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Lab Activity #3: Reviewing the Big Ideas (KEY)

Part 1: Reviewing Big Ideas

Think of all STAT 1350 students (across all sections of this course) as our population, and consider your
recitation section as a sample from the larger population.
1. The average amount of time all STAT 1350 students spend on the Internet, in a typical day, is 120
minutes. Imagine that the average amount of time this particular recitation section spends on the
Internet, in a typical day, is 150 minutes. Which of these numbers is a parameter, and which is a
statistic? Why?
The parameter is 120 minutes since it describes a population; the statistic is 150 minutes since it describes
a sample.

2. Suppose I conduct a survey. I am able to select a random sample of 75 students from STAT 1350, and I
find that 15% of these students are left-handed.
a. If there are a total of 1000 students currently enrolled in STAT 1350, and a total of 75 students in
the sample, what would be our quick estimate of the margin of error? Please calculate this
estimate.

To find the margin of error, we need to find or about 12%.

Extra: If I add and subtract 12% from 15%, I get 3% to 27%. I am 95% confident that the interval from
3% to 27% includes the percentage of students in STAT 1350 who are left-handed.

b. What do you think can be done to obtain a smaller margin of error?

We can take a larger sample.

3. Suppose I want to survey students in STAT 1350, and I want to make sure my sample includes
freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. If I first break my population into groups (i.e., freshmen,
sophomores, juniors, and seniors) and then take a random sample from each group, I have what is called
a stratified random sample.
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4. Which of the following sources of error is included in the margin of error?

a. Random sampling error
b. Errors in entering the data into the computer
c. Some of the subjects did not understand the questions
d. Voluntary response
e. All of the above

5. Suppose we wish to estimate the percentage of people who speed while driving in a college town. We
choose to sample the populations of Austin, TX (University of Texas) and Norman, OK (University of
Oklahoma). We know that both cities have populations over 100,000 and that Austin is approximately 5
times bigger than Norman. We also expect the rates of speeding to be about the same in each city. Suppose
we were to take a random sample of 1000 drivers from each city. The margin of error for a simple random
sample of the population of drivers from each city will be
a. smaller for the Austin sample than the Norman sample.
b. smaller for the Norman sample than the Austin sample.
c. the same for both samples.
d. impossible to determine without more precise information about the population sizes.

6. True or False? Quantitative variables usually represent membership in groups or categories.

A marketing research firm wishes to determine residents in Hillsboro, OH would be interested in a new
clothing store. From a list of all residential addresses in Hillsboro, the firm selects a simple random sample
of 100 and mails a brief questionnaire to each. Please use this information to answer Questions 7-9.

7. The population of interest is

a. all people across the U.S. who like to shop for clothes
b. all residents in Hillsboro, OH.
c. the members of the marketing firm that actually conducted the survey.
d. the 100 addresses the survey was mailed to.

8. The sample in this survey is

a. all people across the U.S. who like to shop for clothes
b. all residents in Hillsboro, OH.
c. the members of the marketing firm that actually conducted the survey.
d. the 100 addresses the survey was mailed to.

9. If you learn later that some of the Hillsboro residents were not honest in their responses because they
worried that a new store would lead to the closure of another much loved clothing store, this would be
an example of

a. the placebo effect.

b. the margin of error.
c. a sampling error.
d. a nonsampling error.

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Part 2: More Review

For this part of the activity, please first read through the Facebook article. You can find link on Carmen, by
going to Lab Activities and looking in the Week 3 section.

10. The Facebook study took place at what institution?

a. The Ohio State University
b. Ohio Dominican University
c. San Diego State University
d. No information is given in the article about the location of the study

11. According to the media report, how many of the 221 students who participated in the study said they are
on Facebook?

148

12. True or False: According to the media report, more graduate students in the sample had a Facebook
account compared to undergraduate students.

13. Take some time now to critique the Facebook media article, given what you have learned so far in
STAT 1350.

Answers will vary here. Some sample answers are shown below.

a. What is one thing you like about the article? Please be specific here.

The article attempts to convey that the study is “exploratory” in nature, and points out that the sample size
was small. The article also does not attempt to conclude that using Facebook CAUSES grades to be
lower; it says clearly there is a relationship between the variables, but we can’t know if one leads to the
other.

b. What is one thing you do not like about the article? Please be specific here.

It seemed like there was a lot of information missing about the methods used to gather the data. We don’t
know exactly how the subjects were surveyed, nor is it clear just what kinds of questions were asked (or
how those questions were worded). It’s also unclear how subjects were chosen to be a part of the study,
and whether the sample is representative of OSU students or college students in general.

c. What questions do you have that are not answered by the article?
How exactly were subjects chosen to be a part of this study? What questions were they asked? Could
one of the researchers (Karpinski) have biased the results of the study, especially given her clear negative
opinion about Facebook?

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14. Are you convinced after reading the article that using Facebook will lower your GPA? Why or why
not?

I’m not convinced. The sample was small, and it’s not clear if this is a representative sample. Also, even though
these variables might be related to each other, there are lots of other factors that might affect GPA. For instance,
it could be that those who are more apt to be on Facebook are more apt to do other things (like go to parties,
socialize more, etc.) that would impact study time and GPA.

15. In Chapter 1, you learned about the differences between an experiment and an observational study?
Would you consider the Facebook study to be an experiment, or an observational study? Please explain.

This is an observational study. It appears the researchers simply asked questions about Facebook use and GPA.
There was no attempt to manipulate the situation (e.g., randomly assign some students to use Facebook and others
not to use Facebook) or to control for other variables that could impact GPA beyond the use of Facebook.

16. If you answered that this is an observational study, do you think it would be possible to conduct an
experiment to determine if using Facebook leads to a poor GPA? Please explain.

It might be possible, but I question if it would be ethical. For instance, if we believe something is harmful to
students and could lead them to do poorly in school, is it fair to force them to do this? Further, could we easily
control who uses Facebook and who does not? Would we want to start the study with a group of students who
have never used Facebook before? If so, does such a group exist? Can we find enough students who are
complete “blank slates” when it comes to Facebook use?