Can brainwaves be used to measure job aptitude? During the 1980s, a psychologist tried to use brainwave measurements to identify Navy recruits who are good at using a rifle. Several times each year, batches of data were analysed. Each batch of data compared various brainwave measurements with rifle-shooting performance scores for a group of recruits. The psychologist was looking for evidence of a relationship between brainwave measures and shooting skill. During 1990, he analysed 34 of these batches. In 32 of those batches, there was no evidence of association, but the other two batches were statistically significant (at level of significance α = 0.05) in demonstrating a relationship between brainwaves and shooting skill. Based on this, which of the following is true?

Question

Answer

The psychologist should toss out the 32 batches of data that failed to demonstrate an association between brainwaves and shooting skill and keep the two batches that do demonstrate an association. After all, the grant that funds such research and pays the psychologist's salary needs to be renewed.

0%

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The psychologist should just pick one of the data sets (at random) and base his analysis on that.

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There's little evidence of an association. After all, since we're testing each batch of data at the α = 0.05 level of significance, by chance alone 1 in 20 batches would demonstrate an association even if there really isn't one. This explains the two “good” batches the psychologist observed.

100%

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All of the above.

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Can brainwaves be used to measure job aptitude? During the 1980s, a psychologist...

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