Ch. 1 - Introduction to Statistics

Triola - Elementary Statistics 14th Edition

Triola14th EditionElementary StatisticsISBN: 9780137366446Not the one you use?Change textbook

Triola 14th Edition

Ch. 1 - Introduction to Statistics

Problem 1.CQQ.8

Chapter 1, Problem 1.CQQ.8

Physicians’ Health Study In the Physicians’ Health Study, some of the subjects were treated with aspirin while others were given a placebo. For the subjects in this experiment, what is blinding?

Verified step by step guidance

Blinding is a technique used in experiments to prevent bias by ensuring that participants do not know which treatment they are receiving.

In the context of the Physicians’ Health Study, blinding would mean that the subjects do not know whether they are receiving aspirin or a placebo.

This is important because if subjects knew which treatment they were receiving, it could influence their behavior or perception of the treatment's effectiveness.

Blinding can be single, double, or triple. In single blinding, only the subjects are unaware of the treatment. In double blinding, both the subjects and the researchers administering the treatments do not know who is receiving which treatment.

The purpose of blinding is to ensure that the results of the study are due to the treatment itself and not influenced by participants' or researchers' expectations or biases.

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

This video solution was recommended by our tutors as helpful for the problem above.

Video duration:

Was this helpful?

Key Concepts

Here are the essential concepts you must grasp in order to answer the question correctly.

Blinding

Blinding is a technique used in experiments to prevent bias by ensuring that participants and/or researchers do not know which treatment the participants are receiving. In the context of the Physicians’ Health Study, blinding would mean that the subjects do not know whether they are receiving aspirin or a placebo, which helps to ensure that their responses are not influenced by their expectations.

Placebo

A placebo is a substance with no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs. In the Physicians’ Health Study, the placebo serves as a comparison to the aspirin treatment, allowing researchers to determine the actual effect of aspirin by comparing outcomes between the placebo group and the treatment group.

Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)

An RCT is a study design that randomly assigns participants into an experimental group or a control group to ensure that any differences observed are due to the treatment itself and not other factors. In the Physicians’ Health Study, random assignment to aspirin or placebo groups helps to eliminate selection bias and confounding variables, providing more reliable results.

Recommended video:

Guided course

07:09

Intro to Random Variables & Probability Distributions

Related Practice

Textbook Question

In Exercises 9–12, the given expressions are designed to yield results expressed in a form of scientific notation. For example, the calculator-displayed result of 1.23E5 can be expressed as 123,000, and the result of 1.23E-4 can be expressed as 0.000123. Perform the indicated operation and express the result as an ordinary number that is not in scientific notation.

(0.2)^12

282

views

Textbook Question

Survey Which of the following best describes the level of measurement of the numbers 1, 2, 3, . . . , 410 described in Exercise 1: nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio?

(8)^12

Birth Weights For 100 randomly selected births from Bellevue Hospital Center, the birth weights are added and then divided by 100. The result is 3240 g. Is the value of 3240 g a statistic or a parameter?

294

views

Textbook Question

Standard Deviation One way to get a very rough approximation of the value of a standard deviation of sample data is to find the range, then divide it by 4. The range is the difference between the highest sample value and the lowest sample value. In using this approach, what value is obtained from the sample data listed in Exercise 1 “IQ Scores”?

368

views

Textbook Question

Birth Weights Refer to the sample described in Exercise 6. Because Bellevue Hospital Center agreed to provide the 100 birth weights, does the sample of birth weights constitute a voluntary response sample?

253

views