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1. Are independent or dependent (paired) scores examined in this study? Provide

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Question

1. Are independent or dependent (paired) scores examined in this study? Provide a rationale for your answer.
2. What independent (intervention) and dependent (outcome) variables were included in this study?
3. What inferential statistical technique was calculated to examine differences in the participants when they received the high-aspartame diet intervention versus the low-aspartame diet? Is this technique appropriate? Provide a rationale for your answer.
4. What statistical techniques were calculated to describe spatial orientation for the participants consuming low- and high-aspartame diets? Were these techniques appropriate? Provide a ratio-nale for your answer.
5. What was the dispersion of the scores for spatial orientation for the high- and low-aspartame diets? Is the dispersion of these scores similar or different? Provide a rationale for your answer.
6. What is the paired t -test value for spatial orientation between the participants’ consumption of high- and low-aspartame diets? Are these results signicant? Provide a rationale for your answer.
7. State the null hypothesis for spatial orientation for this study. Was this hypothesis accepted or rejected? Provide a rationale for your answer.
8. Discuss the meaning of the results regarding spatial orientation for this study. What is the clinical importance of this result? Document your answer.
9. Was there a signicant difference in the participants’ reported headaches between the high- and low-aspartame intake periods? What does the result indicate?
10. What additional research is needed to determine the neurobehavioral effects of aspartame consumption?

STATISTICAL TECHNIQUE IN REVIEW paired or dependent samples t test is a parametric statistical procedure calculated to determine differences between two sets of repeated measures data from one group of people. The scores used in the analysis might be obtained from the same subjects under different conditions, such as the one group pretest-posttest design. With this type of design, asingle group of subjects experiences the pretest, treatment, and posttest. Subjects are referred to as serving as their own control during the pretest, which is then compared with the posttest scores follo the treatment. Paired scores also result fromaone-group repeated measures design, where one group of participants is exposed to different levels of an intervention. For example, one group ofparticipants might be exposed to two different doses of a medication and the outcomes for each participant for each dose of medication are measured, resulting in paired scores. The one group design is considered a weak quasi- experimental design because it is difficult to determine the effects of a treatment without a comparison to a separate control group (Shadish, Cook,& Campbell, 2002) A less common type of paired groups is when the groups are matched as part of the design to ensure similarities between the two groups and thus reduce the effect of extra- neous variables (Grove, Burns, & Gray, 2013; Shadish et al., 2002). For example, two groups might be matched on demographic variables such as gender, age, and severity of illness to reduce the extraneous effects of these variableson the study results. The assump tions for the paired samples t-test are as follows: 1. The distribution of scores is normal or approximately normal 2. The dependent variable(s) is(are) measured at interval or ratio levels 3. Repeated measures data are collected from one group of subjects, resulting in paired Scores 4. The differences between the paired scores are independent. Introduction Despite the widespread use of the artificial sweetener aspartame in drinks and food, there are concern and controversy about the mixed research evidence on its neurobehavioral

Explanation / Answer

1. Are independent or dependent (paired) scores examined in this study? Provide a rationale for your answer.
Answer:

In this study the dependent scores are examined. In the given scenario, the paired comparisons are carried out for the low aspartame diet and high aspartame diet. Observations are taken from the same subjects before high aspartame diet and after high aspartame diet. So, we get the paired set of observations for this study.

2. What independent (intervention) and dependent (outcome) variables were included in this study?
Answer:

The independent variable for this study is the high aspartame diet and low aspartame diet and dependent variable for this study is neurobehavioral score.

3. What inferential statistical technique was calculated to examine differences in the participants when they received the high-aspartame diet intervention versus the low-aspartame diet? Is this technique appropriate? Provide a rationale for your answer.
Answer:

The parametric statistical technique or testing of hypothesis for parametric estimation is used to calculate the differences in the participants when they received the high aspartame diet intervention versus the low aspartame diet. This technique is appropriate in this case because we are given the values for the required comparison for paired differences.

4. What statistical techniques were calculated to describe spatial orientation for the participants consuming low- and high-aspartame diets? Were these techniques appropriate? Provide a ratio-nale for your answer.

Answer:

The paired t test for the significant difference between two population means is used to describe spatial orientation for the participants consuming low and high aspartame diets. These techniques are appropriate because we want to find out or test the claim regarding the paired differences in the spatial orientation for the participants consuming low and high aspartame diets. For the given paired t test we get the p-value as 0.03 which is less than the alpha value 0.05, so we conclude that this difference in the two population means is statistically significant. This means we conclude that there is statistically significant difference for the spatial orientation for high and low aspartame diet.