Deck 6: Working With Tables

Question 1

Which of the following statements best describes the characteristics of an effective table?

A) The table explains the topic, context, and measurement unit of numbers.
B) The settings of the topic are clearly given in the table.
C) The table is focused on one topic and interpretation of its numbers.
D) The source and context of numbers are clearly explained in the table.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What does the term "focused table" refer to?

A) focus on objective of the topic
B) define the settings of the concept
C) focus on one aspect of the topic
D) define the source and context of values

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What is the primary requirement of a self-contained table?

A) Readers understand the source of all numbers.
B) The context and measurement unit is given.
C) The table defines pertinent terms and all variables.
D) Readers should not have to refer to another exhibit.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following best describes the requirement of a table title?

A) It should itemize all variables.
B) It should use thematic labels.
C) The topic must be defined.
D) The title should explain the context.

Question 5

The word "by" or the phrase "according to" in a table title often differentiates which two entities?

A) dependent variable and ordinal variable
B) ordinal and nominal variable
C) dependent and independent variables
D) numeric and categorical variables

Question 6

When is a spanner placed across columns in a table?

A) Most numbers are in the same units.
B) All numbers are for the same location.
C) Most values are for one-time period.
D) All numbers are for a common variable.

Question 7

In a table of sex by income range, a cell containing just one case was intentionally omitted from the table. What could be the reason for this omission?

A) Case in cell is below a certain value.
B) to protect confidentiality of a case
C) the value in the cell is an outlier
D) to avoid reporting nonverifiable case

Question 8

The researcher of a study would like to list the full form of abbreviations used and data source in the tables she is preparing to present her findings. Where should she place these in the tables?

A) the title
B) column headings
C) footnote
D) row labels

Question 9

Panels within a table could be used to do which of the following?

A) organize variables into a thematic layout
B) compare different studies or topics
C) insert graphs and charts into a table
D) create summaries of several tables

Question 10

What does the term "cognitive load" refer to?

A) the number of rows and columns in a table
B) difficulty in understanding table footnotes
C) the different measures presented in a table
D) the effort required to comprehend a table

Question 11

The criteria for how to organize a table depends on which of the following?

A) whether the variables are categorical or numeric
B) presenting an analysis versus information for analysis
C) writing a univariate versus a multivariate analysis
D) analyzing one aspect of a topic or multiple aspects

Question 12

What does it mean to organize a table in empirical order?

A) layout a table by multiple items in columns
B) organize a table by multiple items in rows ordinally
C) list items by ascending or descending numeric value
D) list items with the same measure in blocks or panels

Question 13

What would be a useful way of organizing a table containing data from an analysis of only two or three primary variables of interest?

A) list the variables by their descending numeric frequency
B) organize the variables by their common measurement unit
C) layout independent variables by descending correlation factor
D) list dependent variable, then independent variables by importance

Question 14

A website presents data on life insurance premiums and claims by state and time period in the United States. These data are mainly for use by researchers on the life insurance domain. How should the data variables be organized on the website?

A) organize variables by descending numeric frequency
B) list by alphabetical order or as collected from source
C) list the dependent variable first, then other variables
D) layout independent variables by order of importance

Question 15

Which are the two primary ways that items in a table, with an associated textual description, are organized?

A) thematic or empirical order
B) alphabetical or by frequency
C) source order or alphabetical
D) empirical order or by source

Question 16

What is generally the purpose of a three-way table in presenting numbers?

A) change in variable with change in two other variables individually
B) rate of change in three variables of a study shown individually
C) change in a variable with changes in two other variables together
D) fluctuation in three variables in a study taken two at a time

Question 17

When reading a well-designed table, one should be able to discern which of the following in relation to the numbers in the table?

A) the topic and conclusions made from the study
B) the location, time period, and case type of a topic
C) the unit of measurement of all numbers in the table
D) the topic, context, units, categories, and data source

Question 18

Which parts of a table identify categories that make up a larger item or theme?

A) table heading and subtitles
B) indented row labels and spanners
C) row headings and column labels
D) table title and panels or blocks

Question 19

A table has the variable "median annual income" in rows and the variable "age group" in columns. What term is used to refer to this type of a table?

A) two-by-two table
B) cross-tabulation
C) frequency distribution
D) 2-variable spread

Question 20

If the table described in Question 19 has a TOTAL row and a TOTAL column, both holding absolute numeric values, and, the other table cells hold percentage values, what does the reader need to know regarding each cell value to correctly interpret the percentages?

A) the column total
B) the numerator
C) the denominator
D) the row total

Question 21

A dependent variable in a research study on a particular virus infection has the possible values, "At risk of infection" or "Not at risk of infection." What is this type of variable called?

A) Boolean
B) empirical
C) nominal
D) dichotomous

Question 22

A table is given where credit score ranges are in rows, and age-group ranges are in columns. A row TOTAL and a column TOTAL are given as absolute values. The percentages in the table cells of a row sums to 100% value of the column TOTAL for that row. The direction in which percentages are calculated is which of the following?

A) horizontal
B) vertical
C) diagonal
D) incremental

Question 23

What does landscape layout of a table refer to?

A) horizontal dimension shorter than vertical dimension
B) vertical dimension shorter than horizontal dimension
C) horizontal and vertical dimensions of equal size
D) vertical dimension holds more than 15 columns

Question 24

When designing a table, which of the following should be used to determine which variable to put in rows?

A) unit of measure of the variables
B) identifying the dependent variable
C) the concept being measured in the table
D) number of variables, statistics, or categories

Question 25

A table shows numeric results to five decimal places. What would be the best way to present these numbers?

A) round up the numbers to the nearest integer
B) minimum number of digits/decimals to show objective of study
C) round up the numbers to two decimal places
D) present the numbers as they are found in the raw data

Question 26

A focused table focuses on just one aspect of a concept or topic.

Question 27

A self-contained table is one which presents all the variables used in a research study, but not necessarily their data sources.

Question 28

In a study which contains many tables to present the data and findings, the title of each table should use thematic headings.

Question 29

The title of a table containing the phrase "according to" generally differentiates between a nominal and an ordinal variable.

Question 30

If the measurement unit is the same for all values in a table, the measure may be stated in the title of the table.

Question 31

A bi-variate table should mention the measure of association shown in the table title.

Question 32

Acronyms may be used for row and column labels where the variable or category names are lengthy and require textual description.

Question 33

A table with most, but not all, columns having the same measurement unit, should use a spanner to generalize units of those columns with the same unit.

Question 34

In properly organizing a table, the level of measurement of an ordinal variable shown in the table should be presented in either ascending or descending rank order.

Question 35

When reading a table, the reader should be able to identify the data sources of the numbers from the notes section of the table.

Question 36

To present data and results of a research study, what are the primary characteristics of an effective table?

Question 37

On reading a table, a reader should be able to understand and interpret which components related to the numbers in the table?

Question 38

Explain in your own words, the various parts of an effective table and their usage.

Question 39

A table has the title "Number of traffic violations by age group and education level." What could be said of the variables in this title? Explain your answer.

Question 40

A table lists two nominal variables in rows with the categories within each variable given under the main variable label. The cells of the table percent frequency distribution of each of the two nominal variables by year. How would you better organize this table for ease of reading?

Question 41

Provide an example of a case where you would use a spanner in a table. Explain your answer.

Question 42

In a table showing credit score ranges of customers by county and income group, two cells for a particular county were shown as missing, even though the raw data were available for these cells. The measurement unit of the table was count of customers of a particular retail outlet. What could be the reason for not showing counts for the two cells?

Question 43

Describe the common uses of footnotes to a table. Provide an example.

Question 44

Distinguish between using thematic criteria and empirical order to organize a table with an associated description. Provide an example.

Question 45

How should a table, intended for data lookup and whose data was collected in the order of the data source, be organized? Illustrate with an example.

Question 46

A study of an electronic retailer concluded that gross sales of branches were associated with zip codes within a 5-mile radius of the branch, median household income of the county, and age-group of customers. Describe how you would organize a table of data from this study. Explain your reasoning.

Question 47

Construct, with imaginary data or data of your choosing, a cross-tabulation with illustrative numbers as percentages. Discuss how the direction of percentage calculations changes with change in the denominator.

Question 48

For the study numbers in Question 1, discuss how you would design the table with respect to layout, alignment, and numeric values shown in the table. Explain your reasoning.