Class 13: Cookie Experiment I
Discussion
In her book Tainted Truth (Simon and Schuster, 1994), Cynthia Crossen quotes
Robert Pitofsky (former head of the Federal Trade Comission's Bureau of
Consumer Products): "In markets where product claims are viewed with utter
suspicion high price is adopted as an indication of quality, and price
competition and product improvement become economically irrational."
We want to know if there is a correlation between price and quality for
chocolate chip cookies. Design an experiment to find out. Decide on as many
details as you can, including: how many brands of cookies will be used and
how quality and price will be measured. We will carry out experiments on
Wednesday.
Homework for Monday, March 11
Read Chapters 9 and 10 of FPPA. Do review exercises 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13 at
the end of Chapter 9 and review exercises 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 at the end of
Chapter 10.
Journal Assignment
Browse the current issue of Chance News (Feb. 4 to Feb 29) on the Web. Pick
an article summary that you particularly like, find and read the article,
and answer the discussion questions. (We can help you use Lexis Nexis to
locate an article if there is no link to it on the Web. The reference
librarians at Firestone can also show you how to do this.)