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Chapter 1: Q10. (page 49)

Explain why would a statistician consider an inference incomplete without an accompanying measure of its reliability?

Short Answer

Expert verified

The statistician would consider an inference incomplete without the measure of its reliability because the measure of reliability indicates the level of consistency in the inferences, hence fostering reduction in estimation errors.

Step by step solution

01

Measure of the reliability

The measure of reliability denotes the degree of uncertainty of the inference. In other words, it suggests how good the inference about the sample is in providing information about the entire population.

02

Significance of Inferences with a measure of reliability

The statisticians face resources such as time and money constraints. Therefore, they do not work on the entire population but take the sample. Hence, it is important for the statistician to compute the reliability of every inference that they make. The measure of reliability is crucial because it facilitates the reduction of estimation errors. This provides statisticians confidence that the established results are accurate by providing a bound on the estimation errors.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Corporate sustainability and firm characteristics. Corporate sustainability refers to business practices designed around social and environmental considerations (e.g., "going green"). Business and Society (March 2011) published a paper on how firm size and firm type impact sustainability behaviors. The researchers added questions on sustainability to a quarterly survey of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). The survey was sent to approximately 23,500 senior managers at CPA firms, of which 1,293 senior managers responded. (Note: It is not clear how the 23,500 senior managers were selected.) Due to missing data (incomplete survey answers), only 992 surveys were analyzed. These data were used to infer whether larger firms are more likely to report sustainability policies than smaller firms and whether public firms are more likely to report sustainability policies than private firms.

a. Identify the population of interest to the researchers.

b. What method was used to collect the sample data?

c. Comment on the representativeness of the sample.

d. How will your answer to part c impact the validity of the inferences drawn from the study?

Who is better at multi-tasking? In business, employees are often asked to perform a complex task when their attention is divided (i.e., multi-tasking). Human Factors (May 2014) published a study designed to determine whether video game players are better than non–video game players at multi-tasking. Each in a sample of 60 college students was classified as a video game player or a nonplayer. Participants entered a street crossing simulator and were asked to cross a busy street at an unsigned intersection. The simulator was designed to have cars traveling at various high rates of speed in both directions. During the crossing, the students also performed a memory task as a distraction. Two variables were measured for each student: (1) a street crossing performance score (measured out of 100 points) and (2) a memory task score (measured out of 20 points). The researchers found no differences in either the street crossing performance or memory task score of video game players and non-gamers. “These results,” say the researchers, “suggest that action video game players [and non-gamers] are equally susceptible to the costs of dividing attention in a complex task”.

a. Identify the experimental unit for this study.

b. Identify the variables measured as quantitative or qualitative.

c. Is this an application of descriptive statistics or inferential statistics? Explain.

Define statistical thinking.

Inspection of highway bridges. All highway bridges in the United States are inspected periodically for structural deficiency by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Data from the FHWA inspections are compiled into the National Bridge Inventory (NBI). Several of the nearly 100 variables maintained by the NBI are listed below. Classify each variable as quantitative or qualitative.

a. Length of maximum span (feet)

b. Number of vehicle lanes

c. Toll bridge (yes or no)

d. Average daily traffic

e. Condition of deck (good, fair, or poor)

f. Bypass or detour length (miles)

g. Route type (interstate, U.S., state, county, or city)

List and define the four elements of a descriptive statistics problem.
See all solutions

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