Rolando Realizes That Whenever He Studies for at Least Two

question 18

Multiple Choice

Rolando realizes that whenever he studies for at least two hours immediately before a physics exam, he gets an A on the exam, but when he does not study immediately before an exam, he gets no higher than a C on the exam. He concludes that the time spent studying immediately before the exams is responsible for his improved grades. Rolando is

• A) definitely confusing correlation with causation.
• B) very probably correct in his conclusion that the time spent studying immediately before his exams is a reason for his improved grades.
• C) likely correct that there is causation, but the causation is more likely running in the opposite direction in that the improved exam grades forced him to study immediately before each test.
• D) probably misguided in that there is no apparent correlation or causation in this situation.

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Definitions:

Standard Deviation

A measure of the dispersion or variation in a set of values, indicating how much the values differ from the mean.

Bottling Machine

A mechanical device or production line used for filling bottles with liquids, such as beverages, automatically or semi-automatically.

Normally Distributed

Describes a distribution of data that follows a bell curve, where most occurrences take place near the mean.

Standard Deviation

A measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values, indicating how spread out the values are from the mean.