The Local School Board in Middletown Recently Asked That the Differential

question 39

Multiple Choice

The local school board in Middletown recently asked that the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) be administered to all fifth grade students.They are particularly interested in the scores from the spatial relations and abstract reasoning sections.Based on the research into gender differences in cognitive abilities,you should expect that

• A) the male students will score higher than the female students on both these two sections of the test.
• B) the male students will score higher than the female students on the spatial relations section of the test.
• C) the female students will score higher than the male students on both these two sections of the test.
• D) the female students will score higher than the male students on the spatial relations section of the test.

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Definitions:

Null Hypothesis

The default hypothesis that there is no effect or no difference, tested against an alternative hypothesis in statistical analysis.

Random Samples

Selections made in such a way that each member of a population has an equal chance of being included, ensuring the sample's representativeness of the whole.

F-test

A statistical test used to compare the variances of two samples to determine if they come from populations with equal variances.

Population Variances

A measure of the variability or spread of a population's data points, representing the average of the squared deviations from the mean.