2/3 Examination: Answers

Answers to Sample Questions for 2/3 Exam from Previous Years     Which test statistic --- (1) z-score, (2) t-score, (3) F ratio ---- would be most suitable for testing relationships between these pairs of variables?   1.___2___ Difference in mens' and womens' attendance rates at religious services (The t-test, which produces a t-score, is for difference between means of two nominal groups. No Ns are mentioned so t-test is appropriate.) Return   2.___1___ Difference in the predicted mean Republican vote in 1998 by the Gallup poll with 900 interviews and the CBS poll with 1,200. (One could also use a t-test, but the samplesizes are so large that the test statistic would distribute normally, so a z-score is appropriate.) Return 3.___3___ Literacy rates by countries and a classification of countries by region. (Literacy rates are measured on a continuous scale, and region is a nominal variable. So ANOVA is appropriate, and it produces an F ratio.) Return 4. The formula provides an unbiased estimate of the population: 1- standard deviation (Dividing by N-1 corrects for degrees of freedom.) Return 5. The standard error of the mean is 3- the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of means (Remember that a standard error of any statistic is, by definition, the standard deviation of a distribution of an infinite number of samples drawn to compute that statistic.) Return 6. The standard error of the mean is equal to (In this expression, the numerator and denominator have been squared.) Return   7. Given a sample size of 100, mean of 36, population standard deviation of 5, and confidence level of .95, the confidence interval for the mean of the population is closest to 4- 35 to 37 (This requires applying the formula for the standard error of the mean: . So the standard error is .5. You don't simply add and subtract .5 from your sample mean of 36, for that would mark off only one standard error above and below the mean. The rule of thumb for the 95% confidence interval is to double the standard error and then add and subtract it from your estimate.) Return 8. In practical terms, the amount of accuracy in predicting from national samples to the U.S. Population is least dependent on 1- the proportion that the sample is of the population 2- The "absolute number of cases in the sample" is N, and is critical to sample accuracy. 3- "The population variance for the attribute being estimated," is used in the numerator of the formula for the standard error. 4- "The procedure used in drawing the sample," is essential, as each case must have a known probability of being selected. The % the sample is of the population gets to be important only when the sample grows to about 20% of the population, which rarely occurs in social science research.) Return 9. Which of the following terms does not belong with the other terms? 4- z-score ("Type I error," "alpha level," and "region of rejection" all pertain to the risk of rejecting a true null hypothesis.) Return 10. Which of the following statistical distributions is interpreted with reference to two different degrees of freedom? 1- F (Tables of the t distribution are entered using only one value for degrees of freedom. Degrees of freedom are irrelevant to a "skewed" distribution. A normal distribution is not dependent on degrees of freedom.) Return   11. If one has a directional hypothesis, he or she especially wants to 1- make a one-tailed test (A one tailed test allows for rejecting the null with a smaller critical value, which means observing a smaller difference than required with a two tailed test.) Return 12. The sampling distribution of the difference between two means for independent samples -- 4- tends to become normal as the sample sizes increase. (This is the gist of the Central Limit Theorem.) Return 13. In the analysis of variance model, the null hypothesis of no difference among the means for the subgroups will tend to be rejected as 1- the "between group" variance exceeds the "within group" variance. (The null hypothesis asserts that the groups could be drawn from the same parent population. This implies that they have similar means and similar variances. To the extent that differences "between" groups increases, the groups groups tend to be different from each other.) Return 14. Which statement is true about data expressed in proportions? 3- Proportions computed for a dichotomized variable are simply a type of mean. (Suppose you coded a dichotomy, such as sex, Male=0 and Female=1. Suppose further that you have a group of 10 people, 4 of whom are males. The mean for "sex" would be .6, and the proportion would be .6.) Return 15. Another name for "between groups" sum of squares in the analysis of variance is 3- explained variation (Between groups sum of squares is calculated on the difference between the group means on a dependent variable and the grand mean. Big differences indicate that the groupings of cases has a strong effect on the values of the dependent variable.) Return 16. An unbiased estimator of a population parameter is 1- a statistic whose mean value of its own sampling distribution is equal to the population parameter. (Thus, the mean (average) value of the sampling distribution of the statistic being estimated is equal to the mean (average) value in the population.) Return 17. Calculate the variance for this set of numbers: -5,-5,-5,5,5,5 Case X mean of X (x - mean) (x - mean)2 1 -5 0 -5 25 2 -5 0 -5 25 3 -5 0 -5 25 4 5 0 5 25 5 5 0 5 25 6 5 0 5 25   ·(x-mean)2= 150 Variance = 150 / 6 =__25___ Return 18. According to the table of areas under the normal curve, what positive and negative z-score value would be used to establish the region of rejection for a TWO-tailed test nearest to the .04 level of significance? z-score = ___2.05______ (A z-score of 2.05 marks 0.0202 in one tail. So a two-tailed test would encompass 0.0404 in both tails.) Return Here is T-TEST output comparing Democrat and Republican Members of Congress, with the dependent variable being a scale of increasing "conservatism" in voting on social issues. Answer questions 19 and 20. VARIABLE NUMBER STANDARD STANDARD OF CASES MEAN DEVIATION ERROR DEMOCRATS 248 30.5806 23.441 1.488 REPUBLICANS 180 65.7278 16.318 1.216 Mean Difference = -35.1472 Levene's Test for Equality of Variances:F= 2.06 P= .000 Variances t-value df 2-TailSig Equal -17.30 426 .000 Unequal -18.28 425.31 .000   19.Which expression below was used to compute the degrees of freedom for Equal Variance estimate of the T-Test above? 4- (N1 + N2 - 2) (Check it out. df = 248 + 180 - 2 = 426) Return 20. Which statement about the above T-TEST output is true? Return 3- The F-value is significant at the .05 level, indicating that the population variance are equal and that you are advised to use the Unequal variance estimate rather than the Equal estimate in checking the significance of t.     Below is SPSSx output from MEANS for GNP PER CAPITA in the POLITY data analyzed by type of government. Answer questions 21, 22, 23, and 24 with reference to this output.   DEPENDENT VARIABLE GNPPCA80 GNP PER CAPITA IN US DOLLARS-1980 INDEPENDENT VARIABLE POLTYPE TYPE OF POLITICAL SYSTEM VARIABLE VALUE LABEL MEAN STD DEV CASES FOR ENTIRE POPULATION 3633.0864 4267.0914 81 POLTYPE 1.00 PARLIAMENT/DEMOCRACY 6511.4815 4608.2098 27 POLTYPE 2.00 DEMOCRATIC & FEDERAL 9598.0000 5869.8825 5 POLTYPE 3.00 MULTIPARTY DEMOCRACY 1322.8571 1334.9746 7 POLTYPE 4.00 DEMOCRATIC FORM 2210.0000 113.1371 2 POLTYPE 5.00 MILITARY GOVERNMENT 895.8333 900.6408 12 POLTYPE 8.00 ONEPARTY COMMUNIST 3587.5000 2431.3180 8 POLTYPE 9.00 ONEPARTY SOCIALIST 2270.0000 494.9747 2 POLTYPE 10.00 ONEPARTY MARXIST 276.6667 140.1190 3 POLTYPE 11.00 ONEPARTY STATE 798.6667 1015.8168 15 SUM OF MEAN SOURCE SQUARES D.F. SQUARE F SIG. BETWEEN GROUPS 690959683.13 8 86369960.391 8.1217 .0000 WITHIN GROUPS 765685845.26 72 10634525.629   21. Showing the math, compute the MEAN SQUARE for BETWEEN GROUPS to one decimal: _____________ Between groups mean square = 690959683.13 / 8 = 86369960.391 Return   22. Showing the math, compute the F ratio to one decimal: _____________   F = 86369960.391 / 10634525.629 = 8.1217 Return   23. Which statement gives the most accurate assessment of that relationship? 3- The null hypothesis can be rejected at the .01 level. Return 24. Under the null hypothesis, the expected value of Pearson's r is 4- zero (That is, the null hypothesis asserts that the two variables are not correlated. So any correlation you observe, may have observed by chance.) Return 25. What condition exists when the variance of Y remains the same for different values of X? 1- homoscedasticity Return 26. This formula for testing the significance of r: , assumes that 4- the test is against the null hypothesis that the population correlation, r (rho), is equal to 0. Return   27. If data for 2 variables are transformed into z-scores and then correlated, [This topic was not covered.] 1- the product moment correlation will be equal to the beta coefficient in the associated regression equation. 2- the beta coefficient will be equal to the b-coefficient in the regression equation. 3- the intercept in the regression equation will be equal to 0. 4- all of the above are true. Return 28.Tested against the null hypothesis, a highly significant correlation merely indicates that 1- it is unlikely that there is no relationship between the variables in the universe. Return   29. Which statistic is most appropriate for testing the significance of the difference among means for four independent samples? 3- F ratio Return 30. The condition of heteroscedasticity is best shown in which diagram? 1 This one (By convention, the base line represents the X-variable and the perpendicular line the Y-variable. Q. 25 above defines "homoscedasticity." Heteroscedasticity obtains when the variance of Y is not constant for different values of X.) Return