Psych 311, 2016 Exercise 1

This problem set is due in lecture on 9 March, at which time answers will be made available on Blackboard. If
you write out your answers by hand, please print them legibly, and please write your name at the top of the first page.
If you hand in more than one page of answers, please make sure the pages are stapled together.
In this and all other homework exercises, please abide by the following Simpsons Rule on collaboration,
cooperation, and consultation: You may discuss the problems with other people, including students in the class,
provided that you do not write down or otherwise record anything from the discussion for at least one-half hour
following the end of the discussion and provided that this intervening half-hour is spent in some activity completely
unrelated to the course (e.g., watching The Simpsons).
I. The purpose of this set of problems is to give you practice at applying the concepts and terminology of experimental design to some quasi-realistic experiments. Each problem includes a description of an experiment or
study, and some questions about how to apply the terminology to it.
(1) Early interest in statistics was often centred around the analysis of public records and stimulated by
extremely practical questions. For example, one early study carried out in the Netherlands attempted to
learn which occupations were conducive to a long life. To find out, the researcher looked at 200 death
certificates and noted the age at which each person had died. Comparisons were then made between
different groups of people separatted according to (a) the persons occupation, and (b) the city in which
the person had lived.
a.
b.
c.
d.

What is the population about which the researcher wants to draw conclusions?
Who or what are the subjects in this study?
What is the dependent variable?
List the factors (independent variables) in the study. For each factor, indicate what its levels are and
whether it is tested within-subjects or between-subjects.
e. What is the null hypothesis about the effect of occupation?
f. Suppose the researcher concluded that occupation had no effect when in fact it really did. What type
of error would that be?
g. Suppose the researcher concluded that city had an effect when in fact it really did not. What type of
error would that be?
(2) A physiological psychologist wanted to investigate whether stress-related hormone levels had an effect
on the number of depression-related behaviours. According to one theory (theory A), these hormonal
changes are one of the destructive consequences of stress, and they are in part responsible for changes in
behaviour (e.g., signs of depression) that are seen under stress. According to an opposing theory (theory
B), however, these hormonal changes are actually part of the bodys defensive system, and they help
protect against stress by minimizing its effects on behaviour. To test between these two theories, the
psychologist administered zero (placebo), low, or high doses of stress-related hormones to six different
groups of male and female rats (4 rats per group). She then observed the rats and counted the number of
depression-related behaviours that each produced within the period 46 hours after administration of the
hormone (or placebo).
a.
b.
c.
d.

What is the population about which the researcher wants to draw conclusions?
Who or what are the subjects in this study?
What is the dependent variable?
List the factors (independent variables) in the study. For each factor, indicate what its levels are and
whether it is tested within-subjects or between-subjects.
e. What is the null hypothesis about the effect of Hormone dose?
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f. Suppose the researcher concluded that Gender had no effect when in fact it really did. What type of
error would that be?
g. Suppose the researcher concluded that Hormone dose had an effect when in fact it really did not.
What type of error would that be?
(3) According to one hypothesis, learning a new skill is somewhat state dependent. This means that if you
learn the skill in one mental state (e.g., tired, anxious, etc), then you tend to perform it better later when
you are in the same state than when you are in a different state. An instructor in the dance department
wanted to test this hypothesis within the context of learning dance routines, specifically testing whether
learning of these routines is state dependent. In the actual experiment, 8 male and 8 female dance students
were taught a long new dance routine in one class. Two days later, each students recall was tested, with
scores ranging from 0100% depending on how much of the routine they could recall. There were four
different combinations of learning state and test state. Specifically, half of the students were initially
taught the routine completely sober, and half were taught after drinking the equivalent of two beers of
alcohol. Test state was manipulated in the same way: half were tested completely sober, and half were
tested after drinking the equivalent of two beers.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.

What is the population about which the researcher wants to draw conclusions?
Who or what are the subjects in this study?
What is the dependent variable?
List the factors (independent variables) in the study. For each factor, indicate what its levels are and
whether it is tested within-subjects or between-subjects.
What is the null hypothesis about the effect of learning state?
What is the null hypothesis about the effect of test state?
What is the null hypothesis about the effect of gender?
Suppose the researcher concluded that test state had no effect when in fact it really did. What type of
error would that be?
Suppose the researcher concluded that gender had no effect when in fact it really did. What type of
error would that be?
Suppose the researcher concluded that learning state had an effect when in fact it really did not. What
type of error would that be?

(4) Are human aesthetic preferences completely learned or partly innate? To answer this question, researchers
have looked for analogues of our aesthetic preferences in animals, reasoning that finding such preferences
in animals would support the view that these are at least partly innate. In one such study, 10 capuchin
monkeys 10 chimpanzees, and 10 gorillas were each shown 30 cards of each of four types: cards with
an asymmetric black and white pattern, cards with a symmetric black and white pattern, cards with an
asymmetric coloured pattern, and cards with a symmetric coloured pattern. The cards were presented to
the apes by placing them on a table in front of the ape, and the researchers counted the number of cards
of each type that each ape picked up to look at.
a.
b.
c.
d.

What is the population about which the researcher wants to draw conclusions?
Who or what are the subjects in this study?
What is the dependent variable?
List the factors (independent variables) in the study. For each factor, indicate what its levels are and
whether it is tested within-subjects or between-subjects.
e. What is the null hypothesis about the effect of card symmetry?
f. Suppose the researcher concluded that card symmetry had no effect when in fact it really did. What
type of error would that be?
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g. Suppose the researcher concluded that type of ape had no effect when in fact it really did. What type
of error would that be?
h. Suppose the researcher concluded that card colour had an effect when in fact it really did not. What
type of error would that be?
(5) You have the impression that one of your flatmates, say Joe Bloggs, tends to act especially strangely
around the time of a full moon, and you decide to test that impression statistically. One of the odd things
he does sometimes is to refer to himself as good old Joe B., and you decide to count the number of times
he does that in a one-hour conversation. For each of 30 randomly selected days over a six-month period,
you make this count for a one-hour conversation on that day. You then compare the average counts for
days within 2 days of a full moon as compared with days more than 5 days away from a full moon.
a.
b.
c.
d.

What is the population about which the researcher wants to draw conclusions?
Who or what are the subjects in this study?
What is the dependent variable?
List the factors (independent variables) in the study. For each factor, indicate what its levels are and
whether it is tested within-subjects or between-subjects.
e. What is the null hypothesis about the effect of nearness to full moon?
f. Suppose the researcher concluded that nearness to full moon had no effect when in fact it really did.
What type of error would that be?
g. Suppose the researcher concluded that nearness to full moon had an effect when in fact it really did
not. What type of error would that be?

II. Many people believe that both physical exercise and listening to music can be useful in reducing acute stress.
To test this idea scientifically, 21 students coming out of a final exam in statistics were randomly divided into
three groups. One group spent 20 minutes jogging on a treadmill, a second group spent 20 minutes sitting
and listening to music, and a third group spent 20 minutes sitting quietly. Each student then waited quietly
for another 30 minutes, and then each students blood pressure was measured. The blood pressure score for
each student was expressed as a percentage of that students resting blood pressure measured one week before
the exam (e.g., a score of 110 means that the student was 10% higher after the exam than one week before it).
[This problem was based on a study by Christenfeld, Chafin, and Gerin (2005).]
Here are the fictitious results (these data show effects analogous to those reported in a real study):
Post-exam activity
Jogging
Sitting with music
Sitting quietly

Scores of 7 students in each group

97 95 109 97 109 117 139
125 107 97 93 103 115 137
154 150 126 124 152 156 118

Please answer the following questions:

(1) What is(are) the dependent variable(s) in the experiment?
(2) What is(are) the factor(s) in the experiment?
(3) What are the levels of the factor(s)?
(4) For each factor, say whether it is a between-subjects or a within-subjects factor.
(5) What were the average blood pressure readings for the different post-exam activities? Intuitively, do you
think that differences this large might be due to chance? (In answering the latter question, you should
consider the variation among scores within the same group.)
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(6) What version of the general linear model should you use for this data set?
(7) How many degrees of freedom are associated with each term in the model?
(8) What is the estimation equation for each term?
(9) Make the decomposition matrix for this data set.
(10) Compute the sum of squares for each term in the model.
(11) Compute the mean square for each term in the model.
(12) Compute the observed F value for the mean .
(13) Compute the observed F value for the post-exam activity factor.
(14) Make the summary ANOVA table.
(15) What null hypothesis does the F for post-exam activity test? State the null hypothesis in at least three
different ways:
a. In plain English, using no statistical terms.
b. In terms of the parameters of the General Linear Model.
c. As a comparison between two different models for the data.
(16) What is the critical value of F , with p = .05? Do you reject the null hypothesis that post-exam activity
has no effect, or fail to reject it?
(17) What can you conclude from the observed F for post-exam activity (state one version of the conclusion
appropriate for each of the three null hypotheses given above)?
(18) What null hypothesis does the F for test? State the null hypothesis in at least three different ways:
a. In plain English, using no statistical terms.
b. In terms of the parameters of the General Linear Model.
c. As a comparison between two different models for the data.
(19) What is the critical value of F , with p = .05? Do you reject the null hypothesis that = 0, or fail to
reject it?
(20) What can you conclude from the observed F for the mean (state one version of the conclusion appropriate
for each of the three null hypotheses given above)?