Psychological Statistics Study Guide

1. A statistician was testing the following set of hypotheses: H0: p = 0.86 versus Ha: p ≠ 0.86. Using a random
sample of size 178, he found z = 1.58. What is the p-value associated with this test?

a. 0.0285 b. 0.0571

c. 0.1142 d. 0.9429

2. A lightbulb manufacturer wanted to be sure that her bulbs burned, on average, longer than the 1,500
hours advertised. She selected a random sample of 56 bulbs and measured the time it took for each to
burn out. The sample mean was 1,512 hours, and the sample standard deviation was 38 hours. What is
the appropriate test statistic to test the hypothesis that the manufacturer is interested in?

a. tT =

b. tT =

c. tT =

d. tT =

3. A chi-squared goodness-of-fit test was conducted. There were seven categories, but no parameters
were estimated. The value of the test statistic was 9.6.What is the p-value associated with the test?

a. 0.05 < p < 0.075 b. 0.10 < p < 0.15 c. 0.15 < p < 0.20 d. 0.20 < p < 0.30

Use the following information for problems 4 and 5. A high school counselor wanted to know whether there is a
relationship between a student's work outside of school and his or her participation in band. He selected a random
sample of 75 students. Each selected student was asked whether he or she worked full or part time during the school
year and whether he or she participated in band. The results are in the following table.
 4. What type of test is to be conducted?

a. paired t-test b. chi-squared goodness-of-fit test

c. chi-squared test of homogeneity d. chi-squared test of independence

5. How many degrees of freedom are associated with the test?

a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4

6. Regardless of whether a test is one-tailed or two-tailed, shaded region(s) on the distribution can’t be more than
_____ of the distribution.
a. 1% b. 2.5%
c. 5% d. 10%

7. In both the inferential z-test and the single-sample t-test, _____ must be known.
a. 
b. Sx
c. D
d. x

8. Based on a tobt of -1.83 with 11 degrees of freedom, we would choose to

a. reject H0. b. fail to reject H0.
c. reject H1. d. retain H0.

9. A t-test is generally used to analyze data with _____ level(s), and an ANOVA is generally used to analyze data
with _____ level(s).
a. less than two; more than two
b. one; one or more
c. two; more than two
d. more than two; two

10. If you examined the effect of studying 0, 1, or 2 hours a day on grades, how would you write the null
hypothesis?
a. µD = 0
b. µ1 - µ2 = 0
c. µ1 - µ2 - µ3 = 0
d. µ1 = µ2 = µ3
 11. The null hypothesis for the one-way 2 is _____.
a. expected frequencies equal observed frequencies
b. expected frequencies are equal to each other
c. observed frequencies are equal to each other
d. fos ≠ fes

12. A 3 x 4 2 has _____ cells.

a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. 12

For 12 points:
Suppose we wanted to know if people get more nervous before flying in an airplane or taking a ship to their
destinations. In other words, are people more afraid of falling from the sky or sinking in the ocean? Because stress
levels vary a great deal across different people, perhaps it would be best to ask the same people to rate their
nervousness before flying and before sailing. Nervousness will be measured by number of breaths per minute.

Breathing rate immediately prior to flying and sailing might look like the following:

Before flying Before sailing

14 12
20 15
22 23
12 16
14 9
25 21
21 17
8 9

a. What statistic would we use to analyze this data set? Be specific.

b. Write the null and alternative hypotheses for this example.
c. Analyze these data, showing all work.
d. Write the result: reject or fail to reject H0, and write a statement of significance.
e. If appropriate, calculate the effect size and confidence interval.
f. Write the outcome of this study in plain English. What did we learn about types of travel and nervousness
(as measured by breathing rate) in this fictitious study?

For 6 points
My 12-year-old son told me that all of his friends had dirt bikes, and if I loved him, I would buy one immediately.
When I questioned whether or not all children his age really had dirt bikes, he estimated that about 60% did.
Because I am a researcher, I decided to examine his claim. I collected a sample of 100 12-year-old children and
asked them if they had a dirt bike. Imagine that 23% said yes.

a. Analyze the data, and please show all work.

b. Discuss the result in plain English. What might I tell my son about what I found?

For 6 points
You might want to know if prejudice is related to the highest level of education people have. If we think of prejudice
as an all-or-nothing attitude, we might ask people to report whether or not they feel prejudice. In addition, we will
need to ask people if they (1) completed only high school, (2) completed college, or (3) completed graduate school.
The data might resemble the following:

No prejudice Prejudice
High school fo = 7 fo = 23

College fo = 19 fo = 10

Graduate school fo = 20 fo = 5

a. How would you analyze these data?

Write your null and alternative hypotheses.
Continue with your analysis, reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis, and a statement of significance.
b. Discuss your result in plain English. If the result is significant, be sure to include percentages in your
description of the data.

For 4 Points

Identify the independent variable, dependent variable, and the null hypothesis from the following scenario:

A researcher would like to know if highlighting a textbook helps students to score better on the exams. She
randomly selects one-half of the students in an introductory class and instructs them to highlight their textbooks as
they read. The other students are instructed to do NO highlighting as they read.

For 8 Points

A researcher is concerned about the level of knowledge possessed by university students regarding United States
history. Students completed a high school senior level standardized U.S. history exam. Major for students was also
recorded. Data in terms of percent correct is recorded below for 32 students. Compute the appropriate test for the
data provided below.

Education Business/Management Behavioral/Social Science Fine Arts

62 72 42 80
81 49 52 57
75 63 31 87
58 68 80 64
67 39 22 28
48 79 71 29
26 40 68 62
36 15 76 45

1. What is your computed answer?

2. What would be the null hypothesis in this study?
 3. What would be the alternate hypothesis?
4. What probability level did you choose and why?
5. What were your degrees of freedom?
6. Is there a significant difference between the four testing conditions?
7. Interpret your answer.
8. If you have made an error, would it be a Type I or a Type II error? Explain your answer.

IF YOU ANSWERED EVERY PROBLEM, you will be awarded 2 points free of charge!!!

Remember: it must be either emailed to me (in Word doc or PDF) or in my

mailbox in the office by 3:00 PM on Wednesday 7/25. No later, no exceptions.
Anything emailed after 3PM loses 5 points an hour. If dropped in my box after
3 PM, it will not be picked up and counts as ZERO/Nothing/Nada/Zip. Plan
your lives accordingly.

OK, that was my stern warning. Thank you all very much. Good luck in your
futures. Please enjoy the rest of the summer.

Don Sweeney