Question

a) What kind of claim is it to say that "82% of middle-schoolers couldn’t distinguish between an ad labeled “sponsored content” and a real news story" (Frequency, association, or cause?) What is (are) the variable(s) in the claim?

b) In order to claim that "82% of middle schoolers" do something, you'd probably need to be sure that the study included a generalizable sample of middle schoolers. What are some ways the researchers could have obtained an externally valid sample?

Answer 1

1. This is a frequency claim, because the percentage of individuals is stated. The variables in the claim are schools students and the ability to distinguish between sponsored content and real news story.

2. In order to maintain an externally valid sample, the researchers should ensure that the sample is representative of the population to the highest degree as possible. Thus, the sample should include a more or less randomly chosen distribution of participants from different grades of middle school and different middle schools in that particular geographical area.