Calling Heads or Tails

Case Study 1

Directions: Answer the questions and follow the instructions for the statistical study below. Use full justification to support hypotheses and results that are made. Be sure to answer ALL of the numbered questions listed below, using complete sentences and appropriate calculations.

When asked to call heads or tails for a coin toss, are people equally likely to choose heads or tails? You will investigate this question by collecting some actual data and using our course tools to analyze and interpret the data.

1. What would a person call: heads or tails? I chose tails

Before collecting data, let's lay a framework for this study. Conventional wisdom indicates that people tend to pick heads more often than tails; this will be the research hypothesis that you will be testing.

1. In this coin toss study:
2. What are the observational units in this study?
3. What is the variable that is recorded?
4. Describe the parameter of interest in words. (Use to represent this parameter.)
5. If people do not have a tendency to pick heads more often than tails (or vice versa), what would you expect the numerical value of the parameter to be? Is this the null hypothesis or the alternative hypothesis?
6. If people do have a tendency to pick heads more often than tails, what can you say about the numerical value of the parameter? Is this the null hypothesis or the alternative hypothesis?