Question

Instructions: Write your responses to the following 5 questions for at least 5 of the 7 example news stories about correlational studies:

1. Identify X and describe how it is being measured
2. Identify Y and describe how it is being measured
3. State the direction of the correlation (+ or –)
4. Identify a possible Z (third) variable
5. Fully interpret the relationship between X and Y (in plain English)

Example 5: Internet use in class leads to lower test scores  

New research provides a warning to school children who like to use the Internet in class. Surfing the Internet in class has been linked to poorer test scores. This effect, of relatively lower grades, applies to the brightest students as well as to those in the middle of the scholastic achievement distribution. The research has come from Michigan State University. For the study, the researchers examined laptop use in an introductory psychology course. This revealed that the typical time spent browsing the web, for non-class-related purposes, was 37 minutes during a one-hour lecture. With those who undertook the highest Internet use, the academic performance of the students suffered as measured by their final exam scores. The overall motivation of the students and their intelligence were insufficient to compensate for the lack of attention paid to the lecturer. Intelligence was measured by ACT (American College Testing) scores, a standardized test for high school achievement. Motivation to succeed in class was measured by an online survey, with the results interpreted by the researchers. Discussing the outcomes further, Professor Susan Ravizza stated: "The detrimental relationship associated with non-academic internet use raises questions about the policy of encouraging students to bring their laptops to class when they are unnecessary for class use." A second observation of interest was that taking notes on a laptop is not as beneficial for learning as writing notes by hand. This again was shown up in student test scores.

Answer 1

X: Time spent browsing/surfing on laptop during the lectures.

X was measured by examining the laptop usage for browsing during an introductory psychology course.

Y:Test scores of the students.

Test scores were noted down with the help of final exam scores that is the marks scored by students in their final year exam.

The direction of correlation is negative because higher the time students browse on internet during the lectures lesser the marks they get in their exams.

So As x increases the value of y decreases which indicates the negative relation between them hence the direction of relation is opposite that is correlation would be negative.

Z:Intelligence of the student measured by American college testing.

As the study indicates that higher the number of minutes students browse the internet lesser the marks they getin their final exam scores. So this claims that if a student instead of listening to the lecture browses or plays on laptop he/she will geta lower score in their final exam.

As i explained earlier X and Y are negatively correlated this implies that if one of them is increasing then the other would decrease, hence finally it can be concluded that higher the laptop usage during the lectures higher is the negative effect on the final exam score of the student.