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After calculating a correlation coefficient, you discover that the value is not significant at the 5% level. What can be done to

produce a significant difference?
A. Nothing, the value will remain the same regardless of sample size.
B. increase the sample size
C. decrease the sample size

User KatyB
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

To potentially achieve a significant correlation coefficient, increasing the sample size is the best approach as it increases the statistical power of the test, providing a more precise estimate of the population correlation coefficient.

Step-by-step explanation:

After calculating a correlation coefficient, you discover that the value is not significant at the 5% level; a common question that arises is what can be done to produce a significant difference. The possible actions include:

  • Nothing, the value will remain the same regardless of sample size.
  • Increase the sample size: A larger sample size can result in a more precise estimate of the population correlation coefficient and potentially lead to a significant result if the true correlation is not zero.
  • Decrease the sample size: This is not typically a viable strategy for achieving significance and may actually decrease the precision of the estimate.

It is important to note that if the p-value is not less than the significance level (a = 0.05), the decision will be not to reject the null hypothesis. The hypothesis test evaluates whether the value of the population correlation coefficient p is close to zero or significantly different from zero using the sample correlation coefficient r and the sample size n. Therefore, if seeking significance, increasing the sample size is the recommended action to increase the statistical power of the test.

User Netro
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