Deck 14: Interpreting Quantitative Findings and Evaluating Clinical Significance

Question 1

If the bulk of scores on a test occurred at the upper end of the distribution, the distribution could be described as which of the following?

A) Normal
B) Bimodal
C) Positively skewed
D) Negatively skewed

Answer 1

Negatively skewed

Question 2

The mean is usually the statistic reported for which type or types of measure? Select all that apply.

A) Nominal measures
B) Ordinal measures
C) Interval measures
D) Ratio measures

Answer 2

Interval measures
Ratio measures

Question 3

The mode is an index of which of the following?

A) Bivariate relationships
B) Central tendency
C) Risk
D) Variability

Answer 3

Central tendency

Question 4

The measure of central tendency that is most stable is which of the following?

A) Mode
B) Median
C) Mean
D) They are all equivalent

Question 5

The measure of variability that takes into account all score values is which of the following?

A) Range
B) Median
C) Mean
D) Standard deviation

Question 6

A group of 100 students took a test. The mean was 85, the standard deviation was 5, and the scores were normally distributed. About how many of the 100 scores fell between 80 and 90?

A) 34
B) 68
C) 95
D) Impossible to determine

Question 7

One of the characteristics of a normal distribution is which of the following?

A) It is bimodal
B) 95% of the values are within two standard deviations above and below the mean
C) The values are positively skewed
D) The mean is 100

Question 8

Which of the following signifies the strongest relationship?

A) r = -.64
B) M = .99
C) t = 1.44
D) r = .57

Question 9

The symbol Xrepresents which of the following?

A) An effect size
B) A mean
C) Total sample size
D) An individual score

Question 10

A widely used index of risk used among practitioners of evidence-based practice is which of the following?

A) The t statistic
B) The F ratio
C) The odds ratio
D) Pearson's r

Question 11

The use of inferential statistics permits a researcher to do which of the following?

A) Draw conclusions about a population based on information gathered from a sample
B) Describe information obtained from empirical observation
C) Interpret descriptive statistics
D) Estimate risk and relative risk

Question 12

The SEM gets smaller as which of the following occurs?

A) The mean gets smaller
B) The sample size gets smaller
C) The mean gets larger
D) The sample size gets larger

Question 13

In the following statement, what would the number 50 be called: 95% CI for the mean of 60 = 50 to 70?

A) The probability value
B) The point estimate
C) The lower confidence limit
D) The effect size

Question 14

In the following statement, what would the number 60 be called: 95% CI for the mean of 60 = 50 to 70?

A) The probability value
B) The point estimate
C) The lower confidence limit
D) The effect size

Question 15

A 95% CI, in parameter estimation, corresponds, in a hypothesis testing framework, to which of the following?

A) An alpha of .95
B) An alpha of .05
C) A beta of .95
D) A beta of .05

Question 16

The steps involved in using test statistics include which of the following? Select all that apply.

A) Determining the appropriate statistic to be used
B) Selecting a level of significance
C) Calculating the degrees of freedom
D) Calculating the theoretical distribution for the test statistic

Question 17

For which of the following levels of significance is the risk of making a Type I error lowest?

A) .10
B) .05
C) .01
D) .001

Question 18

If the power for an analysis was .50, which of the following would be true?

A) There would be a 50% risk of a Type II error
B) The odds ratio would be equal to .50
C) The 95% CI would have a range of 50 points
D) There would be a 50% risk of a Type I error

Question 19

If a researcher calculated a t-statistic to be -2.5 and the theoretical t value (for df = 60 and alpha = .05) is 2.0, the researcher would do which of the following?

A) Conclude that a Type II error had been made
B) Accept the null hypothesis
C) Reject the null hypothesis
D) Use a different level of significance

Question 20

A researcher compared the mean anxiety levels of patients in a soothing music group, a massage group, or a control group. The statistical procedure that was likely used to test group differences is which of the following?

A) t-test
B) ANOVA
C) MANOVA
D) Chi-squared test

Question 21

If a researcher wanted to assess whether an experimental group differed significantly from a control group in terms of proportion with a post-discharge readmission, the test statistic would be which of the following?

A) t
B) r
C) F
D) X2

Question 22

When both the independent and outcome variables are measured on a ratio scale, the appropriate bivariate test statistic is which of the following?

A) t
B) r
C) F
D) X2

Question 23

Which of the following is an effect size index? Select all that apply.

A) t
B) r
C) d
D) OR

Question 24

A researcher wanted to predict whether nursing home residents would or would not experience a fall based on 10 characteristics (e.g., age, presence of absence of dementia, etc.). The analysis would involve which of the following?

A) Multiple regression
B) ANCOVA
C) Logistic regression
D) MANOVA

Question 25

A researcher wanted to compare male and female oncology patients in terms of satisfaction with nursing care, controlling for age and severity of illness. The analysis would involve which of the following?

A) Multiple regression
B) ANCOVA
C) Logistic regression
D) MANCOVA

Question 26

Suppose a researcher found a multiple correlation of .40 (R = .40) between candy intake, age, income on the one hand and dental caries on the other. The amount of variability that could be accounted for in dental caries by candy intake, age, and income is which of the following?

A) 4%
B) 16%
C) 40%
D) Cannot be determined

Question 27

In analysis of covariance, a covariate is generally which of the following?

A) An independent variable
B) The outcome variable
C) Either an independent or dependent variable
D) A confounding variable

Question 28

Statistically significant means which of the following?

A) The study findings are important.
B) The study results are meaningful.
C) It is unlikelihood that the results are due to chance.
D) The hypothesis has been proven.

Question 29

A frequency distribution for height would most likely be represented by which of the following?

A) A symmetric distribution
B) A positive skew
C) A negative skew
D) A normal distribution

Question 30

The d statistic approximates effect size by measuring the difference between the experimental group mean and the control group mean, normed to the standard deviation. If the effect size is moderate, which of the following values of d would one expect to calculate?

A) d = 0
B) d = .20
C) d = .50
D) d = .80

Question 31

When testing multiple independent variables, the proportion of variability in the outcome variable that is explained by the predictors is measured as which of the following?

A) Paired t-test
B) The product-moment correlation coefficient
C) R
D) R2

Question 32

The shape of a distribution with three values of high frequency is which of the following?

A) Unimodal
B) Bimodal
C) Multimodal
D) A bell-shaped curve

Question 33

To test mean differences among related groups over time with at least three different points of data collection, you would use which of the following?

A) Paired t-test
B) Chi-squared test
C) Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
D) Repeated measures ANOVA

Question 34

Testing the significance of difference in two group means is done with which of the following?

A) Independent groups t-test
B) Paired t-test
C) Dependent groups t-test
D) Chi-squared test

Question 35

To test the significance of differences between the means of two or more groups on two or more outcome variables simultaneously, without controlling for covariates, one would use which of the following?

A) Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
B) Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
C) Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA)
D) Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA)

Question 36

A researcher would like to test the significance of differences in the means of three age groups of baseball pitchers for the outcome variables of speed and accuracy. She realizes that she will need to control for the potential confounding variable of base skill of the individual subjects in all three groups. Which type of analysis should she use?

A) Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
B) Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
C) Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA)
D) Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA)

Question 37

In an experiment testing a smoking cessation technique with two groups of smokers, one control and one experimental, what index would measure the proportion of individuals in the control group who may have avoided the undesirable outcome of continued smoking had they been chosen for the experimental group?

A) Absolute risk
B) Absolute risk reduction
C) Odds ratio
D) Risk ratio

Question 38

In an analysis of variance (ANOVA), which of the following contrasts variation between groups with variation within groups?

A) F ratio
B) Post hoc tests
C) Chi-squared statistic
D) Pearson's r