Solved

A Student Has to Decide Whether He Wants to Major

question 36

Essay

A student has to decide whether he wants to major in electrical engineering or computer science. To find out which job pays more, he interviews eight alumni in each profession and asks them what their starting salary was. The electrical engineering alumni had a mean starting salary of $54,000 and a standard deviation of $8,000. The computer science alumni had a mean starting salary of $62,000 and a standard deviation of $10,000. It is reasonable to assume equal population variances, and assume starting salaries are normally distributed.
A) Specify the competing hypotheses to determine if electrical engineering and computer science majors mean starting salaries are equal.
B) Calculate the value of the test statistic and find the critical value at a 5% significance level.
C) Make a conclusion at the 5% significance level.

Definitions:

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which an association is formed between some normal response to a stimulus and a new stimulus, after which the new stimulus elicits the response.

Conditioned Stimulus

A previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with an unconditioned stimulus, elicits a conditioned response.

Motor Stimulus

A physical or psychological factor that induces a motor response or activity in an organism.

Imprinting

A kind of swift and irreversible learning that occurs at a particular life stage, usually early in life, leading to a long-lasting behavioral response to a specific individual or object.