Module 1: Making Claims with Statistics

Question 1

Inferential statistics help distinguish between these two competing explanations:

Answer 1

1. Systematic explanations

2. Chance (random) explanations

Question 2

The null hypothesis states that…

Answer 2

there is no real difference because the difference is due to chance

Question 3

Abelson’s MAGIC criteria

Answer 3

Magnitude, Articulation, Generality, Interestingness, Credibility

Question 4

Alpha is the likelihood of…

Answer 4

committing a type I error

Question 5

Power is the likelihood that…

Answer 5

a test will find an existing effect

Question 6

f-test

Answer 6

A pre-test to other tests (i.e., t-tests and ANOVA).
Helps us decide if we are choosing a pooled or unpooled variance
If the value exceeds f-critical, the variances are different, thus an unpooled variance would be used

Question 7

Statistical significance

Answer 7

Determined by the p-value (less than .05)

Question 8

Practical significance

Answer 8

Determined by effect size (magnitude of the effect of an independent variable)

Question 9

Under what circumstances is a small effect size still significant/impressive?

Answer 9

Independent variables were barely manipulated

Dependent variable is difficult to influence

Question 10

________ positively correlates with alpha

Answer 10

Power

Question 11

Pooled standard error

Answer 11

Used when one group contributes more weight to the standard deviation of a sample compared to the other

Question 12

Deviance/error

Answer 12

The difference between each score and the actual mean

Question 13

Sum of squared error

Answer 13

The squared deviance (then added)

Question 14

Generic formula for t-tests

Answer 14

t = sample data - hypothesized population parameter / estimated standard error