Question

The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is an insect that has accidentally been released in Eastern U.S. forests from Asia. Since it has no natural enemies in the U.S., it is spreading rapidly. A forester studying the abundance of the insect in southern Vermont wants to determine if it has spread that far north. He randomly selects 200 hemlock trees in a large Vermont forest and finds that 46 of them show signs of damage from this insect. To which of the following groups of trees would it be appropriate to generalize the results of the study?

A. All hemlock trees in southern Vermont
B. All trees in southern Vermont
C. The 200 hemlock trees that were randomly selected
D. All hemlock trees in the U.S.
E. All hemlock trees in the forest from which the 200 trees were selected

Answer 1

Answer: E. All hemlock trees in the forest from which the 200 trees were selected

Explanation:

When we generalize data, it needs to be about a sample that is as specific as possible so that the generalization has a better chance of holding true.

The best group of trees to generalize the data on is the trees in the forest where the hemlock trees were found. This is a specific population and has a higher chance of being right because the trees used in research could not have been the only ones suffering.