Fix It Dr. Holbrook Recently Read in a Popular Magazine That Kids

Essay

Fix It
Dr. Holbrook recently read in a popular magazine that kids who participate in formal music education are more likely to get into an Ivy League college. Presuming getting into a good school is related to intelligence, Dr. Holbrook wants to test whether music lessons are related to IQ. To that end, Dr. Massey randomly selects five Ivy League schools and contacts the registrar at each school to request the names of the currently enrolled undergraduates. Of the 8,527 students identified, she randomly selects 3,000 and sends each a survey. A total of 1,374 students complete the survey. Of the questions on the survey, three were critical to testing the hypothesis. The first question assessed whether the student received music lessons as a child. The second assessed how long the student took lessons. The third question asked for the student's cumulative GPA.
Dr. Holbrook found that 78% of the survey respondents participated in formal music lessons as children. She used Pearson's r to determine the relationship between length of music lessons and GPA. She found a statistically significant relationship (r = .48, p < .05). Based on this information Dr. Holbrook concludes that taking music lessons as a child does, in fact, make one more likely to get into a good college. She also concludes that music lessons cause one to have a higher GPA.
Dr. Holbrook developed her research project based on something she read in a magazine. What do you think of that? What do you think about the sample Dr. Holbrook obtained to test her hypothesis? What concerns and limitations do you see with Dr. Holbrook's study and the conclusions she drew? How might you fix them?