Adolescent Brains Are Different

Researchers continue to find evidence that brains of adolescents behave quite differently than either brains of adults or brains of children. In particular, adolescents seem to hold on more strongly to fear associations than either children or adults, suggesting that frightening connections made during the teen years are particularly hard to unlearn. In one study,¹participants first learned to associate fear with a particular sound. In the second part of the study, participants heard the sound without the fear-causing mechanism, and their ability to "unlearn" the connection was measured. A physiological measure of fear was used, and larger numbers indicate less fear. We are estimating the difference in mean response between adults and teenagers. The mean response for adults in the study was 0.225 and the mean response for teenagers in the study was 0.059. We are told that the standard error of the estimate is 0.091.

Let group 1 be adults and group 2 be teenagers.

¹Sanders L, "Adolescent brains open to change,"Science News, October 31, 2015.

(a) Give notation for the quantity that is being estimated.

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(b) Give notation for the quantity that gives the best estimate.

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(c) Give the value for the quantity that gives the best estimate.

Enter the exact answer.

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(d) Give a95

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Round your answers to three decimal places.

The interval isEnter your answer in accordance to item (d) of the question statement

toEnter your answer in accordance to item (d) of the question statement

(e) Is this an experiment or an observational study?

Observational study

Experiment