Urgent

Question 21 (7 points) You have discovered a new parasite, Toxoplasmosis, that primarily infects cats. It can also be transmitted to other mammals, such as mice and rats, but Toxoplasmosis needs to be inside a cat host to complete its life cycle. Researchers have previously found that similar parasites have surprising effects on mice and rats. For example, when mice and rats are infected with Toxoplasmosis they lose their fear of cat predators. This increases the chance that an infected mouse or rat will get eaten by a cat, which helps the parasite complete its life cycle. Your hypothesis is that Toxoplasmosis may also cause rats to lose their fear of cats. You decide to test this hypothesis using a within-subjects experiment. Each rat in your experiment will be measured under two treatments as follows. First, the rat will undergo the control treatment. To do this, a healthy rat will be put in a chamber that has cat urine applied to one corner, and you will measure the number of minutes that the rat spends near the cat urine (more minutes near cat urine = less fear of cats). After completing the control treatment, the rat will undergo the infected treatment. You will expose the rat to Toxoplasmosis overnight, so that it develops an infection. The next day, you will put the newly infected rat back in the chamber, and you will measure the number of minutes spent near the cat urine again. Based on your hypothesis, you predict that rats will spend more time near cat urine after they have been infected with Toxoplasmosis as compared to beforehand a) Identify the dependent variable and independent variable in this study and state whether each variable is categorical or numerical. [1 mark] b) What type of statistical test would be best to analyze the results of this study? What is the null hypothesis for this test? [1 mark] c) Go to the simulation here to collect your data: https://bit.ly/3y4bwA8 When you have collected enough data, click the button to run the test, and then report on your results here. Aim to write about 3-5 sentences. What did you find? Did you reject the null hypothesis? Did your results match your prediction? If you rejected the null hypothesis, would you conclude that this is a strong effect? Use the conventional alpha of 0.05. In addition to your test results, be sure to report descriptive statistics. [3 marks] d) What is a potential problem or confounding variable with the design of this experiment? Briefly explain why it is a problem. Suggest a change to the methods that would allow you to avoid or account for this issue. [2 marks]