Interim Analysis

Description

Instructions and Grading Criteria for Interim Analysis

Instructions for Data Analysis:

Depending on your research strategy, your data analysis will be the computation of one of the followings: a correlation coefficient; OR means and standard deviations; OR frequencies/percentages.

If your research strategy is Correlational, then it is likely that you have 2 continuous variables, and your analysis will be: Correlation coefficient which will enable you to see (a) how consistent the relationship between the two variables is, and (b) whether the two variables are positively or negatively correlated!

If your research strategy is an Experimental or Non-Experimental, then there are a few possibilities:

Possibility #1: You might have 1 categorical variable (i.e., the Independent Variable or the Grouping Variable), and 1 continuous variable (i.e., the Dependent Variable or the Outcome Variable). If so, as your analysis, you will calculate means and standard deviations for each condition or group and make a comparison between them (e.g., one group has a higher mean GPA than the other group).

Possibility #2: You might have 2 categorical variables (i.e., both Independent and Dependent variables or both Grouping and Outcome variables are categorical). If so, as your analysis, you will calculate frequencies and/or percentages in each group/condition and make a comparison between them (e.g., when sugar content is revealed, 60% of people selected the healthy snack whereas when sugar content is NOT revealed, only 20% selected the healthy snack).

Instructions for Interim Analysis Assignment:

The Interim Analysis assignment should include the answers to the following questions:

• What is your hypothesis?
• What research strategy did you use in your study?
• What variables were analyzed?
• Are the variables categorical or continuous?
• What type of analysis did you perform? Did you calculate the mean and SD for each group and compare? Or did you calculate the frequencies/percentages for each group and compare? Or did you calculate the correlation between the two variables?
• Explain the reasoning behind this performed analysis. HINT: Remember the type of analysis you used depends on whether the variables being continuous and/or categorical! (see the Instructions for Data Analysis above)
• What numerical values did you obtain by the performed analysis? If you calculated the correlation coefficient, what was that value (including the +/- signs!). If you calculated the means and SDs, what were they? If you calculated the frequencies/percentages, what were they?
• What is the direction of your results? If you calculated a correlation, did you observe positive or negative correlation and how consistent the relationship was? If calculated means, frequencies/percentages, and then did a comparison between conditions/groups, which one was higher?
• Include a table or a graph displaying your main results in the same Word document.Interim Analysis
• Below is the Excel spreadsheet you need
• CriteriaRatingsPtsHypothesis was stated8 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks8 pts
  correctly indicate what research strategy adopted in the study.8 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks8 pts
  correctly indicate the variables.8 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks8 pts
  correctly indicated that the variables are continuous or categorical.8 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks8 pts
  correctly stated what statistical analysis was performed.8 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks8 pts
  attempted to explain the reasoning behind the performed analysis.8 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks8 pts
  used the correct statistical test.9 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks9 pts
  indicated what numbers were produced by the analyses.8 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks8 pts
  The numbers look correct.9 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks9 pts
  correctly indicated the direction of results9 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks9 pts
  included an appropriate table or figure displaying the findings9 ptsFull Marks0 ptsNo Marks9 pts