Question

Runs Test Consider sample data consisting of genders of criminals charged with hacking computer systems of corporations. Determine whether the following are true or false.

a. If the runs test suggests that sample data occur in a random order, then it follows that the data have been randomly selected.

b. If the runs test suggests that sample data occur in a random order, then there is not a significant difference between the proportions of males and females.

Short answer

a.False

b.False

Step-by-step solution

Given information

The runs test is used to check the randomness of a sequence of genders of criminals.

Runs test

The runs test is used to test whether the given sequence of genders of criminals follows a random order.

The runs test only investigates whether the data values are arranged in random order or whether there is any particular trend that the data values follow.

a.

The given statement is “If the runs test suggests that sample data occur in a random order, then it follows that the data have been randomly selected.”

This statement is false as the runs test checks whether the sample values occur randomly within the given sample. If the sequence of males and females comes out to be random, it does not imply that the sample values have been extracted randomly from the population.

b.

The given statement is “If the runs test suggests that sample data occur in a random order, then there is not a significant difference between the proportions of males and females.”

This statement is false as the runs test checks for the randomness of the two categories in a sequence and not the equality of their frequency. Thus, the runs test does not suggest that there is no difference in the proportions of males and females if the sequence is found to be random.