Some questions in Part A require that you
access data from Statistics for People Who (Think
They) Hate Statistics. This data is available on the student website under
the Student Test Resources link.

1. 
By hand, compute the
mean, median, and mode for the following set of 40 reading scores:

SUMMARY

31	32	43	42
24	34	25	44
23	43	24	36
25	41	23	28
14	21	24	17
25	23	44	21
13	26	23	32
12	26	14	42
14	31	52	12
23	42	32	34

2. 
Compute the means for the
following set of scores saved as Ch. 2 Data Set 3 using IBM^®SPSS^® software. Print out a copy of the output.

Hospital size (number of beds)	Infection rate (per 1,000 admissions)
234	1.7
214	2.4
165	3.1
436	5.6
432	4.9
342	5.3
276	5.6
187	1.2
512	3.3
553	4.1

3. 
You are the manager of a
fast food store. Part of your job is to report which special is selling best to
the boss at the end of each day. Use your knowledge of descriptive statistics
and write one paragraph to let the boss know what happened today. Use the
following data. Do not use IBM^®SPSS^®software to compute the statistics needed; rather, do
it by hand. Include a copy of your work.

Special number	Sold	Cost
Huge Burger	20	$2.95
Baby Burger	18	$1.49
Chicken Littles	25	$3.50
Porker Burger	19	$2.95
Yummy Burger	17	$1.99
Coney Dog	20	$1.99
Total specials sold	119

4. 
Suppose you are working
with a data set that has some different (much larger or much smaller than the
rest of the data) scores. What measure of central tendency would you use and
why?

5. 
For the following set of
scores, compute the range, the unbiased and the biased standard deviations, and
the variance. Do the exercise by hand.

31, 42, 35, 55, 54, 34, 25, 44, 35

Why is the unbiased
estimate greater than the biased estimate?

6. 
Use IBM^®SPSS^®software to compute all the
descriptive statistics for the following set of three test scores over the
course of a semester. Which test had the highest average score? Which test had
the smallest amount of variability?

Test 1	Test 2	Test 3
50	50	49
48	49	47
51	51	51
46	46	55
49	48	55
48	53	45
49	49	47
49	52	45
50	48	46
50	55	53

7. 
This practice problem uses
the data contained in the file named Ch. 3 Data Set 3. There are two variables
in this data set.

Variable	Definition
Height	Height in inches
Weight	Weight in pounds

Using IBM^®SPSS^®software, compute all of the
measures of variability you can for height and weight.

8. 
Review the following
frequency distribution. Create a histogram either by hand or by using some
other application such as a Microsoft^®Excel^®document.

Class interval	Frequency
90–100	12
80–89	14
70–79	20
60–69	24
50–59	28
40–49	29
30–39	21
20–29	15
10–19	17
0–9	12

9. 
A third-grade teacher is
looking to improve her students’ level of engagement during group discussions
and instruction. She keeps track of each of the 15 third graders’ number of
responses every day for 1 week. This information is available in Ch. 4 Data Set
2. Use IBM^®SPSS^®software to create a bar chart (one bar for each day).

10. 
Identify whether these
distributions are negatively skewed, positively skewed, or not skewed at all,
and why.

a. 
This talented group of
athletes scored very high on the vertical jump task.

b. 
On this incredibly crummy
test, everyone received the same score.

c. 
On the most difficult
spelling test of the year, the third graders wept as the scores were delivered.

11. 
For each of the following,
indicate whether you would use a pie, line, or bar chart, and why.

a. 
The proportion of freshmen,
sophomores, juniors, and seniors in a particular university

b. 
Change in GPA over four
semesters

c. 
Number of applicants for
four different jobs

d. 
Reaction time to different
stimuli

e. 
Number of scores in each of
10 categories

From Salkind (2011). Copyright © 2012 SAGE. All Rights
Reserved. Adapted with permission.

Part B

Complete the questions below. Be specific and provide
examples when relevant.

Cite any sources consistent with APA guidelines.

Question	Answer
Salkind (2011) describes statistics as a “set of tools” (p. 18). How do behavioral scientists use those tools?
How would you use descriptive statistics to report the effectiveness of a baseball team? How would you use inferential statistics to report the effectiveness of a baseball team? In this example, what is the sample and what is the population?
What does a measure of central tendency tell us about a data set? Identify the three common measures of central tendency used in descriptive statistics and give an example of each. How do you calculate them?
What is variability in a data set? Identify three measures of variability used in descriptive statistics, explain how to calculate each, and give an example of each.