Sea Star Wasting Disease Kills Sea Stars (I

question 18

Multiple Choice

Sea star wasting disease kills sea stars (i.e., starfish) and has no known cause. It is currently a major problem on the West Coast and many sea stars are infected and dying. Consider a study in which a researcher is interested in whether susceptibility varies between the species. He travels to a site known to show wasting and counts the numbers of healthy and wasting individuals from three different species. His data is shown in the histogram below.
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-To determine whether there appears to be a statistically significant relationship between species and prevalence of wasting disease he would conduct a χ² analysis. When performing this analysis, which of the values below is closest to the contribution to the χ² statistic from the "Healthy : Pycnopodia" category?

• A) 0.47
• B) 0.82
• C) 1.59
• D) 2.14

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Definitions:

Sunk Cost Effect

The decision-making bias where people continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made, regardless of the current costs outweighing the benefits.

Availability Heuristic

A quick mental leap utilizing examples that spontaneously arise in an individual's thoughts during the evaluation of a specific subject, concept, technique, or decision-making process.

Confirmation Bias

The predisposition to explore, decode, favor, and reminisce facts in a fashion that corroborates one's preconceived notions or speculations.

Certain Outcome

An outcome that is guaranteed or known to happen without any doubt.