Modules 7.1 and 7.2
7.1
Consider the following news headline,
“Cigarette Smokers Make Lower College Grades than Nonsmokers” The
news article goes on to say that researchers at a university collected
information on rate of cigarette smoking (total number of cigarettes smoked in
a one month period) and the college student’s current GPA for completed college
courses. They found that those with higher levels of cigarette use had lower
GPAs, and vice versa. What can you rightfully conclude from this? Why? Be specific
about what this kind of information may indicate and mean.
7.2
A pharmaceutical company conducts a study to evaluate the
relationship between length of time taking drug X and size of tumor. They
enlist 2400 patients with the same type of benign tumor who have been on drug X
for varying lengths of time (measured in days). They find that the longer the
patient is on the drug, the smaller the patient’s tumor size (measured in
volume). In fact, they report the results as r(2398) = -.21, with
significance of p< .0001. What is your initial perception of this
information? What are other ways, beyond looking at the p-value alone,
you could use to try to interpret what this outcome of r(2398) = -.21
tells us about the relationship between length of time taking drug X and the
size of the tumor? Support your responses.
