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Chapter 14: Problem 3

The paper "Supervised Exercise Versus Non-Supervised Exercise for Reducing Weight in Obese Adults" (The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness [2009]: \(85-90\) ) describes an experiment in which participants were randomly assigned either to a supervised exercise program or a control group. Those in the control group were told only that they should take measures to lose weight. Those in the supervised exercise group were told they should take measures to lose weight as well, but they also participated in regular supervised exercise sessions. The researchers reported that after 4 months, the mean decrease in body fat was significantly higher for the supervised exercise group than for the control group. In the context of this experiment, explain what it means to say that the exercise group mean was significantly higher than the control group mean.

Short Answer

Expert verified
In this experiment, when saying the exercise group's mean decrease in weight was significantly higher than the control group's, it implies that the supervised exercise program had a noteworthy and statistically significant positive effect on weight loss, beyond what could be expected by chance alone.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding the Terms

The words 'significantly higher' hold a special meaning in the context of scientific studies. When a researcher states that the results are statistically significant, it suggests that the outcome wasn鈥檛 due to chance or random occurrence. In this experiment, it means there is a robust difference in the weight loss between those who participated in the supervised exercises and those who didn鈥檛 or were part of the control group.
02

Consideration of Random Assignment

Random assignment in this context means that each participant had an equal chance of being in either the exercise group or the control group. This ensures that there's a roughly equivalent distribution of characteristics (like age, gender, baseline weights) between the groups. The observed difference in weight loss can thus be attributed to the intervention (supervised exercise), rather than some other confounding variable.
03

Interpreting the Significance

When the study says that the mean (average) decrease in body fat was significantly higher for the supervised exercise group, it is indicating that the supervised exercise program had a definitive positive impact on weight loss, and this outcome isn鈥檛 just due to chance. The use of the word 'significantly' indicates that the result is statistically significant, usually meaning that there's a high degree of confidence (for instance, 95% or 99%) that the results are not due to random variations, but due to the effect of the intervention.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

The paper "If It's Hard to Read, It's Hard to Do" (Psychological Science [2008]: \(986-988\) ) described an interesting study of how people perceive the effort required to do certain tasks. Each of 20 students was randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group was given instructions for an exercise routine that were printed in an easy-to-read font (Arial). The other group received the same set of instructions but printed in a font that is considered difficult to read the time (in minutes) they thought it would take to complete the exercise routine. Summary statistics follow. The authors of the paper used these data to carry out a twosample \(t\) test and concluded at the 0.10 significance level that the mean estimated time to complete the exercise routine is significantly lower when the instructions are printed in an easy-to-read font than when printed in a font that is difficult to read. Discuss the appropriateness of using a twosample \(t\) test in this situation.

The paper "Short-Term Sleep Loss Decreases Physical Activity Under Free-Living Conditions but Does Not Increase Food Intake Under Time-Deprived Laboratory Conditions in Healthy Men" (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition [2009]: \(1476-1483\) ) describes an experiment in which 30 male volunteers were assigned at random to one of two sleep conditions. Men in the 4 -hour group slept 4 hours per night for two nights. Men in the 8-hour group slept 8 hours per night for two nights. On the day following these two nights, the men recorded food intake. The researchers reported that there was no significant difference in mean calorie intake for the two groups. In the context of this experiment, explain what it means to say that there is no significant difference in the group means. (Hint: See discussion on page 578 )

The paper "The Effect of Multitasking on the Grade Performance of Business Students" (Research in Higher Education Journal [2010]: 1-10) describes an experiment in which 62 undergraduate business students were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups. Students in one group were asked to listen to a lecture but were told that they were permitted to use cell phones to send text messages during the lecture. Students in the second group listened to the same lecture but were not permitted to send text messages during the lecture. Afterwards, students in both groups took a quiz on material covered in the lecture. The researchers reported that the mean quiz score for students in the texting group was significantly lower than the mean quiz score for students in the no-texting group. In the context of this experiment, explain what it means to say that the texting group mean was significantly lower than the no-text group mean. (Hint: See discussion on page 578 )

The paper "Matching Faces to Photographs: Poor Performance in Eyewitness Memory" Uournal of Experimental Psychology: Applied [2008]: \(364-372)\) described an experiment to investigate whether people are more likely to recognize a face when they have seen an actor in person than when they have just seen a photograph of the actor. The paper states that there was no significant difference in the proportion of correct identifications for people who saw the actor in person and for those who only saw a photograph of the actor. In the context of this experiment, explain what it means to say that there is no significant difference in the group means.

The article referenced in the previous exercise also described an experiment in which students at Columbia Business School were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Students in one group were shown a coffee mug and asked how much they would pay for that mug. Students in the second group were given a coffee mug identical to the one shown to the first group and asked how much someone would have to pay to buy it from them. It was reported that the mean value assigned to the mug for the second group was significantly higher than the mean value assigned to the same mug for the first group. In the context of this experiment, explain what it means to say that the mean value was significantly higher for the group that was given the mug.
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