Problem: Susan Sound predicts that students will learn most effectively with a constant background sound, as opposed

to an unpredictable sound or no sound at all. She randomly divides twenty-four students into three groups of eight. All students study a passage of text for 30 minutes. Those in group 1 study with background sound at a constant volume in the background. Those in group 2 study with noise that changes volume periodically. Those in group 3 study with no sound at all. After studying, all students take a 10 point multiple choice test over the material. Their scores follow:
group 1) constant sound 2) random sound 3) no sound test scores 74686629 55344722 24712155 x32 4 16 49 1 4 1 25 25 2 x3 = 125

x1 x12 x2 x22 x3 7 49 5 25 2 4 16 5 25 4 6 36 3 9 7 8 64 4 16 1 6 36 4 16 2 6 36 7 49 1 2 4 2 4 5 9 81 2 4 5 2 2 x1 = 48 x1 = 322 x2 = 32 x2 = 148 x3 = 27 2 2 (x1) = 2304 (x2) = 1024 (x3)2 = 729 M1 = 6 M2 = 4 M3 = 3.375

= 595 - 477.04 SStotal = 117.96

= 507.13 - 477.04

SSamong = 30.08 SSwithin = 117.96 - 30.08 = 87.88

Source SS df MS F

Among 30.08 2 15.04 3.59 Within 87.88 21 4.18

*(according to the F sig/probability table with df = (2,21) F must be at least 3.4668 to reach p < .05, so F score is statistically significant) Interpretation: Susan can conclude that her hypothesis may be supported. The means are as she predicted, in that the constant music group has the highest score. However, the signficant F only indicates that at least two means are signficantly different from one another, but she can't know which specific mean pairs significantly differ until she conducts a post-hoc analysis (e.g., Tukey's HSD).