BEYOND THE NUMBERS 1.15 | LEARNING OUTCOMES 4 TO 7 Confounding Confusion Name: S

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BEYOND THE NUMBERS 1.15 | LEARNING OUTCOMES 4 TO 7 Confounding Confusion Name: Section Number: To be graded, aill assignments must be completed and submitted on the original book page. assignments Background When it is possible aren't really experiments at all, but are observational studies that compare two groups of data that to achieve, randomization is critical to experimentation. In some cases, experiments have In still other cases, randomization is simply not possible for ethical or practical reasons. In all of these situations, the potential severity of confounding must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis EXHIBIT 1 already been collected. In other cases, new experimental data are compared to existing data. Brains and Beats Do children who study music perform better in school? One of the studies supporting this claim was conducted by University of California professor Gordon Shaw and reported in a 1999 edition of the Deseret News. In this study, students in the 95th Street school, one of Los Angeles' 100 poorest-performing institutions, received both piano lessons and automated mathematics training. Their ability to understand and analyze ratios and fractions was then compared to a 1997 study involving students from under-achieving schools in Orange County who were given automated and traditional mathematics instruction (but no musical training). The News reported that "[t]he Los Angeles students scored 2% higher than their Orange County counterparts in their ability to understand and analyze rations and fractions-concepts usually not introduced until sixth grade." Questions How do you know that the subjects in this study could not have been randomized to the treatments that were compared? 1. 2. Aside from randomization issues, list two other possible sources of confounding that might challenge the conclusion that exposure to music caused the L.A. students to do better. 47 BEYOND THE NUMBERS 1.15

Explanation / Answer

1) the subjects in the study are not randomised because in the first sample the subjects are from one of the 100 poorest performing schools but in the second sample it is from under achieving schools. this is biased sampling . it is alreadyknown that from which category both samples are collected therefore it is not a random sampling.

2) the other two confounding factors are country from which the subject is taken and the year from which the data is taken.

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