Statistical Literacy and Critical Thinking

3. Discrete/Continuous Data Which of the following describe discrete data? a. The numbers of people surveyed in each of the next several Gallup polls b. The exact heights of individuals in a sample of several statistics students c. The number of Super Bowl football games that must be played before one of the teams scores exactly 75 points In Exercises 512, determine whether the given value is a statistic or a parameter. 5. Distracted Driving In a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety survey, 21% of the respondents said that they recently texted or e-mailed while driving. 6. States There are 50 state capitols in the United States. 7. Titanic A study was conducted of all 2223 passengers aboard the Titanic when it sank. 8. Late Flights Among the flights included in the sample of flights in Data Set 15 of Appendix B, 21% arrived late. 9. IQ Scores The mean IQ score for subjects taking the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IQ test is 100. 10. Periodic Table The average (mean) atomic weight of all elements in the periodic table is 134.355 unified atomic mass units. 11. Brain Volume The average (mean) volume of the brains included in Data Set 6 of Appendix B is 1126.0 cm 3 12. HDTV Penetration In a random sample of households, it was found that 47% of the sampled households had high-definition TVs. In Exercises 1320, determine whether the given values are from a discrete or continuous data set. 13. Honda Civic Crash Test In Data Set 13 of Appendix B, the measured chest deceleration of a Honda Civic in a crash test is 39 g, where g is a force of gravity. 14. Honda Civic Cylinders The Honda Civic has 4 cylinders. 15. Word Count From Data Set 17 in Appendix B we see that a male spoke 13,825 words in one day. 16. First President George Washington was 188 cm tall. 17. House of Representatives Currently the House of Representatives has 435 members. 18. Crash Test Results Data Set 13 in Appendix B includes crash test results from 21 different cars. 19. Earthquake From Data Set 16 in Appendix B we see that an earthquake had a measurement of 0.70 on the Richter scale. 20. Arm Circumference From Data Set 1 in Appendix B we see that a female had an arm circumference of 27.5 cm.

In Exercises 2128, determine which of the four levels of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) is most appropriate. 21. Colors of M&Ms (red, orange, yellow, brown, blue, green) listed in Data Set 20 in Appendix B 22. Depths (km) of earthquakes listed in Data Set 16 of Appendix B 23. Years in which U.S. presidents were inaugurated 24. The movie Avatar was given a rating of 4 stars on a scale of 5 stars. 25. Volumes ( cm 3 ) of brains listed in Data Set 6 of Appendix B 26. Car models (Chevrolet Aveo, Honda Civic, , Buick Lucerne) used for crash testing, as listed in Data Set 13 of Appendix B 27. Blood lead levels of low, medium, and high used to describe the subjects in Data Set 5 of Appendix B 28. Body temperatures (in degrees Fahrenheit) listed in Data Set 3 of Appendix B In Exercises 2932, identify the level of measurement of the data. Also, explain what is wrong with the given calculation. 29. Political Parties In a preelection survey of likely voters, political parties of respondents are identified as 1 for a Democrat, 2 for a Republican, 3 for an Independent, and 4 for anything else. The average (mean) is calculated for 850 respondents and the result is 1.7. 30. Flight Numbers Data Set 15 in Appendix B lists flight numbers of 48 different flights, and the average (mean) of those flight numbers is 11.0. 31. Lead Levels In Data Set 5 in Appendix B, blood lead levels are represented as 1 for low, 2 for medium, and 3 for high. The average (mean) of the 121 blood lead levels is 1.53. 32. World Series Champs As of this writing, the New York Yankees were the last team to win the World Series, and the numbers of the starting lineup are 2, 18, 25, 13, 20, 55, 24, 33, and 53. The average (mean) of those numbers is 27.0.

Determine whether the given description corresponds to an observational study or an experiment. In each case, give a brief explanation of your choice. 5. Contentious Survey The Milgram Research Company wants to study reactions to stress, so it administers surveys in which the person asking the questions pretends to become very angry with the survey subject. At one point, the surveyor screams at the subject and asks how anyone could have such stupid opinions. 6. Clinical Trial In a clinical trial of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, 188 subjects were given 20-mg doses of the drug, and 3.7% of them experienced nausea (based on data from Pfizer, Inc.). 7. Touch Therapy Nine-year-old Emily Rosa was an author of an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association after she tested professional touch therapists. Using a cardboard partition, she held her hand above one of the therapist's hands, and the therapist was asked to identify the hand that Emily chose. 8. Happiness Survey In a study sponsored by Coca-Cola, 12,500 people were asked what contributes most to their happiness, and 77% of the respondents said that it was their family or partner. Identify which of these types of sampling is used: random, systematic, convenience, stratified, or cluster. 9. Harry Potter The author collected sample data by randomly selecting 12 different pages from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and then finding the number of words in each sentence on each of those pages. 10. Sexuality of Women The sexuality of women was discussed in Shere Hite's book Women and Love: A Cultural Revolution. Her conclusions were based on sample data that consisted of 4500 mailed responses from 100,000 questionnaires that were sent to women. 11. Twitter Poll In a Pew Research Center poll, 1007 adults were called after their telephone numbers were randomly generated by a computer, and 85% of the respondents were able to correctly identify what Twitter is. 12. Ecology When collecting data from different sample locations in a lake, a researcher uses the line transect method by stretching a rope across the lake and collecting samples at every interval of 5 meters. 13. CBS News The CBS News station in New York City often obtains opinions by interviewing neighbors of a person who is the focus of a news story.

14. Acupuncture Study In a study of treatments for back pain, 641 subjects were randomly assigned to the four different treatment groups of individualized acupuncture, standardized acupuncture, simulated acupuncture, and usual care (based on data from A Randomized Trial Comparing Acupuncture, Simulated Acupuncture, and Usual Care for Chronic Low Back Pain, by Cherkin et al., Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 169, No. 9). 15. Deforestation Rates Satellites are used to collect sample data used to estimate deforestation rates. The Forest Resources Assessment of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization uses a method of selecting a sample of a 10-km-wide square at every 1 intersection of latitude and longitude. 16. Dictionary The author collected sample data by randomly selecting 20 different pages from a printed version of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and then counting the number of defined words on each of those pages. 17. Testing Lipitor In a clinical trial of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, subjects were partitioned into groups given a placebo or Lipitor doses of 10 mg, 20 mg, 40 mg, or 80 mg. The subjects were randomly assigned to the different treatment groups (based on data from Pfizer, Inc.). 18. Exit Polls On the day of the last presidential election, ABC News organized an exit poll in which specific polling stations were randomly selected and all voters were surveyed as they left the premises. 19. Literary Digest Poll In 1936, Literary Digest magazine mailed questionnaires to 10 million people and obtained 2,266,566 responses. The responses indicated that Alf Landon would win the presidential election, but Franklin D. Roosevelt actually won the election. 20. Highway Strength The New York State Department of Transportation evaluated the quality of the New York State Throughway by testing core samples collected at regular intervals of one mile. Simple Random Samples. Determine whether the sample is a simple random sample. Give a brief explanation of your choice. 21. Bayer Aspirin Bayer HealthCare LLC produces low-dose aspirin pills designed to contain 81 mg of aspirin. Because each pill contains other ingredients, including corn starch, talc, and propylene glycol, it is difficult to check whether manufactured pills contain 81 mg of aspirin. A quality control plan is to select every 1000th pill, which is then tested for the correct amount of aspirin.

22. Market Research In order to test for a gender gap in the way that men and women purchase cars, the Grant Survey Company polls exactly 750 adult men and 750 adult women randomly selected from adults in the United States. 23. Post-Election Survey In the last general election, 132,312 adults voted in Dutchess County, New York. You plan to conduct a post-election survey of 500 of those voters. After obtaining a list of those who voted, you number the list from 1 to 132,312, and then you use a computer to randomly generate 500 numbers between 1 and 132,312. Your sample consists of the voters corresponding to the selected numbers. 24. Jury Selection According to the State of New York Unified Court System, names of potential jurors are selected from a variety of different sources. When a trial requires a jury, names from the list are randomly selected in a way that is equivalent to writing the names on slips of paper, mixing them in a bowl, and selecting the required number of potential jurors. 25. Mall Research Mall managers commonly research how customers use the malls. The author was approached by a pollster at the Galleria Mall in Dutchess County, New York. The pollster was obviously selecting subjects who appeared to be approachable. 26. Car Crash Tests The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducts crash tests of cars. One car of each different model is randomly selected for testing. Indicate whether the observational study used is cross-sectional, retrospective, or prospective. 27. Nurses Health Study The Nurses Health Study was started in 1976 with 121,700 female registered nurses who were between the ages of 30 and 55. The subjects were surveyed in 1976 and every two years thereafter. The study is ongoing. 28. Drinking and Driving Study In order to study the seriousness of drinking and driving, a researcher obtains records from past car crashes. Drivers are partitioned into a group that had no alcohol consumption and another group that did have evidence of alcohol consumption at the time of the crash. 29. Smoking Study Researchers from the National Institutes of Health want to determine the current rates of smoking among adult males and adult females. They conduct a survey of 500 adults of each gender. 30. Meat and Mortality Researchers at the National Cancer Institute studied meat consumption and its relationship to mortality. Approximately one-half

million people were surveyed, and they were then followed for a period of 10 years. Identify which of these designs is most appropriate for the given experiment: completely randomized design, randomized block design, or matched pairs design. 31. Lisinipril Lisinipril is a drug designed to lower blood pressure. In a clinical trial of Lisinipril, blood pressure levels of subjects are measured before and after they have been treated with the drug. 32. Aspirin A clinical trial of aspirin treatments is being planned to determine whether the rate of myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) is different for men and women. 33. West Nile Vaccine Currently, there is no approved vaccine for the prevention of West Nile virus. A clinical trial of a possible vaccine is being planned to include subjects treated with the vaccine while other subjects are given a placebo. 34. HIV Vaccine The HIV Trials Network is conducting a study to test the effectiveness of two different experimental HIV vaccines. Subjects will consist of 80 pairs of twins. For each pair of twins, one of the subjects will be treated with the DNA vaccine and the other twin will be treated with the adenoviral vector vaccine.