The Morris water maze is used to examine spatial learning in animals. Mice, who are good swimmers, are placed in a large pool of water and must learn to find a clear platform located just under the water surface. The platform is their only escape from the pool. If they do not find the platform, they have to continue swimming until we take them out.
When mice perform in a Morris Water maze they sometimes become confused on a particular trial and take a long time to get to the platform. On other trials they are just lucky and go straight to it. How can we eliminate or reduce the influence of these unusual times?
A) compare medians instead of means
B) use trimmed means
C) toss out scores that we don't like
D) both a and b

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Comparing medians or using trimmed means is a more robust measure that is less influenced by extreme values or outliers. Tossing out scores is not recommended as it can introduce bias and is not statistically sound. Therefore, the best choice is to use both comparing medians and trimmed means to reduce the influence of unusual times.

The Morris Water Maze Is Used to Examine Spatial Learning