Exam 4: Data Collection and Sampling

The Chairman of a College of Business with five departments wants to estimate the average number of student-hours lost per month due to illness of their professors. Describe a sampling plan that will help the Dean compare the average student-loss hours for the five departments.

A question on a survey that was not answered is an example of an open-ended question.

To give away a door prize, the hostess of a Tupperware party put each person's name into a hat, mixed them up, and selected one name. What sampling method was used?

Self-selected samples have no bias because they are chosen by the people themselves.

To reduce sampling error, minimize the chance for bias to occur during sampling.

A self-selected sample is the group of individuals who were randomly selected to be in the sample, then agreed to participate in the study.

Which of the following causes sampling error?

Which of the following statements is true regarding the design of a good survey?

Which of the following must be avoided in designing a survey?

In a(n)____________________ study, individuals are randomly assigned to different treatments and the results are compared.

____________________ error is due to mistakes made in the acquisition of data.

Sampling error is the result of a mistake made during the sampling process.

The Admissions Officer from a large university mailed a survey to 600 students selected at random. The sample was designed to include 150 students randomly selected from each of the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes on campus. What sampling method was used?

Discuss one advantage and one disadvantage of a self-administered survey as a method of data collection.

A sampling error can be reduced by taking a larger sample size.

An observational study involves collecting data about persons or objects by recording information about their selected characteristics of interest.

The manager of the customer service division of a major consumer electronics company is interested in determining whether the customers who have purchased a videocassette recorder over the past 12 months are satisfied with their products. If there are 4 different brands of videocassette recorders made by the company, the best sampling strategy would be to use a:

List one advantage and one disadvantage of a personal interview as a method of data collection.

A regular feature in many newspapers asks readers to respond via e-mail to a survey question. The percentages of yes and no responses are usually reported the following day. Should we ignore the results of these surveys? Explain.

A survey is an example of a(n)____________________ study.