Log out Go to App
Go to App

Learning Materials

Features

Discover

Chapter 4: Q 105. (page 269)

Who talks more—women or men? According to Louann Brazening, author of The Female Brain,

women say nearly three times as many words per day as men. Skeptical researchers devised a study to test this claim. They used electronic devices to record the talking patterns of 396 university students who volunteered to participate in the study. The device was programmed to record 30 seconds of sound every 12.5 minutes without the carrier’s knowledge. According to a published report of the study in Scientific American, “Men showed a slightly wider variability in words uttered... But in the end, the sexes came out just about even in the daily averages: women at 16,215 words and men at 15,669.”56 This difference was not statistically significant. What conclusion can we draw from this study? Explain.

Short Answer

Expert verified

The sample was voluntary rather than random.

Step by step solution

01

Given information

Number ofuniversity students who participated, n=396
The daily average of women=16,215

The daily averages of men =15,669

02

Concept

Human studies must be approved by an institutional review board in advance. Before taking part, all participants must express their informed consent. Any information regarding the study participants must be kept private.

03

Explanation

A study was done to investigate the claim that men or women talk more. As a result of this research, we may conclude that the sample frame was university students, not the whole population. As a result, the sample was voluntary rather than random. Volunteers may be fundamentally different from the rest of the population. The outcomes of this experiment do not allow for any definite conclusions.

Unlock Step-by-Step Solutions & Ace Your Exams!

  • Full Textbook Solutions

    Get detailed explanations and key concepts

  • Unlimited Al creation

    Al flashcards, explanations, exams and more...

  • Ads-free access

    To over 500 millions flashcards

  • Money-back guarantee

    We refund you if you fail your exam.

Start your free trial

Over 30 million students worldwide already upgrade their learning with Vaia!

One App. One Place for Learning.

All the tools & learning materials you need for study success - in one app.

Get started for free

Most popular questions from this chapter

How was your stay? A hotel has 30 floors with 40 rooms per floor. The rooms on one side of the hotel face the water, while rooms on the other side face a

golf course. There is an extra charge for the rooms with a water view. The hotel manager wants to survey 120 guests who stayed at the hotel during a convention about their overall satisfaction with the property.

(a) Explain why choosing a stratified random sample might be preferable to an SRS in this case. What would you use as strata?

(b) Why might a cluster sample be a simpler option? What would you use as clusters?

Meditation for anxiety An experiment that claimed to show that meditation lowers anxiety proceeded as follows. The experimenter interviewed the subjects and rated their level of anxiety. Then the subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. The experimenter taught one group how to meditate and they meditated daily for a month. The other group was simply told to relax more. At the end of the month, the experimenter interviewed all the subjects again and rated their anxiety level. The meditation group now had less anxiety. Psychologists said that the results were suspect because the ratings were not blind. Explain what this means and how lack of blindness could bias the reported results.

Sampling frame Refer to the previous exercise. It is more common in telephone surveys to use random digit dialing equipment that selects the last four digits of a telephone number at random after being given the exchange (the first three digits). Explain how this sampling method results undercover which could lead to bias.

Effects of binge drinking A common definition of “binge drinking” is 5 or more drinks at one sitting for men and 4 or more for women. An observational study

finds that students who binge drink have lower average GPA than those who don’t. Identify a lurking variable that may be confounded with the effects of binge drinking. Explain how confounding might occur.

Checking for bias Comment on each of the following as a potential sample survey question. Is the question clear? Is it slanted toward the desired response?

(a) Which of the following best represents your opinion on gun control?

1. The government should confiscate our guns.

2. We have the right to keep and bear arms.

(b) A freeze on nuclear weapons should be favored because it would begin a much-needed process to stop everyone in the world from building nuclear

weapons now and reduce the possibility of nuclear war in the future. Do you agree or disagree?
See all solutions

Recommended explanations on Math Textbooks

Logic and Functions

Read Explanation

Discrete Mathematics

Read Explanation

Mechanics Maths

Read Explanation

Applied Mathematics

Read Explanation

Probability and Statistics

Read Explanation

Geometry

Read Explanation
View all explanations

What do you think about this solution?

We value your feedback to improve our textbook solutions.

Study anywhere. Anytime. Across all devices.

Sign-up for free