Question 1

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: Greg must be into all that New Age stuff since he wears his hair in a ponytail.

Accepted Answer

Most people who wear their hair in a ponytail are New Agers.

Question 2

Juanita has taken six courses at Valley Community College, and she has a grade average of B so far. All the courses she has taken have been in sociology and psychology. She's thinking of enrolling in another course next term, and she expects to make at least a B in whatever she takes. Would you assess Juanita's argument as stronger, weaker, or neither if you knew that she had made a B in each of her previous courses and not just that she has a B average?

Accepted Answer

Stronger. She could have a B average even though she had made Cs in some of her previous courses, and such a possibility weakens the argument.

Question 3

A sample is random if

Accepted Answer

A random sample is defined by every member of the population having an equal chance of being selected. This ensures that the sample represents the population as closely as possible without bias.

Question 4

Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving tray she has seen advertised. The tray is promised to keep hot dishes hot and cold dishes cold without electricity. Lin tries it out by placing a pan of hot beans on it. They stay hot throughout dinner. "It works," she tells her husband.
What type of argument or pattern of reasoning is employed?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving...

Question 5

Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving tray she has seen advertised. The tray is promised to keep hot dishes hot and cold dishes cold without electricity. Lin tries it out by placing a pan of hot beans on it. They stay hot throughout dinner. "It works," she tells her husband.
Do you think there could be a better test of the hot plate? Explain your response in a sentence or two.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving...

Question 6

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: Most people with old cars have financial problems, so Anne and Dennis must be struggling financially.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a...

Question 7

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: People who go to Burning Man are not like you and me. Why just look at how odd Greg is!

Accepted Answer

The answer of Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a...

Question 8

Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving tray she has seen advertised. The tray is promised to keep hot dishes hot and cold dishes cold without electricity. Lin tries it out by placing a pan of hot beans on it. They stay hot throughout dinner. "It works," she tells her husband.
What kind of causal claim is this?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving...

Question 9

Juanita has taken six courses at Valley Community College, and she has a grade average of B so far. All the courses she has taken have been in sociology and psychology. She's thinking of enrolling in another course next term, and she expects to make at least a B in whatever she takes. Would Juanita's argument be stronger, weaker, or neither if we knew that the new course will be in psychology?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Juanita has taken six courses at Valley...

Question 10

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: Dennis plays trumpet in the marching band at Yale, so he probably doesn't have a girlfriend.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a...

Question 11

With the same confidence level, a generalization from a larger sample will have

Accepted Answer

With a larger sample size, the statistical confidence in the findings increases, leading to a smaller error margin. This means the results are considered more precise.

Question 12

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: A vast number of people who care about sustainability have a vegetable garden, so Scott probably does, too.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a...

Question 13

Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving tray she has seen advertised. The tray is promised to keep hot dishes hot and cold dishes cold without electricity. Lin tries it out by placing a pan of hot beans on it. They stay hot throughout dinner. "It works," she tells her husband.
Invent at least one plausible alternative explanation of the effect.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving...

Question 14

Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving tray she has seen advertised. The tray is promised to keep hot dishes hot and cold dishes cold without electricity. Lin tries it out by placing a pan of hot beans on it. They stay hot throughout dinner. "It works," she tells her husband.
What causal claim (if any) is stated or implied in Lin's conclusion?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving...

Question 15

When we generalize from a sample, we draw a conclusion

Accepted Answer

Generalizing from a sample involves making inferences or drawing conclusions about a larger population based on the characteristics or data observed in a smaller sample of that population.

Question 16

Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving tray she has seen advertised. The tray is promised to keep hot dishes hot and cold dishes cold without electricity. Lin tries it out by placing a pan of hot beans on it. They stay hot throughout dinner. "It works," she tells her husband.
Is Lin using good causal reasoning?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Lin sends away for a hot-cold serving...

Question 17

In generalizing from a sample, in order to achieve an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points at a confidence level of about 95 percent, what's the smallest random sample we can get away with, regardless of the size of the population?

Accepted Answer

A sample size of 1,000 is generally sufficient to achieve a margin of error of ±3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, regardless of the population size.

Question 18

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: We're going to the home of our Italian friends, Marco and Claudia, for dinner. I suspect it'll be really good.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a...

Question 19

Juanita has taken six courses at Valley Community College, and she has a grade average of B so far. All the courses she has taken have been in sociology and psychology. She's thinking of enrolling in another course next term, and she expects to make at least a B in whatever she takes. Suppose that when she took the previous courses, Juanita had done all her studying alone because she didn't know any of the other students at Valley but that now she knows several good students and plans to study with them when she takes her next course. Would her argument be stronger or weaker?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Juanita has taken six courses at Valley...

Question 20

Juanita has taken six courses at Valley Community College, and she has a grade average of B so far. All the courses she has taken have been in sociology and psychology. She's thinking of enrolling in another course next term, and she expects to make at least a B in whatever she takes. If we don't know yet what subject she will take, would her argument be stronger, weaker, or neither if her previous six courses had been in four different subjects rather than two?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Juanita has taken six courses at Valley...

Quiz 11: Performance Evaluation Revisited: a Balanced Approach

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: Greg must be into all that New Age stuff since he wears his hair in a ponytail.

A sample is random if

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: Most people with old cars have financial problems, so Anne and Dennis must be struggling financially.

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: People who go to Burning Man are not like you and me. Why just look at how odd Greg is!

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: Dennis plays trumpet in the marching band at Yale, so he probably doesn't have a girlfriend.

With the same confidence level, a generalization from a larger sample will have

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: A vast number of people who care about sustainability have a vegetable garden, so Scott probably does, too.

When we generalize from a sample, we draw a conclusion

In generalizing from a sample, in order to achieve an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points at a confidence level of about 95 percent, what's the smallest random sample we can get away with, regardless of the size of the population?

Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an appropriate premise or conclusion: We're going to the home of our Italian friends, Marco and Claudia, for dinner. I suspect it'll be really good.