A Psychologist Is Interested in Whether Hypnosis Affects Brain Dominance

question 102

Multiple Choice

A psychologist is interested in whether hypnosis affects brain dominance. Twelve college students from the freshmen class are randomly sampled for an experiment. The experiment has two conditions which are given on different days. In condition 1, the students are hypnotized and then given a test which measures the relative dominance of the right and left hemispheres. The higher the score, the more dominant is the right hemisphere. In condition 2, the same students are given the test again, only this time they are not hypnotized but are in their normal state of consciousness. The following scores are obtained. The null hypothesis appropriate for a nondirectional alternative hypothesis is _________.

• A) hypnosis does not increase right brain dominance
• B) hypnosis does not affect brain dominance
• C) hypnosis does not increase left brain dominance
• D) hypnosis affects brain dominance

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Definitions:

Friedman Test

A method involving non-parametric statistics aimed at uncovering treatment discrepancies across various attempts.

Sign Test

A nonparametric test used to determine whether the median of a population differs from a specified value by examining the signs of differences rather than their magnitude.

Populations Differ

A concept in statistics and research indicating that two or more populations are not identical in terms of one or more characteristics.

Degrees of Freedom

The number of independent pieces of information available to estimate another piece of information, often related to sample size in statistical analyses.