GER1000 2019 Sem 1

Quiz 9 and solutions

Question 1
Clothes Retailer G&N wishes to find out from all their visitors how receptive they
are in terms of recycling used clothing. The management decides to survey a
sample from customers paying for purchases at the cashier. They interview
every fifth paying customer during retail hours: from 11am to 9.30p.m. Which of
these statements is/are true?

(I) The above is an example of systematic sampling.

(II) The sampling frame is the same as the intended population.

(a) (I)
(b) (II)
(c) (I) and (II)
(d) neither (I) nor (II).

Ans: (d). It is like a systematic sample, except for the crucial point that the
number 5 is not the result of a random choice. The population of interest
includes non-paying customers, so is larger than the frame.

Question 2
A study conducted by Yola found that the amount of yoghurt ice-cream
consumption is associated with an increase in blood sugar levels. The correlation
coefficient computed is 0.76. Jason, the researcher of the study realized that
blood sugar was measured in micromoles per litre. He decided to change the
measurement unit to millimoles per litre instead. Determine what will be the
correlation of the data upon the change of unit from micromoles per litre to
millimoles per litre.

(a) 0.76
(b) –0.76
(c) 0.076
(d) Cannot be determined as more information is required.

Ans: (a). The correlation is not affected when multiplying any of the two
variables with a positive constant.
Question 3
Joseph conducted a study on night owls (individuals who sleep after 12am on
average every night) among staff and students in NUS. He gathered the following
results on rates:
Rate(Night Owl | Student) = 0.7
Rate (Non-Night Owl | Staff) =0.4

Which of the following statements is true?

(a) Rate (Night Owl) must be between 0.4 and 0.7

(b) Rate (Night Owl) must be between 0.6 and 0.7.
(c) Rate (Non-night Owl) must be between 0.4 and 0.7.
(d) Rate (Non-night Owl) must be between 0.6 and 0.7.

Ans: (b) is true because we can compute the Rate (Night Owl | Staff) to be 0.6 (1
– 0.4 = 0.6), and apply the Basic Rule on Rates.

c and d are wrong because Rate (Non-night Owl) must be between 0.3 and 0.4.

Question 4
Kezia did a study on the correlation between the number of hours of sleep and
the number of midterm examinations NUS students have for the semester. She
calculated the correlation by taking the average number of hours of sleep and the
average number of midterm examinations from different faculties (e.g. Faculty of
Science, FASS, Engineering, etc), and got 0.70. The conclusions she made are the
following:

(I) The correlation at the individual level is 0.70.

(II) The number of midterm examinations a student had caused a student
to sleep less.

Which of these statements made by Kezia is/are correct?

(a) (I)
(b) (II)
(c) (I) and (II)
(d) neither (I) nor (II).

Answer: (d). The data collected was based on the average scores by faculty.
Ecological correlation coefficient is not the same value as individual correlation
coefficient. Therefore (I) is incorrect. Furthermore, (II) is incorrect as correlation
does not imply causation.
Question 5
A group of retail analysts are interested in the costs of rental of the retail stores
in NUS in 2019. They obtained a list of all the retail stores, accurate as of August
2015. Assume 100% response rate, and that 15% of the stores have moved out
of NUS or gone out of business, and new stores have moved in.
Which of the following statements is/are true?

(I) The sampling frame can be improved by including new stores that have
opened after August, 2015.

(II) Including the former stores will introduce selection bias.

(a) (I)
(b) (II)
(c) (I) and (II)
(d) neither (I) nor (II).

Answer: (a). (I) is true because a good sampling frame should be up-to-date and
offer good coverage, while minimizing the number of unwanted units. (II) is false
because the researcher may ignore the former stores if they happen to be
selected. Selection bias arises when some wanted units do not have a chance to
be selected (chance of being selected is zero).