Escape From the T-Room!

The following discussion will be a break-out exercise where each of you will use your knowledge of the different t-tests learned in this unit, and a little fun, to escape from the t-room where you are held hostage. Just as statistical knowledge provides the power to unlock the stories hidden within the data, your statistical knowledge will enable you to unlock the answers in the t-room and escape!

Using the Excel spreadsheet provided below and the exercise questions written underneath, you will need to do the following:

Step 1: Open the Unit 5 Discussion Excel spreadsheet to Sheet 1. You will first need to click ENABLE CONTENT at the top, where you see a security warning. Then, type your first name in the GREEN CELL and press Enter. The number that appears in the box next to the green cell will be the exercise number (from the exercises below) that you will write up in your original discussion response using the WORD TEMPLATE.

Step 2: The data provided for all three exercises is found on Sheet 2 of the Excel spreadsheet. You will need to work out all three questions and enter the type of test, test statistic, p-value, and decision in the yellow boxes on Sheet 1 to begin to figure out how to escape the t-room. As you type in your answers, the spreadsheet will let you know if your answers are correct or not, so you can revise them if you need to. A demonstration of how to do each type of t-test in Excel is provided in the Unit 5 Discussion video in the LiveBinder.

Step 3: Once you successfully answer all of the questions on Sheet 1, you will find a message that leads you to the next escape clue.

Step 4: Complete the word template provided for your particular exercise number (including the escape secret code at the bottom) and copy/paste into the response box to complete the discussion. If you cannot “escape,” post your discussion response to your particular exercise number generated from the Excel spreadsheet, and let us know where you got stuck to give you some assistance.

GOOD LUCK!

Unit 5 Discussion Excel spreadsheet

Exercise 1: Suppose a team of therapists decided to look at the effects of a yoga and meditation program on the anxiety levels of their patients. A random sample of patients was taken, and anxiety levels were measured (see before column on Sheet 2 of the Excel spreadsheet provided). Subsequently, the patients underwent a 6-month yoga and meditation program. Anxiety levels were then measured again once the patients completed the program (see after column on Sheet 2 of the Excel spreadsheet provided). Is there evidence that the yoga and meditation program improved anxiety levels? (Assume anxiety scores are on a 1–100 scale with 1 being lower anxiety and 100 being higher anxiety.)

Exercise 2: According to a valid, reliable anxiety scale, assume that pet owners, in general, show a mean anxiety score of 52. Assume anxiety scores are on a 1–100 scale, with 1 being lower anxiety and 100 being higher anxiety. Pet owners at a particular psychiatric treatment center were being treated for various obsessive-compulsive disorders. Therapists wanted to know if pet owners with these disorders suffered from a higher level of anxiety than the typical level. Using a random sample of these pet owners from the treatment center and their scores in the anxiety_pets column on Sheet 2 of the Excel spreadsheet provided, is there evidence that pet owners with these obsessive-compulsive disorders have a higher level of anxiety than the typical level?

Exercise 3: Anxiety levels of pet owners and non-pet owners were obtained from a large psychiatric treatment facility. Random samples from the pet owners and non-pet owners at the facility provided the results shown in the anxiety pets and anxiety nopets columns on Sheet 2 of the Excel spreadsheet provided. Based on these samples, is there evidence of a significant difference in mean anxiety levels between pet owners and non-pet owners?

For all of these exercises, assume a significance level of α = 0.05.