A health psychologist wants to determine whether children who eat breakfast perf

Question

A health psychologist wants to determine whether children who eat breakfast perform better on school work than children who do not have a breakfast meal. She gathers two groups for her comparison, 15 children who have a normal breakfast meal and another 15 who do not have breakfast, on a day when they have a math test scheduled in the mid-morning at school. The psychologist plans to use scores on the math test as an indicator of school performance. Respond to the prompts below. (1 point each)

A) What statistical test would be appropriate in this case? Explain the rationale for your answer.

B) Identify the independent variable in this study. Identify the dependent variable in this study.

C) Describe a potentially confounding variable and explain how that might affect the conclusions from the study.

D) State the null and alternative hypotheses in words.

Explanation / Answer

a) A comparison of means t-test would be applicable here. We want to compare the mean scores of the two groups and see if they are equal or not.

b) independent variable - The children

Dependent Variable - Test Score on Maths

C) Confounding variable - People who actually study for the test. If people who study for the test are the hard working ones and do not get time to eat breakfast, it may lead to wrong conclusions.

D) Null hypothesis - The mean scores of two groups are equal.

Alternate hpothesis - Mean score of group having breakfast is higher than that of group who skipped breakfast.

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