Perhaps the most basic error that nearly all laypersons make is to assume that __________.

While playing poker with his friends, Matthew scratches his right leg before winning a very big hand. He decides that scratching his right leg will be his “lucky gesture,” and for a long time scratches his right leg with every hand that is dealt. This silly superstition violates which rules of critical thinking?

Which descriptive statistic is least likely to be influenced by the presence of skewed data?

Dr. Stanhope is trying to determine which type of correlation is represented on his scatterplot, in which nearly all of his data are clustered along a diagonal line running from higher numbers on the left down to lower numbers on the right. Which type of correlation is represented by this pattern?

Stopping to take time, consider all of the details, and make a well-reasoned and careful decision are all features that typify Daniel Kahneman’s __________ thinking.

In one research project, a scientist gave students subliminal cassette tapes and told them to play them for 2 months. After 2 months, she assessed whether the tapes helped the self-esteem of her participants and found that self-esteem had indeed risen! While she may have attributed this to the tapes, it is also possible that those students may have found college life to be manageable and thus experienced an increase in self-esteem for that reason. This demonstrates which principle of critical thinking?

Which of the following words is probably the best synonym for the mean of a data set?

How does conducting a double-blind study attempt to remedy the experimenter expectancy effect?

Coach Ezell wants her players to minimize their anxiety before playing important conference games. At the halfway point in the season, instead of the dance music she normally had playing in the locker room, she switches to classical music before the games. What is the dependent variable in this scenario?

A medical doctor believes that the presence of aromatherapy will reduce the anxiety of first-time mothers-to-be during labor and will increase their reported satisfaction with their care at his hospital. He randomly assigns mothers to give birth in a room either with or without aromatherapy. What is the independent variable in this example?