Jess Maher

ID: 3328773

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Assignment One

Question One
a) The required mark necessary in the final examination for Stats 191 is forty
five percent. This is required as the pass rate for the course in addition to the
minimum overall mark of fifty percent.

b) The final examination for Stats 191 is weighted at sixty percent of the grade,
this along with twenty percent which is allocated to class participation makes
up the eighty percent missing when considering the weighting of Cecil tests
and assignments within this course combing to twenty percent completing the
full weighting.

Question Two
a) i) By developing structured, well worded questions the researchers are
attempting to minimise question effects which may cause bias as even fairly
subtle variations in the wording of questions can measurably effect the
response given. This kind of question effect bias is considered a non sampling
error in surveys and may negatively affect results.
ii) The proper design and implementation of appropriate scripts should ensure
that question effects are eliminated as the preparation and forethought into the
kind of question that should be asked and how they should be worded will
eliminate any bias that is created in questioning.

b) i) Self selection bias is not really a potential problem for creating bias in this
survey as all viewers watching the program till the end will view this
advertisement; however as there is action required on the viewer’s part, non
response bias maybe created.
ii) Non-response bias is a realistic, potential problem in this surveying method
which may affect the results validity as the design of the survey means that a
large selection of the sample may not be inclined to respond to the question
posed. As the survey demands effort of the sample, those who did not feel
strongly about the program will probably not report results.
iii) Viewers of the television show which they did not enjoy will often not
view the program until completion of the show, in which case this proportion
of the population may not even be aware of the survey let alone have the chose
to decide if they wish to respond. This creates selection bias which may
drastically affect results.

c) Selection bias would be the most likely kind of bias which can explain the
incorrectness of the results reported in this example, as those in the population
who were interested in politics and the election would assumably be more
willing to participate in the survey, than those that had no interest in the
subject at all.

Stats 191 – Assignment One

Jess Maher
ID: 3328773

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Question Three
a) Study 1: This study is comparing the amount of time each age group (under
25, 25-40yrs, over 40) in department stores.
Study 2: This study is comparing how much pain and discomfort maybe able
to be endured by people in the morning by comparison to the evening. This is
measured by patient’s interview results after treatment which is used to create
a pain and discomfort tolerance score.
Study 3: This study is investigating the effects of goats on the Silver Sword
plant population, this is an experiment and the control in this study, being the
fenced plants, by comparison to those that remain unfenced, are what the
results are established from.

b) Studies number one and two are both observational studies, where by there is a
comparison of the information collected. Study three is an experiment; this is
because this study uses controlled situations and pre-planning processes.

c) For study two, an experiment could have been designed to ensure more
accurate results, for example, they could have controlled not only the patient
mix, but the time of treatment and kind of treatment provided. Study one
however would not make an appropriate experiment as the population sample
would be much more accurate when observed, and bias should be avoided by
interviewing random consumers.

d) Study one uses stratification to group results received into age categories, as
this study is an observational study, the other studies listed do not appear to be
utilising blocking and/or stratification and considering that the only
experimental study appears to be Study three, it is safe to conclude that there
are no blocking methods present.

e) Study three uses a control group in its experiment, the plots are placed with
eight at each site, four remaining unfenced and accessible to goats while the
other four are fenced off to ensure control, and therefore consistency in results.

f) Only study three can establish causation in the experiment described, as the
other two studies are only observational studies. An experiment has the ability
to determine what plants can be exposed to the goats and those that haven’t,
ensuring accurate responses.

Question Four
a) Please see Appendix A for SPSS
data and graphs.

b) The Histogram, as seen as Figure

1.0, developed from the stem-and-
leaf plot created (see Appendix A)
appears to be bimodal, showing a
cluster of lower marks achieved by
a group of students at the first
smaller peak, the second peak Figure 1.0
Histogram of student exam results, developed from
stem-and-leaf plot (see Appendix A).
Stats 191 – Assignment One
Jess Maher
ID: 3328773

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demonstrates the large majority of marks achieved around the sixty-seventy

percentage. There appears to be a left hand skew in the large mode of the
graph, demonstrating in this case that there are more high marks than low.
From the box plot created (see Appendix A) we can see the data was a wide
spread, however the three quartiles are relatively close together suggesting the
majority of the class achieved fairly similar results.

Question Five
a) The two fictional books used for this study are referenced below;

Mona Simpson,(1992), Anywhere But Here, New York, Random House Inc

Marian Keyes, (2004), The Other Side of the Story, Victoria, Australia,
Penguin Group

b) The random digit table (as seen in Section G of the course book) was used to
collect twelve samples of sentences from each novel recording the
measurements on the page numbers, the number of words that appeared in the
sentence, and the number of letters in the sentence. The processes of questions
c and d were further followed.

e) Attached as Appendix B is the Tabular Presentation of the material collected

which has been organised in Excel.

f) Attached as Appendix C is the side-by-side plots of the word lengths for both
novels.

g) We can make a number of comparisons between the word lengths of each of

the novels when comparing them side by side on a plot graph, which can be
seen as Appendix C. Keyes has a wider spread than Simpson’s, which shows
more condensed stacks. The range in the word length of Simpson’s novel is
1.8, while Keyes range is 2.6, demonstrating the wide difference in range and
spread. When comparing the three quartiles of both figures we can see that
Keyes’ lower quartile is lower than Simpson’s while the upper quartile is
slightly higher, again demonstrating the range of figures collected from Keyes
by comparison to Simpson’s, showing lower deviance in figures from this
novel.

h) Attached as Appendix D is an area graph which displays the relationship

between the number of words and the word length in the Keyes novel, The
Other Side of the Story. From this graph we can see that the number of letters
per word tends to stay fairly neutral while the difference in sentence length
sees some dramatic changes. This graph was created in Excel.

Stats 191 – Assignment One

References

Wild, C, Seber, G, (2000), Chance Encounters; A First Course in Data Analysis &
Interference, New York, John Wiley & Sons Inc

University of Auckland, (2006), Quantative Methods for Business, Stats 191, Lecture
Book, Auckland, University of Auckland
Appendices

Appendix A Class Exam Results Data & Graphs

Appendix B Tabular Representation of Novel Data

Collected

Appendix C Side by Side Dot Plots for both the

Simpson & Keyes Novels

Appendix D Comparison of Word and Sentence

Lengths for Keyes Novel; The Other Side
of the Story