use  = 0.01 in your analysis.
(10 marks)
In Favour Against No Opinion
Men 93 70 12
Women 87 32 6

Table Q2(c)

Question 3

(a) In a classic study of problem solving, a researcher asked participants to mount a

candle on a wall in an upright position so that it would burn normally. One
group of participants was given a candle, matches, and a box of tacks. A second
group was given the same items, except the tacks and the box were presented
separately as two distinct items. The solution to this problem involves using the
tacks to mount the box on the wall, which creates a shelf for the candle. The
researcher reasoned that the first group of participants would have trouble
seeing a “new” function of the box (a shelf) because it was already serving a
function (holding tacks). For each person, the amount of time to solve the
problem was recorded. The data obtained are shown in Table Q3(a) below.

Time to solve problems (in seconds)

Box of Tacks Tacks and Box Separate
128 42
160 24
53 68
101 35
94 47

Table Q3(a)

(i) State the null and alternative hypotheses for the two-tailed test.
(2 marks)

(ii) Solve and perform a two-sample t test at a significant level of  = 0.01

to determine whether these data indicate a significant difference between
the two conditions.
(14 marks)

(b) Comment on the statement: Correlation is not causation.

(2 marks)

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Specimen Examination Paper
(c) Briefly discuss one difference between the Wilcoxon Sign Rank test and the
Mann Whitney Rank Sum test.
(2 marks)

Question 4

(a) Identifying individuals with a high risk of Alzheimer’s disease usually involves
a long series of cognitive tests. However, researchers have developed a 7-
Minute Screen, which is a quick and easy way to accomplish the same goal. To
compare the effectiveness of the 7-Minute Screen and the complete series of
tests, a researcher administered both tests to a group of patients and obtained the
results as shown below:

Patient 7-Minute Screen (X) Cognitive Series (Y)

A 3 11
B 8 19
C 10 22
D 8 20
E 4 14
F 7 13
G 4 9
H 5 20
I 14 25

Table Q4(a)

(i) Sketch a scatter plot.

(2 marks)

(ii) Apply and compute the Pearson correlation.

(7 marks)

(iii) Determine the regression equation for predicting the cognitive scores
from the 7-Minute Screen score.
(4 marks)

(iv) If a patient scored 18 for the 7-Minute Screen, what is his estimated
cognitive series test score? Comment on the accuracy of the result.
(3 marks)

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Specimen Examination Paper
(b) A quality control inspector conducted an experiment to test the dry breaking
strength (in grams) of several samples of a special brand of paper towel. He is
concerned that the mean breaking strength should not fall under 9500 and
carried out a hypothesis testing to assess the strength of the evidence in the data
that the mean towel strength is in fact below 9500. The 95 % confidence
interval for the mean breaking strength of this brand of paper towel is computed
to be between 8480 and 9684. Comment on the results.
(2 marks)

(c) What is the difference between Pearson correlation coefficient and Spearman
rank correlation coefficient?
(2 marks)

Question 5

(a) It is known that the number of cataract surgeries a particular ophthalmologist

performs is a Poisson variable with average 1 per month. Apply the normal
approximation method to determine the probability that the number of cataract
surgeries the ophthalmologist performs in one year exceeds 13.
(7 marks)

(b) The amount of tips a member gives after a meal in the restaurant of XYZ
country club has mean $5 and variance $1. Apply the concept of central limit
theorem and estimate the probability that the amount of tips collected from 80
randomly chosen customers is between $350 and $410.
(7 marks)

(c) Assuming that X denotes the mean of a random sample of n = 25 currents (in
milli-amperes) measured across a resistive load in which each measurement X
has a mean = 15 and variance = 4. As the sample size is large, X has an
approximate normal distribution. Determine the probability P(14.6 < X < 15.8).

(6 marks)

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Specimen Examination Paper