GER1000 QUANTITATIVE REASONING 2016/17 Semester 1

TUTORIAL 1

Please work on the problems before coming to class. Your solution may include keywords
introduced in lectures, such as control group, treatment group, confounding,
association, etc. In class, you will engage in group work. You are expected to elaborate on
any keywords used in the specific contexts, upon request.

Question 1

On 20th July 2016, the website Science Daily carried an article entitled Reading Harry
Potter lowers Americans opinions of Donald Trump, study finds: In fact, the more books
the participants read, the greater the effect. Even when controlling for party
identification, gender, education level, age, evangelical self-identification, and social
dominance orientation all factors known to predict Americans attitudes toward Donald
Trump the Harry Potter effect remained.

(a) Get soft copies of the Science Daily article and the original research article. This is useful
preparation for the project. You should read at least the Science Daily article briefly to
answer the remaining questions. [This part will not be discussed in class.]

(b) Why did the investigator control for party identification and other variables?

(c) Is party identification a confounder?

(d) Is the title of the Science Daily article well supported by the study?
 Question 2

Surgery
Open Non-invasive
Number Success Rate Number Success Rate
Small 87 81 270 234

Large 263 192 80 55

The table shows the result of a study on two methods of removing kidney stones: open
surgery and non-invasive surgery. 87 patients with small stones underwent open surgery,
and 81 of them recovered fully. 270 patients with small stones underwent non-invasive
surgery, and 234 of them recovered fully. Details on patients with large stones are also
included.

(a) Calculate the success rates, and complete the following sentences.

Among patients with small stones, open surgery is ____ (positively, negatively, not)
associated with success.

Among patients with large stones, open surgery is ____ (positively, negatively, not)
associated with success.

(b) Calculate combined success rates for the two surgery methods. Complete the following.

Open surgery is ____ (positively, negatively, not) associated with success.

What is going on here?