Question

A research team is studying a new pain medication for patients suffering from fibromyalgia. Patients suffering from chronic pain as a result of fibromyalgia were divided into two categories: Treatment and Placebo. Patients in the treatment group were injected with the new drug while patients in the placebo group were injected with saline solution. Neither the patients, nor the health care practitioners admininstering the study knew who was receiving the actual drug.

After two weeks the patients were asked to pick which category (1-10) their pain abatement fit into, where 1 meant they were no longer in pain, while 10 meant they had no change.

1.) Based on the experimental design of this study and the kind of data generated, which statistical test should be used to determine if pain relief was independent of treatment group?

		Two-sample t-test
		Chi Squared Test
		Paired t-test
		ANOVA
		Linear Regression with t-test for significance of slope
		One-sample t-test

Researchers want to survey the mass of American alligators in a certain region. They want to maximize the efficiency of this effort, and get as many measurements as possible. Capturing alligators, putting them on a scale, and releasing them involves risk and time and subjects the animals to stress. They decide to survey alligators from the air. In this manner they can measure the length of the animals. They want to use these measurements to estimate the mass of the alligators. They have access to data about length and mass of captive alligators that they want to use to predict the mass of wild alligators.

2.) Which of the following best describes the alternate hypothesis for a t-test on the slope of the line relating alligator length and weight?

		The mass of alligators increases as a function of length.
		The slope of the line between length and mass is zero.
		The slope of the line describing the relationship between length and mass is not equal to zero.
		The mass of alligators decreases as a function of length

Answer 1

Solution:

The alternative hypothesis says that there is a significant relationship between the two variables, therefore, the alternative hypothesis will be the slope of the line describing the relationship between length and mass is not equal to zero