chapter 1 MINUS 1 Flashcards
- Which of these does not apply to the word ‘statistics’?
a. Statistics are numbers measured for some purpose.
b. Statistics is a collection of procedures for collecting and analyzing data.
c. Statistics is a tool to help you make decisions when faced with uncertainty.
d. All of the above apply to the word ‘statistics’.
D
- Which of the following is not an example of a situation involving statistics?
a. A pie chart showing the percentage of males and females in your class.
b. A designed experiment comparing the heights of left-handed vs. right-handed people.
c. A survey asking your opinion of whether or not college football players should be paid to play football.
d. All of the above are examples of situations involving statistics.
D
- Which of the following is not true about the subject of statistics?
a. Statistics only represents numbers that are used for a specific purpose.
b. Statistics is a collection of procedures and principles for dealing with information.
c. Statistics appears in your every day life.
d. Statistics has a great deal to do with decision making in the face of uncertainty.
A
- Which of the following questions cannot be addressed using statistics?
a. What percentage of people in the U.S. are cell phone owners?
b. Which of these two medicines has a better success rate at lowering cholesterol?
c. Do mothers most often hold their babies in their arms so the baby is on the left side?
d. All of the above can be addressed using statistics.
D
- {Babysitting Narrative} Which of the following describes the population for this example?
a. All teenagers in the U.S.
b. The 1,000 teenagers who participated in the study.
c. All teenagers in the U.S. who do babysitting for extra money.
d. The 33% of teenagers who do babysitting to earn extra money.
A
- {Babysitting Narrative} Which of the following describes the sample for this example?
a. All teenagers in the U.S.
b. The 1,000 teenagers who participated in the study.
c. All teenagers in the U.S. who do babysitting for extra money.
d. The 33% of teenagers who do babysitting to earn extra money.
B
- Which of the following statements is true?
a. The more variable the groups within a population are, the larger the sample needs to be to detect any real difference between the groups.
b. The more variable the groups within a population are, the smaller the sample needs to be to detect any real difference between the groups.
c. No matter how variable the groups within a population are, the size of the sample needed to detect a real difference between the groups is the same.
d. None of the above statements are true.
A
- Which of the following is necessary to conduct a study properly?
a. Get a representative sample.
b. Get a large enough sample.
c. Decide whether or not the study should be an observational study or a randomized (controlled) experiment.
d. All of the above.
D
- Suppose you are conducting an experiment that involves assigning each of 100 participants to one of two groups: Group A or Group B. Which of the following would not be considered to be a random assignment of participants to groups?
a. For each participant, flip a coin. If the coin lands heads up, assign him/her to Group A. If the coin lands tails up, assign him/her to Group B.
b. Put all 100 names in a hat and mix them up thoroughly. Draw 50 names from the hat and assign them to Group A. Everyone else is assigned to Group B.
c. As the participants show up for the study, assign the first 50 of them to Group A, and the last 50 to Group B.
d. All of the above methods are considered to be random assignments of participants to groups.
C
- Suppose you want to conduct a survey to determine who is most likely to win the next presidential election. Which of the following would be considered to be a representative (unbiased) sample?
a. 1,000 likely voters who called in to a local radio talk show.
b. 1,000 likely voters who returned surveys sent to everyone on a Democrat or Republican newsletter mailing list.
c. 1,000 likely voters who replied to an Internet website survey.
d. None of these would be considered to be representative samples.
D
- Which of the following is not a misuse of statistics?
a. Taking a statistic out of context.
b. Neglecting to take the proper units into account (such as crime rate vs. number of crimes).
c. Reporting a number that you didn’t expect.
d. All of these are examples of misleading statistics.
??
- Suppose you want to determine how Americans feel about reality TV. Which of the following samples contains the least amount of bias?
a. All the people who phone in their opinion on reality TV to a CBS Evening News call-in poll.
b. All those who were randomly selected to receive a reality TV survey in the mail.
c. People who call the networks during reality TV programs to voice their opinion.
d. People who respond to an Internet survey at www.realitytv.com.
B
