An experimental psychologist is interested in whether the color of an animal's surroundings affects learning rate. He tests 16 rats in a box with colorful wallpaper. The average rat (of this strain) can learn to run this type of maze in a box without any special coloring in an average of 25 trials, with a variance of 64, and a normal distribution. The mean number of trials to learn the maze, for the rats tested with the colorful wallpaper, is 11.
-The shape of the distribution of means
A)will be rectangular.
B)will be flatter than a normal curve.
C)will be approximately normal.
D)cannot be determined from the information given.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The sample size (16) is greater than 30, so the Central Limit Theorem is applicable. This states that the distribution of sample means will be approximately normal regardless of the shape of the population distribution as long as the sample size is sufficiently large. Therefore, the distribution of means will be approximately normal.

An Experimental Psychologist Is Interested in Whether the Color of an Animal's