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Week 5 Discussion

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Statistics and Advertising

In Week 4, you explored t tests, which allowed you to compare a sample to a population
or compare two groups to one another. You analyzed a study about how visualization
techniques impact how long it takes people with insomnia to fall asleep. But what if you
want to compare the effectiveness of more than two types of insomnia treatments?
Analysis of variance, or ANOVA, allows you to do just thatcompare multiple groups
(called levels) based on an independent variable (called a factor). So in a study about
insomnia treatments, you might compare a group that receives muscle relaxation training
to a second group that receives visualization training and, finally, to a third group that
receives deep breathing training. An ANOVA will allow you to compare all of the levels
at once to see if, in general, the type of treatment influences how long it takes to fall
sleep. Post hoc analyses can provide even more information by identifying which specific
groups differ from one another, showing you which specific treatments are more effective
than others.
In this Discussion you will use your knowledge of one-way ANOVAs to evaluate a
research study scenario and make suggestions about what could be done to gain even
better information.
Scenario:
The Alpha Shoe Companys advertising department wants to publish an ad about
a new basketball shoe it claims will enable athletes to jump higher. Alpha
attributes this increase in lift to a new sole design, core, and tread.
An independent testing institute conducted a study on the shoe, called the Pluto,
to determine if it really does result in higher jumping heights, in comparison to
four other shoes. Five groups of four professional basketball players tested the
shoes. The mean jumping height for each shoe was reported as follows:
1. Pluto: 29.3 inches
2. Omega II: 29.0 inches
3. Beta Super: 28.7 inches
4. Delta: 28.4 inches
5. Gamma: 28.0 inches
Alpha did not report any inferential statistics in their ad, but it stated, As you can
clearly see, our Pluto shoes offer an obvious vertical lift advantage in comparison
to other leading brands. Even a fraction of an inch can make all the difference in a
big game! Being the good consumer of research that you now are, what
questions would you have after reading Alpha Shoe Company's ad?
Post by Day 3 your answers to the following questions:

What questions about the statistics do you have after reading the ad?
What was done correctly with regards to how the researchers analyzed the data?
What criticisms do you have of the company's statistical approach?
How would you use ANOVA to follow up on the research institutes preliminary results
presented here?
Be sure to support each of your answers with evidence and citations from the Learning
Resources.
Respond by Day 6 to at least one of your peers posts in one of the following ways:

Support or challenge key points of the explanations provided.

Support or challenge key points of a follow-up study recommendation and

provide additional information to consider.
References
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Week 5 Learning Resources

This page contains the Learning Resources for this week. Be sure to scroll down the page
to see all of this week's assigned Learning Resources. To access select media resources,
please use the media player below.

Required Resources
Readings

Heiman, G. (2015). Behavioral sciences STAT 2 (2nd ed). Stamford, CT:

Cengage.

Chapter 11, Hypothesis Testing Using the One-Way Analysis of

Variance (pp.184-199)

Chapter 11 Review Card p. (11.4)

Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013a). Computing ANOVAs and post hoc

testing [Video file]. Retrieved from Laureate MyMedia player. (PSYC
3002/PUBH 5003)
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 11 minutes.
This video demonstrates how to conduct an ANOVA test and a post hoc test in
SPSS.
Accessible player

StatsLectures.com. (2010). One-way ANOVA [Video file]. Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51QZa7b0Ozk

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 7 minutes.

This video steps through a one-way ANOVA test. This video includes calculations
of degrees of freedom and test statistics.

Optional Resources

StatisticsLectures.com. (2012b). Post-hoc test for one-way ANOVA [Video file].

Retrieved from http://statisticslectures.com/topics/posthoconewayanova/#video
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 6 minutes.
This video steps through Tukey and Scheffe post hoc tests by hand.

Please proceed to the Discussion.