Midterm Exam 1

Use this table for questions 1 through 3. This table represents the first 8 observations from a
sample of 200 individuals, who reported their age, race, income, and job satisfaction score on
a scale from 0 to 100.

Age Race Income Score

21 W less than $10,000 29
33 B $20,000-23,000 32
41 B more than $100,000 84
26 A $30,000-40,000 78
22 O $10,000-20,000 87
19 A $40,000-50,000 42
34 W $50,000-60,000 21
26 W less than $10,000 91
.. .. .. ..
. . . .

1. Which of the following best describes the Income variable?

a. categorical, dichotomous
b. categorical, ordinal
c. quantitative, continuous
d. quantitative, discrete
e. categorical

2. Which type of plot would be most useful for visualizing the relationship between Age and job
satisfaction Score?

a. histogram
b. single box plot
c. side by side box plot
d. scatter plot
e. dot plot

3. Below are some summary statistics from the score variable. Which of the following is true?

min Q1 median Q3 max mean sd n missing

30 57 69.5 77 99 65.075 16.09361 200 0

a. the standard deviation estimate is not possible because score is a whole number
b. there is evidence that the distribution of score is right-skewed
c. the minimum value of 30 would be identified as out outlier in a box plot
d. there were more survey respondents who reported job satisfaction scores less than 57 than
survey respondents reported job satisfaction scores greater than 77
e. none of the above are true

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Midterm Exam 1

4. Which of the following is true regarding the Central Limit Theorem (CLT)?

a. If your sample size is n = 30 exactly, then you are guaranteed to have an approximately
normal sampling distribution of the sample mean.
b. As the sample size n increases, the data distribution should become approximately normal.
c. The Central Limit Theorem states that the sampling distribution of the sample mean
should always have the same shape as the population distribution.
d. none of the above

5. A researcher is interested in seeing if there is an association between whether or not an

individual uses a smart phone right before bed and how well an individual sleeps. Participants
in the study report whether or not they used a smart phone before bed and then rate their
quality of sleep as either “very poor,” “poor,” “average,” “good,” or “very good.” The
researcher concludes at the end of the study that there is an association between the two
variables. Which of the following statements are true?

a. The explanatory variable is whether or not a participant uses a smart phone and the
response variable is sleep quality. An association was present, so the researcher can say
the response and explanatory variables are independent.
b. The explanatory variable is sleep quality and the response variable is whether or not a
participant uses a smart phone. An association was present, so the researcher can say the
response and explanatory variables are not independent.
c. The explanatory variable is whether or not a participant uses a smart phone and the
response variable is sleep quality. An association was present, so the researcher can say
the response and explanatory variables are not independent.
d. The explanatory variable is whether or not a participant uses a smart phone and the re-
sponse variable is sleep quality. An association was present, so the researcher can determine
that smart phone use right before bed causes change in quality of sleep.
e. The explanatory variable is sleep quality and the response variable is whether or not a
participant uses a smart phone. An association was present, so the researcher can determine
that smart phone use right before bed causes change in quality of sleep.

6. A comprehensive survey released by a college reports that the true proportion of all students
at the college who use drugs is 0.3. You survey 100 students in your dorm and record that the
proportion of students who use drugs is 0.15. The proportion of all students at this college
who use drugs is a and the proportion of students who use drugs in your dorm
is a .

a. statistic; parameter
b. parameter; statistic
c. population; sample
d. measure of central tendency, measure of variability
e. none of the above

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Midterm Exam 1

7. When a variable follows a normal distribution, what percent of observations are contained
within 1.75 standard deviations of the mean?

a. 4.01%
b. 9.02%
c. 68.26%
d. 91.88%
e. 95.99%

8. The plot below displays the distribution of the percent of days spent sleeping by male fruit
flies. Which of the following are valid estimates of the mean and median of this distribution?

Male Fruit Flies

35
30
25
20
Percent
15
10
5
0

0 20 40 60 80
Percent of day spent sleeping

a. mean = 24, median = 18

b. mean = 18, median = 24
c. mean = 18, median = 18
d. mean = 20, median = 40
e. mean = 25, median = 35

9. Which of the following statements about z-scores is/are true?

a. larger z-scores are always better

b. the z-score for an observation that is equal to the mean is 1
c. if a z-score is 2 that means that the observation is two times the value of the mean
d. if a z-score is negative that means that the observation is less than mean
e. none of the above are true

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Midterm Exam 1

10. A telephone survey of is done to determine the average number of pets in the typical American
family. Past experience has shown that 30% of those telephoned will refuse to respond to the
survey. Which of the following scenarios satisfy the conditions for the binomial distribution?

a. Number of families responding in 100 calls

b. Number of individuals in the family
c. Number of pets in a family that responds
d. Number of phone calls made until we first identify a family with a pet
e. All scenarios satisfy the conditions for the binomial distribution.

11. The distribution of rhesus monkey tail lengths is bell-shaped, unimodal, and approximately
symmetric. The average tail length is 6.8 cm and the standard deviation is 0.44 cm. Roscoe
has a tail that is 10.2 cm long. What conclusion can we make based on the information given?

a. We can apply the empirical rule to conclude that Roscoe is a potential outlier because he
falls more than three standard deviations away from the mean.
b. We can apply the empirical rule to conclude that Roscoe is not a potential outlier because
he falls within three standard deviations away from the mean.
c. We cannot apply the empirical rule because the distribution does not fit the criteria for
the empirical rule.
d. There is not enough information given to make any conclusions about potential outliers.

12. A political scientist is interested in the effect of government type on economic development.
She wants to use a sample of 30 countries evenly represented among the Americas, Europe,
Asia, and Africa to conduct her analysis. What type of study should she use to ensure that
countries are selected from each region of the world?

a. Observational - simple random sample

b. Observational - cluster
c. Observational - stratified
d. Experimental

13. Heights of boys in a high school are approximately normally distributed with mean of 175 cm
standard deviation of 5 cm. What is the first quartile of heights?

a. 25.0 cm
b. 165.8 cm
c. 171.7 cm
d. 173.5 cm
e. 181.0 cm

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Midterm Exam 1

Use the following for questions 14 through 16. The table below describes residents of an
Atlanta neighborhood based on their car ownership and public transportation usage.

Owns car Does not own car Total

Uses public transport 34 94 128
Does not use public transport 126 17 143
Total 160 111 271

14. What is the probability that a randomly selected resident of this neighborhood both owns a
car and uses public transport?

a. 0.125
b. 0.153
c. 0.213
d. 0.266
e. none of the above

15. Which proportions should we examine if we want to compare the proportion of individuals
who use public transport among those who do and do not own a car?

a. 34/128 vs 126/143
b. 160/271 vs 128/271
c. 34/271 vs 126/271
d. 34/160 vs 94/111
e. none of the above

16. Is owning a car independent of using public transportation?

a. Yes, because Pr(owns car | uses public transit) = Pr(owns car)

b. Yes, because Pr(owns car AND uses public transit) = Pr(owns car) × P(uses public transit)
c. No, because Pr(owns car | uses public transit) ̸= Pr(owns car)
d. No, because Pr(owns car AND uses public transit) ̸= Pr(owns car) × P(uses public transit)
e. Both C and D

17. A researcher would like to study the effect of eating breakfast on a cognitive function. Vol-
unteers are recruited through the study by posting flyers on campus. He randomly assigns
subjects to two groups, one told to eat before participating in the study and one asked to eat
breakfast following the study, however, he suspects whether or not the person typically eats
breakfast affects this relationship (their typical breakfast habits). In order to address this,
what should he do prior to assigning subjects to experimental groups?

a. Cluster on typical breakfast habits.

b. Randomly assign subjects to typical breakfast habits and do a multifactor experiment.
c. Sample from each strata, typical breakfast eater and not.
d. Block on typical breakfast habits.

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Midterm Exam 1

18. Suppose the population distribution of BMI among teenage girls is right-skewed. If you
took a sample of 20 teenage girls, would the sampling distribution of average BMI follow an
approximately normal distribution?
a. Yes, because the shape of the population distribution does not affect the shape of the
sampling distribution
b. No, because the underlying population distribution is right-skewed, so no matter the sample
size the sampling distribution cannot be normal.
c. Yes, because we have more than ten observations, and according to the Central Limit
Theorem that is large enough for the sampling distribution to be close to bell-shaped even
though the underlying population distribution is right-skewed
d. No, because the underlying population distribution is right-skewed and we have less than
30 observations, which is the cutoff used for the Central Limit Theorem to apply.
19. The city of Atlanta is considering a project that would increase walkability in many high-
traffic neighborhoods. A news reporter is collecting information on public opinion by talking
with pedestrians in these different neighborhoods. bias may result from the
method by which the reporter identifies study participants; bias may occur if
study participants negatively exaggerate the walking conditions.
a. non-response; response
b. sampling; response
c. response; sampling
d. sampling; non-response
e. non-response; sampling
20. A recent study in The Lancet found that “risk of psychosis is three times higher for users of
potent ‘skunk-like’ cannabis than for non-users.” The study consisted of individuals who had
experienced a first episode of psychosis, as well as healthy controls. Each participant filled out
the Cannabis Experience Questionnaire modified version (CEQmv), from which investigators
were able to obtain a detailed history of cannabis use, as well as information on history of
use of tobacco, alcohol, other recreational drugs. Which of the following is a variable in this
study?
a. the number of individuals who experienced a first episode of psychosis
b. the average age of study participants
c. the percent of study participants that are Asian
d. the most used type of cannibis (classified as never used, hash-like, and skunk-like)
e. the risk of psychosis is 3 times higher
21. When a statistic, like the median, is said to be resistant to outliers, this means that
a. it is impossible for the data to have any outliers.
b. the statistic is greatly influenced by the value of the outliers.
c. the statistic is not greatly influenced by the value of the outliers.
d. the statistic itself is an outlier
e. the statistic itself cannot be an outlier

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Midterm Exam 1

22. Suppose the true proportion of students at a college who study abroad is 0.3. I select a
random sample of 40 students from the college and record if they have studied abroad. What
is the probability that the proportion of students in my sample who have studied abroad is
less than 0.25?

a. 0.1534
b. 0.2451
c. 0.4912
d. 0.6944
e. not enough information to determine

23. Which of the following is true regarding the standard deviation?

a. standard deviation is a measure of central tendency

b. in the presence of skew, the standard deviation represents an observation’s typical distance
from the median rather than mean
c. it is possible to have a standard deviation of zero
d. it is possible to have a negative standard deviation
e. more than one statement is true