Exam 15: The Role of Research Methods in Making Sense of Numbers

In addition to empirical association, what are the two other criteria needed to assess a cause-and-effect relationship between a dependent and an independent variable?

What does the first of the "W's," "What," refer to?

A 'substantive significance of an estimate is assessed by its p value and confidence limits.

In the case of observational studies with multiple independent variables, what factor should be kept in mind during the data collection task to ensure stronger empirical association?

In which of the following cases, should statistical significance of an association not be the reason for an intervention?

Refer to the research article you used in Question 1. Comment on the study design, sample size, and the W's related to criteria used by the authors in assessing overall importance of their research results.

In many instances, an association between an outcome and an independent variable could be confounded by another independent variable.

Which of the following criteria is used to assess the internal validity of a research result?

What does "substantive significance" mean in the context of research?

Discuss the quantitative criteria needed to determine internal validity of a study. Illustrate with the help of an example.

In determining practical importance of a result, which measure is referred to, along with effect size?

Explain in your own words, how sample size affects p values for hypothesis testing.

How is the sample size related to the measure of spread in a research study?

A regression analysis was conducted with dependent variable A and independent variables B and C. The regression coefficients fell within confidence intervals that did not equal 0. Moreover, the coefficients had p values less than 0.0001. Which dimension of "importance" do these results satisfy?

In deciding on units or categories of a dependent variable for a study, which of the following would serve as a guiding principle?

'External validity' is one of the four dimensions used for assessing importance of research results.

What does the honorary W, "How", refer to?

Provide an example of how statistical significance of an estimate is determined.

A statistical significance test of association can indicate the direction of the association.

What are the criteria for assessing practical meaning of a research result? Explain what factors these criteria depend on.