A developmental psychologist has prepared a training program that, according to psychological theory, should alter problem-solving ability. For the population of six-year-olds, the average score on a standardized problem-solving task is known to be m = 80 with sx = 10. To test the effectiveness of the training program, a random sample of N = 18 six-year-olds is selected. After training, the average score for this sample is 84.44. Can the experimenter conclude that the program has an effect. zobt is correctly calculated to be 1.88.
a. What is the independent variable? _________________
b. What is the dependent variable? _____________
c. What is the null hypothesis? ___________________
d. What is the alternative hypothesis? _________________
e. With alpha set at .05, what is your statistical decision? __________________
f. What is(are) the zcrit value(s)? __________________