Question

Dr. B. is studying the effect of feedback on the perceived ability to complete a task. She randomly selects 30 NSC students to participate in her study. She randomly selects half of the sample to participate in the “commend hard work” group and the other half of the sample to participate in the “commend intelligence” group. She meets with each participant individually and gives them a series of increasingly difficult algebra problems to work out. After completion of the easier problems (the first few), the participants in the “commend hard work” group are told that their hard work is admirable and that such tenacity will help them complete the more difficult algebra problems. After completion of the easier problems (the first few), the participants in the “commend intelligence” group are told that their intelligence is admirable and that such high levels of intelligence will help them complete the more difficult algebra problems. She measures the number of difficult problems correct for each group and wants to see if there is a significant difference. Which type of statistical test could Dr. B. use to analyze the data resulting from this study?

Group of answer choices

only a two factor ANOVA only a one-way ANOVA both a t-test for independent samples or a one-way ANOVA only a t-test for independent samples

Answer 1

Here we have two groups

1) Commend hard work

2) Commend Intelligence

Both groups have 15 students each.

Our variable of interest is the number of difficult problems correct for each group.

We can use One-way Anova here.

But as Anova is a generalisation of t-test with n > 2 and here we have 2 samples (i.e. 2 groups) we can use independent samples t-test as well.

So Answer is

both a t-test for independent samples or a one-way ANOVA