Statistical Analysis Methods

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Questions and Answers

A researcher is studying the effectiveness of a new fertilizer on plant growth. They divide a field into several plots, apply the fertilizer to some plots, and leave others untreated as a control. What type of statistics would they use to determine if there's a significant difference in plant growth between the treated and untreated plots?

Inferential statistics, to generalize the findings from the plots to the larger population of plants.
Descriptive statistics to describe the characteristics, then inferential statistics must be used to generalize the findings from the plots to the larger population of plants (correct)
Descriptive statistics only, to summarize the average plant growth in each group.
Descriptive statistics to describe the characteristics, then descriptive statistics can be used to generalize the findings from the plots to the larger population of plants

In a dataset of customer ages, income, and satisfaction ratings (on a scale of 1 to 5), which measure of central tendency would be MOST appropriate for describing the typical satisfaction rating?

The range, as it describes the spread of the data
The median, as it is resistant to extreme values.
The mode, as it identifies the most common rating. (correct)
The mean, as it considers all data points.

A quality control manager wants to assess the consistency of the weight of cereal boxes coming off a production line. Which measure of dispersion would be MOST informative for this purpose?

The standard deviation, as it measures the average distance of each box's weight from the mean weight. (correct)
The mode, as it displays how consistent the data is
The interquartile range (IQR), as it captures the spread of the middle 50% of the data.
The range, as it indicates the difference between the heaviest and lightest box.

A researcher hypothesizes that there is a relationship between exercise frequency (categorized as low, medium, high) and body mass index (BMI, a continuous variable). Which statistical test is MOST appropriate for investigating this relationship?

ANOVA, to compare the means of three or more groups. (D) Signup and view all the answers

In hypothesis testing, what does a p-value of 0.03 indicate, assuming a significance level (alpha) of 0.05?

There is a 3% chance of obtaining the observed results (or more extreme results) if the null hypothesis is true. (A) Signup and view all the answers

A study finds a statistically significant correlation of r = -0.6 between hours of sleep and levels of stress. What does this correlation coefficient suggest?

Increased hours of sleep are associated with decreased levels of stress. (C) Signup and view all the answers

When is a Mann-Whitney U test MOST appropriate?

When comparing the means of two independent groups with non-normally distributed data. (B) Signup and view all the answers

In cluster analysis using K-means, what is the primary purpose of the algorithm?

To group data points into clusters such that data points in the same cluster are more similar to each other than to those in other clusters. (B) Signup and view all the answers

A researcher is analyzing the results of a repeated measures experiment where participants completed a task under three different conditions. Which type of ANOVA is BEST suited for comparing the means of the participants' scores across these three conditions?

Repeated measures ANOVA (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of Levene's test in the context of ANOVA?

To test the assumption that the variances in each group are equal. (C) Signup and view all the answers

Flashcards

Variables

Characteristics or attributes that can be measured or counted.

Descriptive Statistics

Summarizes and presents data in a meaningful way without making inferences about the population.