Question

Children’s recall of TV ads. A study examined children’s recall and recognition of television advertisements (Journal of Advertising, Spring 2006). Two groups of children were shown a 60-second commercial for Sunkist FunFruit Rockn-Roll Shapes. One group (the A/V group) was shown the ad with both audio and video; the second group (the video only group) was shown only the video portion of the commercial. Following the viewing, the children were asked to recall 10 specific items from the ad. The number of the 10 items recalled correctly by each child is summarized in the table. The researchers theorized that “children who receive an audiovisual presentation will have the same level of mean recall of ad information as those who receive only the visual aspects of the ad.”

a. Set up the appropriate null and alternative hypotheses to test the researchers’ theory.

Short answer

The null and alternative hypothesis are

\(\begin{aligned}{l}{H_0}:{\mu _1} - {\mu _2} &= 0\\{H_a}:{\mu _1} - {\mu _2} \ne 0\end{aligned}\)

Step-by-step solution

Given Information

The sample sizes are 20 and 20.

The means are 3.70 and 3.30.

The standard deviations are 1.98 and 2.13.

Specifying the null hypothesis

The null hypothesis are given by

\({H_0}:{\mu _1} - {\mu _2} = 0\)

i.e.children who receive an audiovisual presentation will have the same level of mean recall of ad information as those who receive only the visual aspects of the ad.

Specifying the alternative hypothesis 

The alternative hypothesis are given by

\({H_a}:{\mu _1} - {\mu _2} \ne 0\)

i.e. children who receive an audiovisual presentation will have the same level of mean recall of ad information as those who receive only the visual aspects of the ad.