A researcher collects data on shyness for two groups: 1) high school students who have their own cell phone; and 2) high school students who do NOT have a cell phone. Shyness is measured by the Shyness Inventory (an interval scaled variable). For group one (students who have their own cell phone), the following values are measured from the Shyness Inventory: 89, 95, 72, 68, 91, 86. For group two (students who do NOT have their own cell phone), the following values are measured from the Shyness Inventory: 56, 78, 61, 43, 80, 50. Conduct the appropriate statistical procedure at alpha of .05 to determine if there is a difference, on average, of the shyness of students who have versus do not have a cell phone. What is the p value?
A) .015
B) .05
C) .478
D) .544

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The appropriate statistical procedure for comparing the means of two independent samples (like the two groups of high school students in this scenario) is the independent samples t-test. Given the data provided, conducting this test (assuming normal distribution and equal variances) would yield a p-value that indicates the probability of observing the data if there were no true difference in the population means. A p-value of .015 suggests that there is a statistically significant difference in shyness scores between students who have their own cell phone and those who do not, at the alpha level of .05.

A Researcher Collects Data on Shyness for Two Groups: 1)