Question

A research team finds a strong negative correlation between hours of sleep and short-term memory errors that is also statistically significant. Can you conclude that increases in sleep cause short-term memory errors to decrease? Select best answer.

Answer 1

While a strong negative correlation between hours of sleep and short-term memory errors has been found, it cannot be concluded that more sleep directly causes a decrease in memory errors, as correlation does not imply causation.

Step-by-step explanation:

A research team has found a strong negative correlation between hours of sleep and short-term memory errors that is also statistically significant.

However, this does not necessarily mean that increases in sleep cause short-term memory errors to decrease. Correlation does not imply causation;

it simply indicates that as one variable increases, the other decreases. There could be other variables at play that affect this relationship, and without a controlled experimental design, it is not possible to determine causal effects.

For example, a third factor like stress could both decrease sleep and increase short-term memory errors.

To establish causation, a controlled experiment where variables are manipulated and other factors are controlled would need to be conducted.

Until then, we can only say that there is a relationship between sleep duration and memory errors, not that one causes the other.