Which factors are relevant to the time a consumer spends looking at a product on

Question

Which factors are relevant to the time a consumer spends looking at a product on the shelf prior to selection? The article "Effects of Base Price Upon Search Behavior of Consumers in a Supermarket" (J. Econ. Psychol, 2003: 637-652) reported the following data on clapped time (sec) for fabric softener purchases and washing-up liquid purchases; the former product is significantly more expensive than the latter. These products were chosen because they are similar with respect to allocated shelf space and number of alternative brands. What if any assumptions are needed before the t inferential procedure can be used to compare true average elapsed times? Carry out a test of hypothesis to decide whether the true average difference in elapsed times differs from zero.

Explanation / Answer

a)

The assumption is that the two populations are approximately normally distrbuted, and that the observations from the two groups are all independent.

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b)

Let the level of significance = 0.05.

Formulating the null and alternative hypotheses,              
              
Ho:   u1 - u2   =   0  
Ha:   u1 - u2   =/   0  
At level of significance =    0.05          
As we can see, this is a    two   tailed test.      
Calculating the means of each group,              
              
X1 =    30.47          
X2 =    26.53          
              
Calculating the standard deviations of each group,              
              
s1 =    19.15          
s2 =    15.37          
              
Thus, the standard error of their difference is, by using sD = sqrt(s1^2/n1 + s2^2/n2):              
              
n1 = sample size of group 1 =    15          
n2 = sample size of group 2 =    19          
Thus, df = n1 + n2 - 2 =    32          
Also, sD =    6.073029534          
              
Thus, the t statistic will be              
              
t = [X1 - X2 - uD]/sD =    0.648770104          
              
where uD = hypothesized difference =    0          
              
Now, the critical value for t is              
              
tcrit =    +/-   2.036933343      
              
Also, using p values,              
              
p =    0.521116119          
              
As |t| < 2.037, and P > 0.05, we FAIL TO REJECT THE NULL HYPOTHESIS.          

Hence,there is no significant difference in elapsed times. [CONCLUSION]

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