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Ruxton & Colegrave: Experimental Design for the Life Sciences 2e

Chapter 5

Use these questions to check what you have learned throughout the chapter.

  1. In section 5.1 of the book says that ‘randomisation is important in measurement’. Why?

  2. Accuracy and precision are terms that are frequently confused. Define each in your own words.

  3. In the running experiment in section 5.2 of the book, it was suggested as advantageous that the person with the stopwatch was blind to an individual runner’s treatment group. Explain the thinking behind this.

  4. Devise a scheme for categorising hair-styles that allows someone seen briefly at a distance of several metres to be categorised.

  5. ‘High repeatability suggests low imprecision but tells you nothing about bias.’ Discuss.

  6. In section 5.4.1, the book says that ‘you should especially avoid situations where one person measures all of one treatment group and another person measures all of another group’. Why?

  7. List three advantages of a pilot study; then list another three.

  8. A machine for measuring blood glucose levels is found to be very precise but inaccurate after being used in a study of the effects of hormones on blood glucose levels. Should we ignore the findings of the study?