Lab ManualLab Manual

Lab Manual

You are provided a dataset from 116 students. In this dataset participants were asked to indicate how long they play videogames (by hours) and their midterm grade of statistics course (from 0 to 100). Your job is to conduct the appropriate analysis to answer the following questions:

1. What is the relationship between playing videogames and midterm grade of statistics?
2. What percent of grade is explained by playing video games?
3. Present the scatterplot of playing videogames and grade.

To conduct the analysis:

First of all, you need to convert your data from excel to SPSS. You will do that by using what you learned from the first week.

Your variable view should look like that:

Your data view should look like that:

Now you are ready to run the analysis. To do that you need to go to “Analyze” -> “Correlate” -> “Bivariate”.

Then a new window will open to ask which variables you want to see the relationship. You will select the variables and send them to the Variables list by using the blue arrow in the middle of the window. Then check that Correlation Coefficient is selected as “Pearson”, Test of Significance as “two-tailed” (we will discuss the test of significance part later in this semester). Then click OK.

In the output file you will see the result table.

Now you need to practice how to report the findings in APA format. This is the table you will see in your output file.

You will need the three highlighted scores to report your findings. The first score shows your correlation score. The second score shows that how significant the findings which we discuss later in the semester. The last score shows the sample size.

While reporting the scores the format that you need to use:

r (df) = correlation score, p = significance score.

r means the analysis you apply is correlation.

df = degrees of freedom, show the number of independent sample points. It is related to the sample size and can be computed as N – 2

When you report your findings, you need to mention:

– The applied analysis

– The applied variables

– The direction of the relationship

– The strength of the relationship

– The scores (r (df) = correlation score, p = significance score)

Sample sentence:

• A Pearson correlation was conducted to examine the relationship between ______(insert Variable1) and ______ (insert Variable2). They were _____(insert the strength of the correlation) and ________ (insert the direction of correlation) correlated, r (___)= ____, p = ___.

Generate scatter plot

To demonstrate the findings of a relationship a scatterplot is used. You will be using the same dataset. This is how we generate a scatter plot in SPSS:

You need to go to “Graph” -> “Legacy Dialogues” -> “Scatter”

A new window will open. You will select “Simple Scatter” and click “Define”.

Then you need to select the variables to appear on the X and Y axis. For correlation, it does not matter which variable is on which axis. So select the variables and send to the relevant axis by using the blue arrow. Then click OK.

In the output file you will see your plot.

When you double click on the graph it is activated on a new window. So you can make changes on your figure.

You can change the background color:

Now you need to add a fit line to show the direction and strength of the relationship. To add it, you need to click on the little button at the top menu, at the last line the second active button.

Once you click on it the fit line will appear.

And finally when you close the window the edited graph will appear on your main file.

You can see the direction of the relationship as the direction of the diagonal line from the corners. You can see the strength of the relationship as how steep or flat the line. The steeper the stronger relation. And also you can see the R² which is the coefficient of determination.

In your lab report:

-You need to take a screenshot of your result table.

– You need to report the findings in APA format.

– You need to discuss your findings:

– Explain the finding as if you explain it to your mom.

– Explain how we can use the finding in your daily life.

– You need to copy and paste the scatter plot.

– You need to save all three in one file and submit it using the lab report submission link.