An area of research in biomechanics and gerontology concerns falls and fall-rela

Question

An area of research in biomechanics and gerontology concerns falls and fall-related injuries, especially for elderly people. Recent studies have focused on how individuals respond to large postural disturbances (e.g., tripping, induced slips). One question is whether subjects can be instructed to improve their recovery from such disturbances. Suppose researchers want to compare two such recovery strategies, lowering (quickly stepping down with front leg and then raising back leg over the object) and elevating (lifting front leg over the object). Subjects will have first been trained on one of these two recovery strategies, and they will be asked to apply it after they feel themselves tripping. The researchers will then induce the subject to trip while walking (but harnessed for safety) using a concealed mechanical obstacle.

Suppose the following 24 subjects have agreed to participate in such a study:

Females: Alisha, Alice, Betty, Martha, Audrey, Mary, Barbie, Anna

Males: Matt, Peter, Shawn, Brad, Michael, Kyle, Russ, Patrick, Bob, Kevin, Mitch, Marvin, Paul, Pedro, Roger, Sam

1, Clearly and completely explain why the process of random assignment is important, and what it allows us to consider in an experiment. Can we generalize our conclusions to the population in general? Why or why not?

Explanation / Answer

If one wants to understand the mechanism/effect of a particular recovery one needs to have a set of individuals of different age and gender groups along with healthy individuals as a necessary control. Random assignment is an important aspect if one wants to prove the hypothesis as the variation or the effect will be tested randomly without any biadness. This avoidance of biasness helps us to understand the effect that each mechanism has on different postures. If the population size is large and there exists a certain pattern which we obtain after statistical calculation one can extrapolate it to other population. This can be true for biomechanics as one aims to improve certain body postures of people with specific defects.

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