An Elementary School Principal Wants to Know the Mean Number

question 594

Multiple Choice

An elementary school principal wants to know the mean number of children in families whose
Children attend this school. He checks all the families using the school's registration records, and we
Create a 95% confidence interval based on a t-distribution. This procedure was not appropriate.
Why?

• A) The entire population of families was gathered so there is no reason to do inference.
• B) The population standard deviation is known, so he should have used a z-model.
• C) The recent record-setting family with twelve children is probably an outlier.
• D) At a given school families are not randomly selected.
• E) Since these families are from only one school, the family sizes may be skewed.

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Definitions:

Variable Ratio

A reinforcement schedule in which a response is rewarded after a random number of responses, leading to a high resistance to extinction.

Fixed Interval

A schedule of reinforcement where the first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed, leading to a pattern of responses.

Variable Interval

Variable interval refers to a type of reinforcement schedule in operant conditioning where a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed, leading to a steady and resistant response rate.

Variable Ratio

A schedule of reinforcement where a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses, making it highly resistant to extinction.