Chapter 2: Problem 49
Explain why blinding is a reasonable strategy in many experiments.
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Chapter 2: Problem 49
Explain why blinding is a reasonable strategy in many experiments.
These are the key concepts you need to understand to accurately answer the question.
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A tropical forest survey conducted by Conservation International included the following statements in the material that accompanied the survey: "A massive change is burning its way through the earth's environment." “The band of tropical forests that encircle the earth is being cut and burned to the ground at an alarming rate." "Never in history has mankind inflicted such sweeping changes on our planet as the clearing of rain forest taking place right now!" The survey that followed included the questions given in Parts (a)-(d) below. For each of these questions, identify a word or phrase that might affect the response and possibly bias the results of any analysis of the responses. a. "Did you know that the world's tropical forests are being destroyed at the rate of 80 acres per minute?" b. "Considering what you know about vanishing tropical forests, how would you rate the problem?" c. "Do you think we have an obligation to prevent the man-made extinction of animal and plant species?" d. "Based on what you know now, do you think there is a link between the destruction of tropical forests and changes in the earth's atmosphere?"
Does living in the South cause high blood pressure? Data from a group of 6278 whites and blacks questioned in the Third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey between 1988 and 1994 (see CNN.com web site article of January 6,2000 , titled "High Blood Pressure Greater Risk in U.S. South, Study Says") indicates that a greater percentage of Southerners have high blood pressure than do people in any other region of the United States. This difference in rate of high blood pressure was found in every ethnic group, gender, and age category studied. List at least two possible reasons we cannot conclude that living in the South causes high blood pressure.
The article "Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drug Makers Are Desperate to Know Why." (Wired Magazine, August 8,2009 ) states that "according to research, the color of a tablet can boost the effectiveness even of genuine meds-or help convince a patient that a placebo is a potent remedy." Describe how you would design an experiment to investigate if adding color to Tylenol tablets would result in greater perceived pain relief. Be sure to address how you would select subjects, how you would measure pain relief, what colors you would use, and whether or not you would include a control group in your experiment.
The authors of the paper "Illicit Use of Psychostimulants among College Students" (Psychology, Health \& Medicine [2002]: 283-287) surveyed college students about their use of legal and illegal stimulants. The sample of students surveyed consisted of students enrolled in a psychology class at a small, competitive college in the United States. a. Was this sample a simple random sample, a stratified sample, a systematic sample, or a convenience sample? Explain. b. Give two reasons why the estimate of the proportion of students who reported using illegal stimulants based on data from this survey should not be generalized to all U.S. college students.
Fast-paced lifestyles, in which students balance the requirements of school, after-school activities, and jobs, are thought by some to lead to reduced sleep. Suppose that you are assigned the task of designing a survey that will provide answers to the accompanying questions. Write a set of survey questions that might be used. In some cases, you may need to write more than one question to adequately address a particular issue. For example, responses might be different for weekends and school nights. You may also have to define some terms to make the questions understandable to the target audience, which is adolescents. Topics to be addressed: How much sleep do the respondents get? Is this enough sleep? Does sleepiness interfere with schoolwork? If they could change the starting and ending times of the school day, what would they suggest? (Sorry, they cannot reduce the total time spent in school during the day!)
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