A study by a prominent psychologist found a moderately strong ...

[Themember4]

A study by a prominent psychologist found a moderately strong positive association between the number of hours of sleep a person gets and the person's ability to memorize information.
 
  a. Explain in the context of this problem what positive association means.
 
  b. Hoping to improve academic performance, the psychologist recommended the school board allow students to take a nap prior to any assessment. Discuss this reasoning.

Question 2

After conducting a survey at a pet store to see what affect having a pet had on the condition of the yard, a news reporter stated There appears to be a strong correlation between the owning a pet and the condition of the yard.
 
  Comment on this observation.

[karmakat49]

Answer to Question 1

a. A positive association means in general people who had more sleep were able to memorize more information.
b. The child psychologist is attributing association to cause and effect. There is an implication that more sleep will cause better memorization, therefore causing an increase in assessments scores. Perhaps people who had memorized more were able to sleep more restfully, or perhaps differences in brain chemistry allowed some people to memorize more and to sleep more easily.

Answer to Question 2

The variables - owning a pet and condition of the yard - are both categorical variables. Correlation cannot be calculated with categorical variables.

[Themember4]

Wow, this really help

[scikid]

Great answer, keep it coming