Chapter 6 Multiple Choice Questions

. Scientists often use the term '___________' to refer to a mutual relationship or connection between the values of multiple variables.

. Complete the statement: "A scatterplot is most useful if…"

…you want to see how scattered a data set is.

…you have data that is very scattered and want to display it in a compact way.

…you want to spread out a sample of data so that individual points can be seen clearly.

…you want to explore the relationship between two variables.

. What might a strong negative correlation between two variables suggest?

If one variable is negative, so will be the associated value of the other variable.

There is strong evidence of no relationship between the two variables.

Points in the associated scatterplot will be tightly grouped around a straight line of negative gradient.

Corresponding values of two variables have opposite signs.

. What is a univariate scatterplot more commonly referred to as?

A histogram

A bar chart

A strip-chart

A boxplot

. Complete the statement: "If an experiment involves the manipulation of variable A and recording of the consequences of this for variable B, then in a scatterplot values of variable A should normally be plotted against…"

…the y-axis, but with any units described in the figure caption only.

…the y-axis.

…the x-axis.

…neither axis, as variable A should be explained in the figure caption only.

. What is the main reason you might want to restrict a line of best fit on a scatterplot?

It is unwise to assume the same relationship continues beyond the span of your data.

Unrestricted lines clutter a graph.

Unrestricted lines make it harder to see the data points.

Unrestricted lines can be lost underneath your legend.

. If some of the data points in a scatterplot are displayed as squares and some as triangles, what can be inferred?

The greater number of sides means that the squares represent higher values of a third variable than do the triangles.

Two different data sets are plotted on the same axes.

The triangles represent data recorded before an intervention and the squares represent data recorded after the intervention.

The data represented by the different shapes differ in importance with respect to the figure's overall message.

. When would you expect to find a legend accompanying a scatterplot?

When a trend line has been fitted to the sample

When the data shows a strong correlation

When the data shows a positive correlation

When data for several different samples are shown in one plot

. What sort of data might a strip-chart be an effective visualization tool for?

Time series data

Positively correlated data

Data with 200 data points or more

Data with 20 data points or fewer

. In a strip-chart, what design choice could be used to help achieve separation of points with similar or identical values?

Using different colours

Switching to a boxplot

Adding jitter

Using different point shapes

Quiz Content