A researcher selects a sample of 24 participants and has them complete a survey on dating preferences.In this example,what are the degrees of freedom for sample variance and what does this figure represent?
A)df = 24;it represents the number of scores that are free to vary in a sample.
B)df = 23;it represents the number of scores that are free to vary in a sample.
C)df = 23;dividing SS by df makes the sample variance a biased estimator of the population variance.
D)df = 24;dividing SS by df makes the sample variance an unbiased estimator of the population variance.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The degrees of freedom for sample variance is calculated as df = n - 1 (where n is the sample size). Therefore, in this example, df = 24 - 1 = 23. The degrees of freedom represent the number of scores in the sample that are free to vary, or the number of scores that can be chosen independently. In other words, once we have calculated the mean of the sample, we can only calculate the variance of the remaining 23 scores, since the mean of all the scores is already known.

A Researcher Selects a Sample of 24 Participants and Has