Pitch memory of amusiacs. A team of psychologists and neuroscientists tested the pitch memory of individuals diagnosed with amusia (a disorder that impacts one’s perception of music) and reported their results in Advances in Cognitive Psychology (Vol. 6, 2010). Each in a sample of 17 amusiacs listened to a series of tone pairs and then were asked to determine if the tones were the same or different.

In one trial, the tones were separated by 1 second. In a second trial, the tones were separated by 5 seconds. Scores in the two trials were compared for each amusiac. The mean score difference was .11 with a standard deviation of .19. Use this information to form a 90% confidence interval for the true mean score difference for all amusiacs.

Interpret the result. What assumption about the population of score differences must hold true for the interval to be valid?