Does your bowl size influence how much you eat? To investigate, researchers recruited undergraduates from a large university to participate in a study that was conducted over several days. Th e participants were not told about the goal of the study until the very end of the data collection process. At the first session, the researchers assigned some participants to receive either a small bowl or a large bowl. After that, each participant was allowed to scoop as many M&Ms into their bowl as they planned on eating that day, and then during the session they counted how many M&Ms their bowl contained. When the data from the first session were analyzed by comparing the average M&Ms count for the “small-bowl” group to the average M&Ms count for the “large-bowl” group, the p-value was found to be 0.40.
a. Based on the results of the first session, is it okay to say that bowl size influences how much you eat? Why or why not?
b. At the next session, the size of the bowls was switched: Those who received small bowls at the first session now received large bowls, and vice versa. So, at the end of the second session, each participant had an M&M count for small bowl and an M&Ms count for large bowl. How should the researchers analyze the updated data? Briefly explain.