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Chapter 1: Q2. (page 49)
Explain the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics.
Descriptive statistics deals with different measures of the central tendency of sample data whereas inferential statistics deals with the usage of statistical tools to draw statistical conclusions.
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Zillow.com estimates of home values. Zillow.com is a real estate Web site that provides free estimates of the market value of homes. A trio of University of Texas at San Antonio professors compared Zillow estimates to actual sale prices of homes and published their results in The Appraisal Journal (Winter 2010). The analysis was based on data collected for 2,045 single-family residential properties in Arlington, Texas, that sold during the last 6 months of 2006. Sale price and Zillow estimated value (in dollars) were measured for each property. Zillow claims that this market has one of its highest-accuracy ratings. However, the research revealed that Zillow overestimated the market value by more than 10% for nearly half of the properties.
a. What is the experimental unit for this study?
b. Describe the variables measured in the study. Do these variables produce quantitative or qualitative data?
c. Give a scenario where the 2,045 properties represent a population.
d. If the 2,045 properties represent a representative sample from a population, describe the population.
e. Suppose the relevant population is all single-family residential properties in the United States. Do you believe the 2,045 properties are representative of this population? Explain.
What is statistics?
Jamming attacks on wireless networks. Terrorists often use wireless networks to communicate. To disrupt these communications, the U.S. military uses jamming attacks on the wireless networks. The International Journal of Production Economics (Vol. 172, 2016) described a study of 80 such jamming attacks. The configuration of the wireless network attacked was determined in each case. Configuration consists of network type (WLAN, WSN, or AHN) and number of channels (single- or multi-channel).
a. Suppose the 80 jamming attacks represent all jamming attacks by the U.S. military over the past several years, and these attacks are the only attacks of interest to the researchers. Do the data associated with these 80 attacks represent a population or a sample? Explain.
b. The 80 jamming attacks actually represent a sample. Describe the population for which this sample is representative.
c. Identify the variable “network type” as quantitative or qualitative.
d. Identify the variable “number of channels” as quantitative or qualitative.
e. Explain how to measure number of channels quantitatively?
List the three major methods of collecting data and explain their differences.
Consumer recycling behavior. Under what conditions will consumers dispose of recyclable paper in the garbage? This was the question of interest in an article published in the Journal of Consumer Research (December, 2013). In one of the studies conducted, the researchers instructed 78 college students to cut an 8.5-×11-inch sheet of paper into eight smaller pieces. Half the students were randomly assigned to list five uses for the cut paper (usefulness is salient condition). The students in the other half were asked to list their five favorite TV shows (control condition). After completing an unrelated task, all students were asked to dispose of the paper upon leaving. There was a trash bin and a recycling bin outside the door. The researchers kept track of which students recycled and which students disposed of their paper in the garbage. This information was used to test the theory that students in the usefulness is salient condition will recycle at a higher rate than students in the control condition.
a. Explain why the data-collection method used in this study is a designed experiment.
b. Identify the experimental unit in this study.
c. Identify the variables measured in this study. What data type (quantitative or qualitative) is produced from each variable? (Hint: Two variables are measured.)
d. About 68% of the students in the usefulness is recycled, compared to 37% of students in the control condition. Use this information to make an inference about the population of interest.
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