Question

Ms. Gray studied her students' history test scores and sleeping habits. She found that students who slept less tended to earn lower scores on the test. What conclusion should she make?

a) There is no correlation between test score and the amount of sleep.

b) There is a correlation between test score and the amount of sleep. There is probably also causation. This is because there is a decrease in a student's test score with a decrease in the amount of sleep.

c) There is a correlation between test score and the amount of sleep. There may or may not be causation. Further studies would have to be done to determine this.

d) None of the above

Answer 1

Ms. Gray should conclude that there is a correlation between test scores and sleep, but further studies are needed to establish causation due to the possibility of lurking variables.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct conclusion Ms. Gray should make based on her observations is c) There is a correlation between test score and the amount of sleep. There may or may not be causation. Further studies would have to be done to determine this. Ms. Gray observed that students who slept less tended to earn lower scores on the test, indicating a negative correlation, where one value decreases as the other increases. However, while correlation indicates a relationship between two variables, it does not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship. There could be other factors, known as lurking variables, influencing the relationship. Lurking variables could include study habits, stress levels, or even nutritional intake, among others. To determine causation, a controlled experiment or more comprehensive studies would need to isolate the variables and account for potential confounding factors.