Multitasking in School In today’s “wired” society, students believe that they can multitask. Research suggests that 5% of individuals truly have the ability to multitask. Can students multitask, or do they perform worse while multitasking? In an introductory accounting class, students were randomly given an instruction sheet at the beginning of class. Half the instruction sheets required students to send three text messages to the instructor during the lecture. The other half of class was told to turn off their cell phones. At the end of class, a quiz was administered based on information shared during class. The results of the quiz are shown in the table below.

(a) What is the response variable? What is the explanatory variable?

(b) How is randomization used in this study?

(c) Is the sampling method dependent or independent? Explain.

(d) Conduct the appropriate test to determine whether the data suggest students score worse in the texting group. Use an  = 0.05 level of significance.

(e) Estimate the mean difference in scores between the texting group and cell-phone off group with 90% confidence.

(f) Does the sample evidence suggest there is a difference in the dispersion of the scores between the two groups?