Arcidiacono, Bayer, and Hizmo (2008) analyzed data from a national longitudinal survey called NLSY79, which includes data from more than 12,000 men and women in the United States who were in the 14- to 22-year age range in 1979. The researchers reported that ability is related to wages in early career jobs for university graduates but not for high school graduates. In line with this, research has found that racial discrimination with respect to wages is more prevalent against high school graduates than college graduates, because when ability is not the primary reason for determining wages, other factors irrelevant to ability, such as race, play in. The researchers suggest that their findings might explain why, on average, a black person is more likely to earn a college degree than is a white person of the same ability level. 

a. List any independent variables. 

b. List any dependent variables. 

c. What is the sample in this study? 

d. What is the population about which researchers want to draw conclusions? 

e. What do the authors mean by “longitudinal” in this study? 

f. The researchers used the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) as their measure of ability. The AFQT combines scores on word knowledge, paragraph comprehension, arithmetic reasoning, and mathematics knowledge subscales. Can you suggest at least one confounding variable in the relation between ability and wages when comparing college graduates to high school graduates? 

g. Suggest at least two other ways in which the researchers might have operationalized ability.