Math 300

HW Quiz on Statistics

In questions 1-5 a description of a statistical study is given. For each study answer the following
questions

a) Is the study an observational study or experiment? Explain why. If it is an experiment identify the
control group and experimental group(s)

b) What is the population of the study, what is the population parameter that is being measured?
Describe the sample, what is the sample statistic?

c) Identify at least 3 different areas of possible bias with the study

d) Answer any questions that are posed by the study

1) In the article “The immediate impact of different types of television on young children” Researchers
were interested if exposure to fast paced cartoons reduced the children’s ability to complete complex
cognitive tasks. The researchers advertised for volunteers for the study and recruited 60 families that
had at least one four year old child. These children were randomly separated into three groups. The first
group watched 9 minutes of a sponge bob square pants cartoon and then was asked by researchers to
complete a “head, shoulders, knees and toes task”. The students were scored on their success with the
task (possible score for each child from 0 to 60, higher meaning better). A second group watched 9
minutes of “Sesame street” and then was asked by a researcher to complete the same “head,
shoulders, knees and toes task”. The students were scored on their success with the task (possible score
for each child from 0 to 60). A third group was given 9 minutes to do a quiet activity (drawing for
example) and then was asked by researchers to complete a “head, shoulders, knees and toes task”. The
mean score for the sponge bob group was 19.1, the mean score for the sesame street group was 28.7
and the mean score for the quiet activity group was 32.5

2) In order to estimate differences in holiday spending between women and men an on line retail
association conducted a survey of 2560 heterosexual couples and asked the each member of the couple
estimate the amount they spent on shopping during the holiday season. The holiday season was defined
as from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. Couples were recruited through an on line survey asking them if they wished
to participate. The mean amount spent by the women in the couples was $567.65, while the mean
amount spent by the men in the couples was $480.92

3) In the article “The effects of exposure to lead on developing children’s intelligence” researchers were
interested in the effect of Lead on developing children’s brains. They looked at children who grew up in
a town with a lead smelter. The children were randomly selected form all children enrolled in school in
the town (all children were 10 years old). The randomly selected children were divided into two groups
those who lived within 10 miles of the smelter and those lived a greater distance away. All students
were administered an IQ test and the results were as follows: the average IQ for students in the within
10 miles radius was 88.5 on the IQ test and the average IQ for students in the greater distance away
group was 94. Why do you think the researchers were interested in the distance the children lived from
the smelter
4) Ginkgo biloba is a tree with leaves that have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries
to treat ailments of the brain, heart, and lungs. While ginkgo biloba teas and tinctures are most common
in Eastern medicine, it is also available as an herbal supplement. In the article “A randomized placebo
controlled trial for Ginkgo biloba for prevention of cognitive decline” 1181 cognitively intact elderly men
were recruited to participate in a 42 month trial. IN this trial the mean were subdivided into two groups
in the first group the subject were asked to take a daily supplement of ginkgo biloba. In the second
group the subjects were asked to take a similar pill which lacked any supplements. After the 42 month
period the percentage of those who had cognitive decline in the group given the Ginkgo was 6.5%,
while the percent having cognitive decline in the other group was 6.7%. In the design of this study
neither the researchers nor the participants knew which to which group they belonged. Why do you
think this was done?

5) At a local college, a student is interested in studying the average time college students spend playing
video games each week. He had read that students currently enrolled in college spend more than 30
hours per week playing video games. His college includes students that are both residents and those
that live off campus. The college also includes both full time and part time students. The researcher asks
a group of students in his dorm to keep a daily log the time they spend playing video games for one
week. At the end of the week, he collects this data and computes the average time is 41.25 hours per
week.

In questions 6-10, you are to conduct an exploratory data analysis of the given data and use this suggest
a possible answer to the given study. In your exploratory data analysis, compute the following

a) The mean median and mode

b) The range, standard deviation and five number summary

c) Give a drawing of any boxplots for any data relevant to the question

d) Make sure you give an answer to the question posed by the problem – do not just answer yes or no,
give justification based on the numerical data calculated in parts a through c

6) A study is conducted of number of days surfed in a month for both long board surfers and short board
surfers. The researchers were interested if long board surfers on average surf more days per month than
short board surfers:

Long Board days surfing per month

4 9 8 4 8 8 22 20 22 20
15 13 10 11 19 19 11 14 19 16
7 9 6 7 12 12 10 10 14 12

Short Board days surfing per month

20 20 10 15 6 6 4 4 8 8
7 9 4 7 8 5 9 8 4 15
12 10 11 12 11 12 14 10 11 13
7) Are brain sizes of males greater than females. Brain size is given in hundreds of thousands of pixels in
an MRI scan

Females

8.2 8.1 9.5 7.9 9.3 8.3 9.9 8.0 8.5 7.9
8.3 8.7 8.6 8.6 8.8 8.3 9.7 9.5 8.5 8.9

Males

10 9.1 10.4 9.6 9.7 9.4 9 10 10.6 9.6

10.8 10.6 9.2 8.8 9.5 9.5 8.9 9.3 8.9 8.4

8) Do pregnant mothers who smoke have babies that have lower birth weight? . The birth weights given
below are for babies born to 22 mothers who smoked during pregnancy and to 35 mother who did not
smoke. The weights are given in grams

SMOKERS

3276 1974 2996 2968 2968 5264 3668 3696 3556 2912
2296 1008 896 2800 2688 3976 2688 2002 3108 2030
3304 2912

NON SMOKERS

3612 3640 3444 3388 3612 3080 3612 3080 3388 4368
3612 3024 2468 4788 3500 4256 3640 4256 4312 4760
2940 4060 4172 2968 2688 4200 3920 2576 2744 3864
2912 3688 3640 3864 3556
9) Do men who drink alcohol drink more drinks per week than women who drink alcohol?

Female

20 3 3 2 20 13 12 4 5 6
6 1 2 1 2 2 2 12 10 7
8 6 6 5 6 1 1 2 2 10
7 7 5 5 4 4

Male

0 48 1 2 2 3 4 70 24 24
15 15 12 12 10 9 10 9 10 9
10 9 8 7 8 7 7 8 20 2
20 14 2 1 14 14 18 3 2 1
18 16

10) A survey on the internet asked individuals to rate their happiness from 1 (least happy) to 100 (most
happy). Below is a table based on a sample of 20 male and 20 female responses. Are females on average
happier than males according to the survey

Female

35 1 90 95 19 85 80 95 90 86
97 45 64 80 42 50 93 75 82 100

Male

4 70 70 99 11 90 90 3 76 12
98 85 98 69 84 70 100 3 88 65

11) The presence of outliers can skew your data and often researchers will throw them out and
recalculate the measures of center, variation and position. To define an outlier we need a few
definitions

IQR (interquartile range) = Q3 – Q1

An outlier is a data value MORE THAN 1.5 times the IQR above Q3 OR LESS THAN 1.5 times the IQR
below Q1

Use this definition to determine if there are any outliers in the datasets in problems 6-10