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Scenario III
Scenario III is based on fabricated data inspired by the following study:
Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M. & Quinn, D. M. (1999). Stereotype threat and women's math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 4-28.
Effect of Stereotype Threat on Math Study
The myth that men outperform women in math is widely believed by many individuals. The purpose of the study described in Scenario III was to determine if a sample of women whose math abilities equaled a sample of men would fall victim to this threat. To that end, 28 adult men and 28 adult women were administered an easy math test or a difficult math test. The performance of men and women on both the easy and hard test was quantified. A two-factor ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for test, with participants scoring significantly better on the easy test. The analyses also revealed a main effect for sex, with men performing significantly better than women. The interaction between test difficulty and sex was also statistically significant. Further inspection of the data revealed that although men and women did not differ on the easy math test, women performed significantly less well than men on the difficult math test. Given that the screening criteria for participants including earning a grade of B or better in college calculus, and scoring in at least the 85 th percentile on the math subsection of the ACT, the current study indicates that women do succumb to math stereotype threat but only when the math challenge is great. The data are presented in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Although women and men performed equally on an easy version of the math test, women performed significantly worse than men on the difficult version.
-(Scenario III) According to Scenario III, there was a main effect for sex, with men performing significantly better than women. To arrive at this conclusion, the researchers would have had to examine:
A) interaction means.
B) cell means.
C) marginal means.
D) factorial means.

Question

Use the following to answer questions
Scenario III
Scenario III is based on fabricated data inspired by the following study:
Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M. & Quinn, D. M. (1999). Stereotype threat and women's math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 4-28.
Effect of Stereotype Threat on Math Study
The myth that men outperform women in math is widely believed by many individuals. The purpose of the study described in Scenario III was to determine if a sample of women whose math abilities equaled a sample of men would fall victim to this threat. To that end, 28 adult men and 28 adult women were administered an easy math test or a difficult math test. The performance of men and women on both the easy and hard test was quantified. A two-factor ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for test, with participants scoring significantly better on the easy test. The analyses also revealed a main effect for sex, with men performing significantly better than women. The interaction between test difficulty and sex was also statistically significant. Further inspection of the data revealed that although men and women did not differ on the easy math test, women performed significantly less well than men on the difficult math test. Given that the screening criteria for participants including earning a grade of B or better in college calculus, and scoring in at least the 85 th percentile on the math subsection of the ACT, the current study indicates that women do succumb to math stereotype threat but only when the math challenge is great. The data are presented in Figure 2.
  Figure 2. Although women and men performed equally on an easy version of the math test, women performed significantly worse than men on the difficult version.
-(Scenario III) According to Scenario III, there was a main effect for sex, with men performing significantly better than women. To arrive at this conclusion, the researchers would have had to examine:
A) interaction means. 
B) cell means. 
C) marginal means. 
D) factorial means.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The main effect for sex indicates a difference in performance between men and women overall, regardless of the difficulty level of the test. Marginal means would have been used to calculate this main effect by averaging the performance of men and women across the two levels of test difficulty. Interaction means and factorial means would have been used to examine the interaction effect between test difficulty and sex, which is not the focus of the question. Cell means would have been used to calculate the mean performance of each specific combination of test difficulty and sex.

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