A-Level Psychology
Choosing Statistical Tests H/W
Read the following scenarios and decide which inferential
statistical test would be used for each study, and briefly justify
your choice, using the decision tree given to you in class
Study Choice of Test Justification (I.e.
Difference, Design, Data?)
1 A study was conducted to see
whether people who had a pet rated
themselves higher for happiness (out
of 10) than people who didn’t.
2 An experiment was conducted to see
whether drinking two units of alcohol
influenced reaction time. The
experimental group were given
alcohol and their times were
compared to those in a control group
who were matched on gender,
weight and average weekly alcohol
consumption. Data seemed to be
skewed in the experimental group.
3 A study was carried out to see
whether males are more likely to
seek a physically attractive date than
females are.
4 A study was conducted to see if there
is a relationship between children’s
age (measured in months) and the
number of words in a child’s
vocabulary. The vocabulary scores
are not normally distributed.
5 A study was conducted to see
whether participants will remember
fewer emotionally threatening words
than neutral words. Each participant
was given a list containing both types
of words to learn and their recall was
tested 24 hours later. Both sets of
data were normally distributed and
had similar variance.
Choosing Statistical Tests H/W
Read the following scenarios and decide which inferential
statistical test would be used for each study, and briefly justify
your choice, using the decision tree given to you in class
Study Choice of Test Justification (I.e.
Difference, Design, Data?)
1 A study was conducted to see
whether people who had a pet rated
themselves higher for happiness (out
of 10) than people who didn’t.
2 An experiment was conducted to see
whether drinking two units of alcohol
influenced reaction time. The
experimental group were given
alcohol and their times were
compared to those in a control group
who were matched on gender,
weight and average weekly alcohol
consumption. Data seemed to be
skewed in the experimental group.
3 A study was carried out to see
whether males are more likely to
seek a physically attractive date than
females are.
4 A study was conducted to see if there
is a relationship between children’s
age (measured in months) and the
number of words in a child’s
vocabulary. The vocabulary scores
are not normally distributed.
5 A study was conducted to see
whether participants will remember
fewer emotionally threatening words
than neutral words. Each participant
was given a list containing both types
of words to learn and their recall was
tested 24 hours later. Both sets of
data were normally distributed and
had similar variance.
