PSYC204

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL STATISTICS

EXTRA PRACTICE REVIEW PROBLEMS

1.

In a political survey of 500 people, a researcher obtained the geographic locations and
opinions shown. What is the probability of being from NB or voting YES or both?

LOCATION
NB
BC
NS

VOTE
YES
160
40
25

NO
40
160
75

2.

School A has mean grade of 80 on an entrance exam with s = 5. School B has a mean
grade of 70 with s = 10. The scores in each school are normally distributed. What
percentage of students in school B do better than the average student in school A?

3.

Fingerprints vary on many dimensions, including the number of ridges. The distribution
for number of ridges is normal with a mean of 165 and standard deviation of 10.
Approximately what proportion of the population would be expected to have a ridge count
greater than 191?

4.

An experimenter finds that a sample of 100 workers have a mean income of $30,000 with a
standard deviation of 4,000. He is 68% sure that the mean income of the population is
between:

5.

It is known from experience that 20% of all people who get a certain mail-order catalogue
will order something. If 4 people get the catalogue, find the probability that 2 will order
something.

6.
For

X1 = 1

Y1 = 4

X2 = 2

Y2 = -2

( X2)+( Y)2=

7.

The probability is .70 that a rare tropical disease will be treated correctly. If it is treated
correctly, the probability is .90 that the patient will be cured. If it is not treated correctly,
the probability is only .40 that the patient will be cured. What is the probability that a
patient having this disease will be cured?

8.

Five students write an exam. Four of them report their deviation scores to be 1, 3, -1 and 5.
The fifth wont talk about the exam. Without knowing the mean, can you calculate the
fifth deviation score and the variance of the raw (not deviation) scores? If so, perform the
calculation. If not, use the formula for variance to explain.

9.

You are registered for a course where studying has no effect on grades, which are assigned
completely at random. If the probability of studying is .1 and the probability of passing
with at least a B is .6, whats the probability that you study or pass with at least a B?

10.

An instrument measures anxiety in students on a scale of -50 to +50. This class has a mean
of 8 and a standard deviation of 2. Your deviation score is 5. During summer for reasons
that are inexplicable, the scores of everyone in class were multiplied by -3. What would be
the new class mean and variance? What would be your new deviation score? What would
be your old and new standard scores?

11.

Calculate the mean and variance for X, where X is number of weekend study hours.
X

9 11
68
35

10
10
20

12.

A deck consists of ten cards numbered 1 through 10. In a game, you pull one card at a
time, replacing the card after each draw. You win if the third 4 appears on the fifth draw.
That is, you must get two 4s in the first four draws and then get another 4. Whats the
probability of winning?

13.

A regression line predicting exam grade from the time it takes to write the exam has an
equation Y = 1 X + 5. What, if anything, do you know about the correlation between
exam grade and writing time? What do you not know?
For the same problem, if you are given s2y = 3, and s2y.x = 1, does this improve your ability
to calculate r? Show the calculation or explain.

14.

During four consecutive years of operation, a companys gross income from sales was 1, 2,
2 and 3 million dollars. For those four years, the correlation between sales income and
number of years in operation is:

15.

A statistician who was about to buy a dog conducted a study on the relationship between
the size of dogs measured in pounds and scores on a canine halitosis scale where high
scores indicate bad breath. Ten neighborhood dogs were included in the survey and the
data are tabled below:
a) Calculate the correlation between size and halitosis.
b) Calculate the regression equation to predict halitosis from size. Table dependent and
independent variables, estimates and residuals.
c) Calculate the standard error of estimation. How much of the variability in halitosis can
be accounted for by the size of the dog.
d) The statistician decided to purchase a dog with an expected adult weight of 80 lbs.
Estimate the halitosis score for this dog and discuss the limitations of this estimate.
Size
5
15
30
20
40
35
45
30
40
10

16.

Halitosis
40
65
85
30
100
60
70
45
85
10

The following probability table is from the Digest of Educational Statistics

HIGHEST
DEGREE

Bachelors
Masters
Doctorate
Other

STATUS
Engineer
Scientist
.343
.289
.098
.146
.017
.091
.013
.003
.471

.529

What is the probability that a person chosen at random from this group:
a)
b)
c)
d)

has a doctorate?
is a scientist and has a doctorate?
is an engineer or has a doctorate?
has (only) a bachelors given that the person is a scientist?

.632
.244
.108
.016

17.

The Nielsen Report shows the mean weekly TV viewing time for children of ages 2 - 5
years as being 27 hours. Assume this viewing time is normally distributed with a standard
deviation of 6 hours. Then
a) 95% of such children watch between ______ and ______ hours of TV per week.
b) ______% of such children watch less then 30 hours of TV per week.

18.

In the following table are annual starting salaries of 8 randomly selected accounting
graduates and 10 graduates in liberal arts. Data are given in thousands of dollars rounded
to the nearest hundred.

24.9
23.4

Accounting
20.4
23.3
25.3
26.8

20.9
22.6

20.0
18.7

16.8
23.8

Liberal Arts
21.3
20.6
18.3
17.7

21.0
18.0

a) Determine whether the data provide evidence of a difference between accounting

graduates and liberal arts graduates on annual starting salaries.
b) Perform a test of homogeneity of variance. Write a short summary of the study stating
the purpose, variables, used, test statistics and conclusions.
19.

A golf magazine conducted a study to compare the driving distances for two brands of golf
balls. Ten professional golfers drove one ball of each brand and recorded their distances in
yards. Is there evidence of a difference?
Pr
o
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Brand A Brand B
283
268
287
249
290
297
257
235
316
317

287
272
305
240
293
282
257
241
324
310

20.

A statistical process control expert wants to know whether the diameters of bolts produced
by a machine are normally distributed. He takes a random sample of 265 bolts and finds
that the mean is 10.00 mm and s = .10 mm. The frequency distribution is as follows:

Diameter
under 9.8
9.8 under 9.9
9.9 under 10.0
10 under 10.1
10.1 under 10.2
10.2 and over

Observed frequency
8
42
112
97
3
3

Can the expert conclude that the bolts are not normally distributed?
21.

A professor wants to compare the effectiveness of two texts in teaching statistics. The
choice of text left to the students. The information below represents the student faculty
(Arts or Science), text (Old or New) and final grade for a sample of 20 students.
Faculty
A
A
S
A
S
A
S
A
A
A

Text
O
O
O
O
O
N
N
N
N
N

Grade
75
71
65
71
69
68
29
66
35
61

Faculty
A
S
A
S
A
A
A
S
A
S

Text
O
O
O
O
O
N
n
N
N
N

Grade
65
82
76
88
67
67
65
62
24
60

Was the choice of text related to the students faculty?

Did the students differ in final grades according to faculty ?
Did the students differ in final grades according to which text they used?
Write a short paragraph summarizing your findings.

22.

A survey was sent to the TAs in a Psychology Department asking how much time they spent
on TA activities in an average week. The responses were as follows, rounded to the nearest
hour (some TAs do not teach):
6 hrs.
12 hrs.
13 hrs.

13 hrs.
14 hrs.
12 hrs.

2 hrs.
4 hrs.
13 hrs.

14 hrs.
6 hrs..
16 hrs.

7 hrs.
2 hrs.
1 hr.

a) Calculate the mean, median and mode of this ungrouped data.

b) Calculate the range, mean deviation and standard deviation of the ungrouped data.
c) Calculate the deviation score and the standard score for a student who spends 10 hours
on TA activities.
d) The Department assumes that TAs spend no more than 10 hours per week on TA
activities. Test the hypothesis and make a brief report.

23.

In a recent evaluation of an advanced statistics text, students were asked to rate the text on a
scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent). Scales such as this are often treated as interval data. The
distribution of scores is tabled below:
Rating
9 - 10
7-8
56
34
12

f
42
31
16
7
4

a) From the grouped data, calculate the mean, median, variance and standard deviation.
b) What is the rating for a student whose standard score is about -2.5?
c) If we changed the rating scale so that it went from 0 - 9 instead of 1 - 10, that is we
subtracted 1 from each rating, how would this change the values for the statistics in (a)? If
we changed the rating scale by multiplying each rating by two, how would this change the
values for the statistics in (a)?

24.

One of my students made the claim that a course can be good even when the instructor is
not. I think that the two are related to some extent. Here is a set of data on class averages
from a course evaluation, based on a 0 - 100 scale.
Rate course (low=poor)
82
66
64
70
80
54
92
78
74
80

Rate instructor (low=poor)

82
76
68
90
48
78
78
70
80
72

a) Calculate the correlation (coefficient) for this set of data and test its significance.
Comment on what this reveals about the relationship between course and instructor ratings.
25.

Prepare a frequency distribution with a class interval of 5. Show also the cumulative
frequency distribution and cumulative percentage frequencies.
The following are
hypothetical scores made by students on a multiple choice examination:
87
85
82
78
77
60
60
60
60
60

76
75
74
74
74
59
59
59
59
59

73
72
71
71
70
58
58
58
58
57

70
69
69
68
68
57
57
57
56
56

67
67
67
66
66
56
55
55
55
54

66
65
65
65
64
54
54
53
53
53

64
64
63
63
63
52
52
51
51
50

63
62
62
62
62
50
49
49
48
37

61
61
61
61
61
46
46
46
45
44

60
60
60
60
60
43
42
38
35
33

26.

The following is a frequency distribution of reaction time measurements:

Class Interval

70-79

60-69

50-59

40-49

30-39

20-29

10-19

1
20

Obtain

27.

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)

the exact limits of the class intervals

the midpoints of the intervals
the cumulative frequencies
the arithmetic mean
the variance

A class has a mean grade of 65 with a variance of 4. You obtain a grade which corresponds
to a standard score of -1. What is your grade?
A class has a mean grade of 70 with a standard deviation of 10. Your grade corresponds to
a deviation score of 2. What is your grade?

28.

The following are simple questions of probability:

a) In rolling a single die what is the probability of obtaining either a 4 or a 6?
b) In drawing a card from a well shuffled deck, what is the probability of obtaining either
king or a club?
c) In rolling two dice what is the probability of obtaining either a 7 or an 11?
d) In tossing a coin what is the probability of obtaining HHHHT in that order in five tosses?
e) Given a well shuffled deck of 52 cards what is the probability in drawing four cards, of
drawing an ace, king, queen and jack of the same suit in that order?

29.

The following questions relate to the binomial distribution:

a)
b)
c)
d)

In tossing 5 coins what is the probability of obtaining 4 or more heads?

In tossing 6 coins what is the probability of obtaining 4 or more heads?
In tossing 10 coins what is the probability of obtaining no heads?
In rolling three dice what is the probability of obtaining no sixes?

30.

Write down the expected distribution of heads in tossing six coins 64 times. What is the
mean and standard deviation of this distribution?

31.

Assume that the distribution of Intelligence Quotients is normally distributed with a mean of
100 and a standard deviation of 15 What proportion of people might be expected to have
IQs (a) above 115, (b) below 130, (c) between 90 and 110, (d) between 110 and 120, (e)
either above 130 or below 120?

32.

A variable is normally distributed with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 20.
a) What percentage of the values is larger than 80?
b) If 100 is added to every value, state the mean, median and standard deviation of this new
variable.
c) If every value is multiplied by -2, state the mean and standard deviation of the new
variable.
d) If random samples of size N = 4 were drawn from the original population, what would be
the mean and standard deviation of the distribution of sample means?

33.

The following are data for scores for a sample of males and a sample of females on the same
test:
Males
50

s
10
N
100
Test to see whether males and females differ.

Females
60
15
200

34.

Use the normal distribution to approximate the probability of obtaining 15 or more heads on
tossing 50 unbiased coins.

35.

The following are paired observation on number of mistakes (X) and number of practice
trials (Y).
X
1
2
3
4
5
Y
2
1
4
3
5
Test to see if there is a significant relationship between # of mistakes and # of trials.

36.

Consider a small population of numbers from 1 to 5. Write down the theoretical sampling
distribution of means of samples of size 3. Note that there are 10 equally probable samples.

37.

Error scores on a learning task for nine rats who have taken alcohol are 13, 12, 11, 11, 11, 9,
8, 8, and 7. The scores for three rats who have not taken alcohol are 8, 5, and 5. Higher
scores reflect less learning. Perform a test of significance of the difference between the
means of the two groups, to determine if alcohol impairs learning.

38.

Given the following observations representing the number of errors made by 5 students
before and after a conference
Before
After

12
8

13
10

15
5

16
9

19
8

5
2

8
4

B = 15.0
A = 8.0

Did the number of errors decrease?

39.

Below are the scores for 5 students on 2 class tests

Test 1
Test 2

1
8

2
5

4
1

Test to see if a significant relationship between the scores on the 2 tests exists. Comment.

40.

A class of 100 students obtains a mean test score of 75 with a variance of 25. Can you show
that they performed significantly better than the (population) average of 65?

41.

Four coins are tossed 64 times resulting in the following distribution of heads. Can you
show that the coins are biased?

42.

Heads
4
3
2
1
0

f
0
20
28
16
0

An experiment was done in which subjects were asked to indicate their preference for the
aromas of two brands of coffee. When the judgments were classified according to the sex of
the subject and the brand of coffee, the following table was obtained:
Coffee
Sex
Brand A
Brand B
Male
9
21
Female
29
21
Do the sexes differ in their choice of coffee brand?

43.

A test has a standard deviation of 15 when a group of twenty women is tested and has a
standard deviation of 10 when a group of twenty men is tested. How would you go about
finding out if men are less variable than women?

44.

Is there a significant association between study time and grade?

Study Time

Pass

More than Average

15

Average Less than Average

12
3

30

Grade
Fail

5
20

8
20

17
20

30

How many degrees of freedom are associated with the test statistic?

45.

The following table shows the dominant hand and eye for each of 20 subjects
Eye
Hand

Right
Left
Ambidextrous

Right
7
1
2
10

Left
1
7
2
10

8
8
4
20

Is there a significant association between the two dominances?

46.

A 20-point midterm test results in grades which are normally distributed with a mean of 13 and
standard deviation of 3. The professor has decided that 15% of the class will get As, 30% will get
Bs, 30% will get Cs, 15% will get Ds and 10% Fs. What would be the minimum and maximum
scores required for each of these grades?

47.

You want to call a friend on the phone. You remember the first 3 digits of the phone number but
have no recollection of the last 4 digits. Whats the probability of getting the right number just by
guessing? What would the probability be if you knew that each of the 7 numbers occurred just
once?

48.

A student is taking a multiple choice exam with 5 possible answers for each question. If the
student guesses (completely at random) on 32 questions, what is the probability that shell get 18
or more of them correct?

49.

A researcher investigates the relationship between smoking and illness. Tabled are the number of
cigarettes smoked per day and days absent from work over the past year.
a) Find the correlation between cigarettes smoked and days absent.
b) Eliminate the data for the last 3 subjects and recalculate r. What effect have you found and how
would you explain it?
c) In each case, what percent of the variance have you explained? Of what use is this value?
Cigarettes Smoked
0
0
0
10
13
20
27
35
35
44
53
60

50.

Days Absent
1
3
8
10
2
14
2
6
12
16
10
16

The new psychology course evaluation, in a class of 150 students, asks each student to report how
many hours a week they study. According to the responses, students average 15 hours a week with
a standard deviation of 5 hours. Construct the 95% confidence interval for the population mean.