Deck 3: Surveys and Sampling

Question 1

A leading question is a question which subtly prompts the respondent to answer in a particular way. Leading questions are generally undesirable as they result in false or slanted information. Which of the following survey questions is leading?

A) Given the prevalence of identity theft, are you reluctant to provide credit card information online?
B) Are you confident that credit card information you provide online is secure?
C) Are you okay with providing credit card information online?
D) How do you feel about shopping online?
E) Are you satisfied with shopping online?

Answer 1

Given the prevalence of identity theft, are you reluctant to provide credit card information online?

Question 2

In developing and conducting a survey, what is the main purpose of the pilot test phase?

A) To point out flaws in the survey
B) To generate whole data set to analyze
C) To determine the cost of the survey
D) To make sure that the respondents like the questions
E) To make sure that the manager likes the questions

Answer 2

To point out flaws in the survey

Question 3

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below.
A consumer research group is interested in how older drivers view hybrid cars. Specifically, they wish to assess the percentage of drivers in Canada 50 years of age or older who intend to purchase a hybrid in the next two years. Suppose that they selected a systematic sample from a list of CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) members. Based on this sample, they estimated the percentage to be 17%.
The sampling frame for this study is

A) all drivers in Canada 50 years of age or older.
B) 17%.
C) the list of CARP members.
D) how older drivers view hybrid cars.
E) 83%.

Answer 3

the list of CARP members.

Question 4

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below:
The option to buy extended warranties is commonplace with most electronics purchases. Does the type of purchase affect a consumer's willingness to pay extra for an extended warranty? Data for 420 consumers who purchased digital cameras and laptop computers from a leading electronics retailer are summarized in the table.
Two of the questions asked in the survey of customers are shown below.
• Given the prevalence of identity theft, are you reluctant to provide credit card information online?
• Are you confident that any information you provide online is secure?
a. Are these questions valid (appropriately worded)? Explain.
b. Which question is more neutral? Explain.

Question 5

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below:
The option to buy extended warranties is commonplace with most electronics purchases. Does the type of purchase affect a consumer's willingness to pay extra for an extended warranty? Data for 420 consumers who purchased digital cameras and laptop computers from a leading electronics retailer are summarized in the table.
In the ASW study described above,
a. Define the target population.
b. Define the parameter.
c. What is the sampling frame?
d. How might the results be biased?

Question 6

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below:
The option to buy extended warranties is commonplace with most electronics purchases. Does the type of purchase affect a consumer's willingness to pay extra for an extended warranty? Data for 420 consumers who purchased digital cameras and laptop computers from a leading electronics retailer are summarized in the table.
Two of the questions asked in the survey of employees are shown below.
• Since exercise is so important to good health, would you be willing to participate in organized walks during lunch hour?
• Would you attend a "low fat cooking" demonstration?
a. Are these questions valid (appropriately worded)? Explain.
b. Which question is more neutral? Explain.

Question 7

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below.
ASW, a regional shoe chain, has recently launched an online store. Sales via the Internet have been sluggish compared to their brick and mortar stores, and management suspects that its regular customers have concerns regarding the security of online transactions. To determine if this is the case, they plan to survey a sample of their regular customers.
Suppose that ASW's regular customers belong to a rewards program and have a customer rewards ID number. ASW decides to randomly select 100 numbers. This sampling method is called

A) simple random.
B) stratified.
C) cluster.
D) systematic.
E) convenience.

Question 8

Which of the following is the parameter of interest in the ASW study?

A) All regular ASW customers
B) % of regular ASW customers who have concerns about online security
C) ASW customers who belong to the rewards program
D) % of ASW customers who belong to the rewards program that don't shop online
E) All customer rewards ID numbers

Question 9

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below:
The option to buy extended warranties is commonplace with most electronics purchases. Does the type of purchase affect a consumer's willingness to pay extra for an extended warranty? Data for 420 consumers who purchased digital cameras and laptop computers from a leading electronics retailer are summarized in the table.
Suppose the administration decides to do the following. At a Starbucks located on campus, every tenth person who enters on a Monday morning is selected to be surveyed. Explain why this may be biased.

Question 10

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below.
ASW, a regional shoe chain, has recently launched an online store. Sales via the Internet have been sluggish compared to their brick and mortar stores, and management suspects that its regular customers have concerns regarding the security of online transactions. To determine if this is the case, they plan to survey a sample of their regular customers.
Suppose that ASW has an alphabetized list of regular customers who belong to their rewards program. After randomly selecting a customer on the list, every 25th customer from that point on is chosen to be in the sample. This sampling method is called

A) simple random.
B) stratified.
C) cluster.
D) systematic.
E) convenience.

Question 11

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below.
KiPLEX manufactures plastic pipes. KiPLEX piping is a less expensive alternative to copper piping. BPLEX's marketing department wants to determine plumbers' satisfaction with KiPLEX piping. To do this, they plan to survey plumbers who purchase KiPLEX pipes on regular basis.
Suppose that there are five categories of plumbers (individuals, small local businesses, home renovation companies, condo renovation companies, and high rise construction companies). The marketing specialists decide to randomly select 20 individuals from each category. This sampling method is called

A) simple random.
B) stratified.
C) cluster.
D) systematic.
E) convenience.

Question 12

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below.
KiPLEX manufactures plastic pipes. KiPLEX piping is a less expensive alternative to copper piping. BPLEX's marketing department wants to determine plumbers' satisfaction with KiPLEX piping. To do this, they plan to survey plumbers who purchase KiPLEX pipes on regular basis.
Office of the KiPLEX marketing department is located next to a large construction site. The marketing department employees ask everyone who enters or leaves the construction site what they think about their product. This sampling method is called

A) simple random.
B) stratified.
C) cluster.
D) systematic.
E) convenience.

Question 13

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below:
The option to buy extended warranties is commonplace with most electronics purchases. Does the type of purchase affect a consumer's willingness to pay extra for an extended warranty? Data for 420 consumers who purchased digital cameras and laptop computers from a leading electronics retailer are summarized in the table.
A consumer research group is interested in how older drivers view hybrid cars. Specifically, they wish to assess the percentage of drivers in Canada, 50 years of age or older who intend to purchase a hybrid in the next two years. Suppose that a list of CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) members is used as the sampling frame. Based on a systematic sample, they estimated the percentage to be 17%.
a. Define the target population.
b. Define the parameter.
c. What is the statistic?
d. How might the results be biased?

Question 14

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below.
A consumer research group is interested in how older drivers view hybrid cars. Specifically, they wish to assess the percentage of drivers in Canada 50 years of age or older who intend to purchase a hybrid in the next two years. Suppose that they selected a systematic sample from a list of CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) members. Based on this sample, they estimated the percentage to be 17%.
Which of the following statements about this study is false?

A) Most likely, 17% of those sampled intend to purchase a hybrid in the next two years.
B) Systematic random sampling is a valid sampling technique.
C) 17% is a statistic.
D) 17% is a parameter.
E) The value of the population parameter is unknown.

Question 15

The entire group of regular ASW customers is known as the ________ of the study.

A) parameter
B) statistic
C) target population
D) sampling frame
E) sample

Question 16

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below:
The option to buy extended warranties is commonplace with most electronics purchases. Does the type of purchase affect a consumer's willingness to pay extra for an extended warranty? Data for 420 consumers who purchased digital cameras and laptop computers from a leading electronics retailer are summarized in the table.
ASW, a regional shoe chain, has recently launched an online store. Sales via the Internet have been sluggish compared to their brick and mortar stores, and management suspects that its regular customers have concerns regarding the security of online transactions. To determine if this is the case, they plan to survey a random sample of their regular customers. Under consideration are several plans for selecting the sample. Name the sampling strategy for each.
a. Regular customers belong to a rewards program and have a customer rewards ID number. Randomly select 100 numbers.
b. ASW has stores in five different cities in Canada. Randomly select one of the stores and survey all regular customers that belong to its rewards program.
c. ASW has an alphabetized list of regular customers who belong to their rewards program. After randomly selecting a customer on the list, every 25th customer from that point on is chosen to be in the sample.
d. Customers who belong to the rewards program are grouped into four age categories (under 21, 21 to 35, 36 to 50, and over 50). Randomly select 10 regular customers in each age category.

Question 17

In conducting a personal interview, the interviewer is allowed to arbitrarily decide who should be interviewed. Which of the following statements is true?

A) This is a biased sample.
B) This is a voluntary response sample.
C) This is a simple random sample.
D) This is an unbiased sample
E) This is a representative sample.

Question 18

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below:
The option to buy extended warranties is commonplace with most electronics purchases. Does the type of purchase affect a consumer's willingness to pay extra for an extended warranty? Data for 420 consumers who purchased digital cameras and laptop computers from a leading electronics retailer are summarized in the table.
One member of the management team at ASW suggests that their survey could be conducted online. Customers logging on to the online store would be asked to take a few minutes to complete the survey and would be offered a coupon as incentive to participate. Explain how this approach might be biased.

Question 19

One member of the management team at ASW suggests that their survey could be conducted online. Customers logging on to the online store would be asked to take a few minutes to complete the survey and would be offered a coupon as incentive to participate. Which of the following statements is true?

A) This is a stratified random sample.
B) This would result in an unbiased random sample.
C) This would result in a nonresponse bias.
D) This is a systematic sample.
E) This would result a voluntary response bias.

Question 20

Consider the following to answer the question(s) below:
The option to buy extended warranties is commonplace with most electronics purchases. Does the type of purchase affect a consumer's willingness to pay extra for an extended warranty? Data for 420 consumers who purchased digital cameras and laptop computers from a leading electronics retailer are summarized in the table.
The administration of a large university is interested in learning about the types of wellness programs that would interest its employees. To do this, they plan to survey a random sample of employees. Under consideration are several plans for selecting the sample. Name the sampling strategy for each.
a. There are five categories of employees (administration, faculty, professional staff, clerical, and maintenance). Randomly select ten individuals from each category.
b. Each employee has an ID number. Randomly select 50 numbers.
c. Randomly select a school within the university (e.g., Business School) and survey all of the individuals (administration, faculty, professional staff, clerical and maintenance) who work in that school.
d. The HR Department has an alphabetized list of newly hired employees (hired within the last five years). After starting the process by randomly selecting an employee from the list, then every 5th name is chosen to be included in the sample.

Question 21

An attribute of a population is called

A) a statistic.
B) a parameter.
C) a census.
D) a real number.
E) an integer.

Question 22

An Internet service provider has the capability of tracking the time that each of its customers spends connected to the Internet during a month. These data would constitute

A) a population.
B) a convenience sample.
C) a simple random sample.
D) a cluster sample.
E) a multistage sample.

Question 23

In order to estimate a parameter (such as the mean) of a population you would need which of the following?

A) sample
B) population
C) census
D) cluster
E) pilot test

Question 24

An attribute of a sample is called a

A) parameter.
B) statistic.
C) real number.
D) integer.
E) census.

Question 25

The National Capital Commission recently performed a quality check on the length of fence posts being installed in a new park area. To do this, each of the 400 posts in inventory was numbered. Twenty numbers from 1 and 400 were randomly selected. These 20 poles were the ones selected for the study. This type of sampling is called

A) simple random.
B) convenience.
C) cluster.
D) stratified.
E) systematic.

Question 26

When a tax auditor randomly selects 20 accounts from all the accounts of a business to check for accuracy, she has selected

A) a sample from a population.
B) a census.
C) a convenience sample.
D) a biased sample.
E) a stratified sample.

Question 27

A professor hands out survey forms to the students in her own classes. If the population is all students attending the university, this is an example of

A) a convenience sample.
B) a random sample.
C) a stratified sample.
D) a census.
E) an unbiased sample.

Question 28

A simple random sample experiment is repeated four times choosing the same sample size each time. Which of the following statements can be made about the different outcomes?

A) The samples will usually be different from one another.
B) The samples will always be the same.
C) Measurements calculated from the samples will always be different.
D) The samples will always be different from one another.
E) Measurements calculated from the samples will always be the same.