Question

Dr. DeVries is interested in measuring how practice in problem solving affects this ability. The population of interest is high school seniors, and the sample consists of students who attend an exclusive college preparatory school. Half of the sample receives practice in solving particular types of problems, while the other half does not. Both groups take the same problem-solving test. Which of the following might best explain why Dr. DeVries may not be able to generalize his findings?a.He is not taking into account how the scores on the test might deviate from one anotherb.His data may be positively skewed.c.He should have conducted his experiment in a lab instead of a natural setting.d.His sample is not representative of the population.e.He did not receive approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) before beginning his research.

Answer 1

Dr. DeVries may not be able to generalize his findings because (b) His data may be positively skewed.

Step-by-step explanation:

Due to the less high scores, the median generally tends to be lower than the mean which makes the mean to shift right is termed as positively skewed distribution.

Due to the less low scores, the median generally tends to be greater than the mean which makes the mean to shift left is termed as negatively skewed distribution.

So, this type of error affects the outcome data in an unpredicted manner. Finally, it leads to - Dr. DeVries may not be able to generalize his findings.