1.1 Quick revision

We strongly recommend trying these Quick revision questions before your tutorial.

Consider this RQ (based on Jaworowska et al. (2012)):

For London take-away restaurants, is the average amount of salt in a Chinese meal the same as in an Indian meal?

1. What type of RQ is this?
   Descriptive Relational Repeated-measures Correlational
2. What type of RQ is this?
   Estimation Decision-making
3. Is an intervention present?
   Yes No
4. What is the Outcome in this RQ?
   
   The amount of salt The average amount of salt The average amount of salt in Chinese and Indian take-away meals London take-away restaurants
5. What is the response variable?
   
   The average amount of salt The amount of salt in each meal The type of London take-away restaurant
6. What is the unit of analysis?
   
   The restaurants The meals We need more information about how the data were collected
7. What is the unit of observation?
   
   The restaurants The meals It's hard to know: we need more information about how the data were collected

1. Relational: there is a comparison (between Chinese and Indian meals).
2. No: the researchers did not determine whether a meal was Chinese or Indian.
3. The Outcome refers to something quantitatively measured in a group (such as an average or percentage) that is the outcome or result of the comparison.
4. A variable is measured on an individual; in this case, the amount of salt in the individual meals.
5. The unit of analysis depends on how the data were collected.
   Any given restaurant probably uses salt in a similar way, so if many meals were taken from each restaurant, the restaurant would be the unit of analysis.
   Or perhaps restaurant chains were used and restaurants in the same chain are likely to operate in a similar way, and the restaurant chain would be the unit of analysis.
   Or it may be the individual meals. We need more information.
6. The unit of observation is the meal, as the salt content must be assessed from each individual meal.

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References

Jaworowska A, Blackham T, Stevenson L, Davies IG. Determination of salt content in hot takeaway meals in the United Kingdom. Appetite. 2012;59(2):517–22.

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