Tue Hoang

6 November 2013
Statistics 1 Homework
Page 288:
9. a) The population of interest here is the 1008 national adults, aged 18 and older.
b) The sampling frame is the telephone interviews survey conducted on April 2-5, 2007.
c) The problems that should be of concern are question wording and systematic bias error in
conducting the surveys practically.

10. a) The population: all subscribers of the Consumers Union
b) The population parameter of interest: those subscribers who had used alternative medical
treatments.
d) The sample: 20% of those responding reported
e) The sampling method: the randomization method was employed because we do not know in
advance whether a subscriber had taken alternative medical treatments, and whether or not it brought
benefits.
f) Potential bias problems: The bias could be on those subscribers who are wealthy enough to afford
alternative medical treatments.

13. The stations faulty prediction is more likely to be a result of bias because the bias could be on
those who did not want to phone in and report their votes. In other words, only those who were
willing to phone to report their votes are counted in the prediction, which obviously does not reflect
the whole population accurately.

17. The newspapers faulty prediction is again more likely to be a result of bias because many people
did not read the newspaper or know about the poll they were conducting. In other words, only those
subscribers of the newspaper knew about the poll and gave their opinions, so the prediction could not
reflect the whole population accurately.

18. Possible biases in the example:
- Only those who live near the childrens playground at the municipal park.
- Only those who care about childrens playground size
- Only those who are somehow affected by the possible enlargement of the childrens playground at
the municipal park.
19. 2 ways the question may lead to response bias:
- Only those who go to the municipal park
- Only those who live near the childrens playground area

21. a) The responses to the questions may differ because of their different question wordings. The
different types of biases caused are 1) only those who understand what high-stakes tests mean, and 2)
only those who are concerned with school yearly learning goals, respectively.

31. a) This statement is wrong because even though there is a large sample size, there is still the
possibility of having systematic bias error.
b) The statement tends to place too much emphasis on the wording; the wording is only relatively
biased.
c) This statement is wrong: the population, not the sampling frame, is all Internet users.
d) This statement is correct: since there is the chance of having systematic bias error, we could not
reliably generalize the results to any population of interest.

32. a) This question contains wording of bias in it. The bias could be on those who do not work for
the companies, or who do not care about the cleanup cost.
b) This question is quite neutral in wording and the chance of bias error seems low because almost
everyone is affected by the drinking age law.

26. a) This question could be biased towards high school parents only, or high school educators, for
that matter.
b) This question could be biased towards space flights sponsors only, or those who are concerned
with space exploration.

27. a) If we use a simple random sample, the results would be totally random, which clearly
contradicts the condition that people call their homes between noon and 4 p.m.
c) The type of household that is likely to be included in the eventual sample of opinion is theose
people who do not work at home, and therefore usually calls home in the designated time frame. The
type of household that is likely to be excluded in the eventual sample of opinion is those people who
work at home and therefore do not have to call home (obviously).
d) This would improve the sampling design since it raises the condition of interest. More people
would be taken into account and therefore we could somehow avoid systematic bias error.
e) This would improve our design because it involves randomization in the process.