Question

A college teacher was assigned four freshmen advisees. He administered an attitude assessment which measured liberalism-conservatism. Four years later, just before graduation, same four students took the same attitude assessment again. High scores indicate conservative attitudes. The following scores were obtained. Please find and/or answer the following questions. Did the students' attitude change?

1. What is the independent variable and the dependent variable?

2. What type of design is this? paired or independent samples; if paired, then you must specify.

3. What is the df and t critical values?

4. Calculate t

5. Calculate d

6. Write out your results and conclusions. Don't forget to add your statistical notations in your conclusions. Hint: begin with reject or fail to reject - don't forget to p values and d values. Please see text and videos for interpretations and its format.

7 Type I or II error

(1992) 26 22 17 15

(1996) 15 23 14 15 10

Answer 1

Solution

1. Independent variable: Graduation (education) ANSWER 1 and

    Dependent variable: Attitude Change ANSWER 2

2. Design: Paired – Before graduation attitude paired with After graduation attitude – both as

    measured by the attitude assessment test scores. ANSWER 3

3. DF: 3 ANSWER 4 [n – 1 = 4 - 1] and

    t critical value = t_{3, 0.95} = – 3.182 ANSWER 5

    [t_{3, 0.95} is lower 5% point of t-distribution with df = 3. 5% level of significance is assumed

     and alternative hypothesis is taken as one-sided less than type]

4. Test Statistic: t = - 1.1951 ANSWER 6

5. d = 1996 score – 1992 score = - 11, 1, - 3, 0. ANSWER 7

6. Results and conclusions: Since tcal < tcrit, the null hypothesis of zero mean difference of

  Scores is accepted. ANSWER 8

    The above is also confirmed by the p-value of 0.1590 being less than 5%. ANSWER 9

    Conclusion: There is not sufficient evidence to suggest that the claim that there is

    Attitudinal change is NOT valid. ANSWER 9   

DONE