Solutions to RSCH 665 Module 7
Assignment
Question 1
A Chi-Square Goodness of Fit test can be used to determine if one of the four prototypes is
significantly preferred by the participants. To perform the five-step hypothesis test:
1. State the hypotheses:
- H0 (null hypothesis): The participants equally prefer all four prototypes.
- H1 (alternative hypothesis): Participants prefer one or more prototypes over others.
2. Level of significance (α): We can set α = 0.05.
3. Calculate the expected frequencies:
- The total number of participants is 120, and if all prototypes are equally preferred, each
prototype would have an expected frequency of 30 (120/4).
4. Compute the test statistic: Use StatCrunch to input the observed values [18, 51, 27, 21],
compare them with the expected values [30, 30, 30, 30], and calculate the Chi-Square value.
5. Make a decision: Compare the Chi-Square value to the critical value for 3 degrees of
freedom at α = 0.05 and determine whether to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis.
Question 2
To address the research study about reaction times for pilots taking antihistamines, we use
the following steps:
- Construct a contingency table based on the given data:
| | Taking Medication | Not Taking Medication |
| Adequate | 13 | 11 |
| Inadequate |9 | 11 |
- Use a Chi-Square test for independence to determine if the reaction time is independent of
taking antihistamines.
- Results: Calculate the Chi-Square statistic using the contingency table and note the degrees
of freedom.
- Problems: The small sample size limits the statistical power of the test, and the results may
not generalize well. A larger sample size would improve the reliability of the findings.
Question 3
Three cases where non-parametric analysis should be used instead of parametric analysis
are:
1. When the data does not follow a normal distribution.
2. When the sample size is too small to reliably estimate parameters.
3. When the data is ordinal, ranked, or categorical, rather than continuous and interval-
scaled.
Question 4
Disadvantages of using non-parametric analysis versus parametric analysis include:
1. Non-parametric tests are generally less powerful than parametric tests when the
assumptions of parametric tests are met.
2. Non-parametric tests may provide less precise estimates of population parameters.
3. Results from non-parametric tests are often harder to interpret as they do not estimate
the effect size in the same way as parametric tests.
Question 5
Matching the non-parametric versions of analysis with their parametric equivalents:
1. Mann-Whitney U -> Independent sample t-test
2. Kruskal-Wallis -> One-Way ANOVA
3. Wilcoxon Signed Rank -> Paired sample t-test
4. Friedman -> Repeated measures ANOVA
5. Spearman’s Rank -> Pearson correlation