SS221 Class One/Lab 1a: Study Critique – Chocolate! (10 points)
Read the Messerli (2012) study and answer questions 1-9 in class. You are encouraged (expected really) to use the Morling book to help you answer these questions. You should find all of the italicized terms below in the Morling book.
1. Describe Messerli’s theory at the beginning of his analysis. (theory pp. 9-13)
Messerli’s theory is that flavonoids improve cognitive function, and flavonols reduce cognitive decline that occurs due to age.
2. Do you think he had a hypothesis when he started his analysis – why or why not? If yes, what was it and could it be falsified?
I believe that he had a hypothesis. He predicted that the more chocolate that person consumes, the higher …show more content…
He stated in the introduction, “I wondered whether there would be a correlation between a country’s level of chocolate consumption and its population’s cognitive function.” The results that he found was there is a decent correlation between chocolate consumption and cognitive function; however, the outliers make the correlation less reliable.
7. What happened to Sweden in the analysis? Comment on the appropriateness of Messerli’s research technique here.
Sweden was a major outlier in his study. Messerli spent time commenting on the possible reasons for this outlier while making sure not to ignore it or just drop the one result. It is good that he dug deeper on the possible reasons for Sweden being an outlier, despite his reasons being highly far-fetched. Also, all pieces of data are important, so it is good that the outlier was not ignored.
8. What does it mean to say “correlation does not prove causation”?
It means that just because two things correlate, does not mean that one causes the other. It could be possible that the dependent variable causes the independent variable. Most likely, there may also be a third variable that causes both. Finally, it could just be coincidental as two unrelated things just happen to
Read the Messerli (2012) study and answer questions 1-9 in class. You are encouraged (expected really) to use the Morling book to help you answer these questions. You should find all of the italicized terms below in the Morling book.
1. Describe Messerli’s theory at the beginning of his analysis. (theory pp. 9-13)
Messerli’s theory is that flavonoids improve cognitive function, and flavonols reduce cognitive decline that occurs due to age.
2. Do you think he had a hypothesis when he started his analysis – why or why not? If yes, what was it and could it be falsified?
I believe that he had a hypothesis. He predicted that the more chocolate that person consumes, the higher …show more content…
He stated in the introduction, “I wondered whether there would be a correlation between a country’s level of chocolate consumption and its population’s cognitive function.” The results that he found was there is a decent correlation between chocolate consumption and cognitive function; however, the outliers make the correlation less reliable.
7. What happened to Sweden in the analysis? Comment on the appropriateness of Messerli’s research technique here.
Sweden was a major outlier in his study. Messerli spent time commenting on the possible reasons for this outlier while making sure not to ignore it or just drop the one result. It is good that he dug deeper on the possible reasons for Sweden being an outlier, despite his reasons being highly far-fetched. Also, all pieces of data are important, so it is good that the outlier was not ignored.
8. What does it mean to say “correlation does not prove causation”?
It means that just because two things correlate, does not mean that one causes the other. It could be possible that the dependent variable causes the independent variable. Most likely, there may also be a third variable that causes both. Finally, it could just be coincidental as two unrelated things just happen to