Question 3.69

3.69 Marketing to children.

If children are given more choices within a class of products, will they tend to prefer that product to a competing product that offers fewer choices? Marketers want to know. An experiment prepared three sets of beverages. Set 1 contained two milk drinks and two fruit drinks. Set 2 had two fruit drinks and four milk drinks. Set 3 contained four fruit drinks but only two milk drinks. The researchers divided 120 children aged 4 to 12 years into three groups at random. They offered each group one of the sets. As each child chose a beverage to drink from the set presented, the researchers noted whether the choice was a milk drink or a fruit drink.

  1. What are the experimental subjects?
  2. What is the factor and what are its levels? What is the response variable?
  3. Use a diagram to outline a completely randomized design for the study.
  4. Explain how you would assign labels to the subjects. Use software to do the randomization or Table B at line 145 to choose the first five subjects assigned to the first treatment.

3.69

(a) The 120 children are the subjects. (b) The factor is the sets of beverages. The levels are the three sets. The response variable is the child’s choice (milk or fruit drink). (d) Using line 145: The subjects chosen are 060, 102, 050, 005, and 006.