3 ms·

It is a ridiculous and intellectually embarrassing question. I just picture what someone like Feynman would think of a question like this. I wouldn't be shocke

It is a ridiculous and intellectually embarrassing question. I just picture what someone like Feynman would think of a question like this. I wouldn't be shocked this is a higher order effect of too much of certain 20th century French philosophers. We can't even make test questions that aren't bullshit. There literally should be a none of the above choice because of lack of information in the question.

dmix 4y ago
It's a homework question not a test question The philosophical part might be the point
- csours 4y ago
  Philosophy of X is how we talk about X, the terminology and the state of our understanding. Philosophy is a huge part of learning, but we usually don't call it philosophy.
- tyingq 4y ago
  That would make sense if there was a freeform "why did you give this answer" section. As a multiple-choice question, there's nothing you can infer about the answer.
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    Or maybe it was a control question and the teacher is going to treat the spread of results as their own little survey...
ghaff 4y ago
Eh. As someone who has been involved with survey work--both giving and receiving--standard practice in this situation would probably be A and it wouldn't shock me if it had been covered in class. D is not wrong and might be the right answer if, e.g., emailing out a survey to a broader mailing list of people who don't have a close affiliation with you--i.e. you don't want to pester a general population. However, A is pretty much what is done for employee satisfaction surveys and things of that type.
- peteradio 4y ago
  Is it a test on the trivia of typical survey conduct or a question to probe understanding of statistics? If its a trivia question then ask it like "What is the most likely way a survey would followup in the event of ...".
raymondh 4y ago
I think Feynman would be pleased with question. He was well grounded in the real world of doing science with incomplete datasets. For researchers who gather data with surveys, this is a frequently encountered problem, so it is legitimate to discuss it an statistics course. If there is a problem, it is the multiple choice format. This issue of handling incomplete datasets would be make a good essay question. That said, it is perfectly reasonable to choose D and work with the information you have. That is what real world clinic studies do when they report the number of people who dropped out of a study. It is also reasonable to choose A and attempt to get better coverage. That is what real world election pollsters do.

dmix 4y ago

It's a homework question not a test question The philosophical part might be the point

csours 4y ago
Philosophy of X is how we talk about X, the terminology and the state of our understanding. Philosophy is a huge part of learning, but we usually don't call it philosophy.
tyingq 4y ago
That would make sense if there was a freeform "why did you give this answer" section. As a multiple-choice question, there's nothing you can infer about the answer.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  Or maybe it was a control question and the teacher is going to treat the spread of results as their own little survey...

ghaff 4y ago

Eh. As someone who has been involved with survey work--both giving and receiving--standard practice in this situation would probably be A and it wouldn't shock me if it had been covered in class. D is not wrong and might be the right answer if, e.g., emailing out a survey to a broader mailing list of people who don't have a close affiliation with you--i.e. you don't want to pester a general population. However, A is pretty much what is done for employee satisfaction surveys and things of that type.

peteradio 4y ago
Is it a test on the trivia of typical survey conduct or a question to probe understanding of statistics? If its a trivia question then ask it like "What is the most likely way a survey would followup in the event of ...".

raymondh 4y ago

I think Feynman would be pleased with question. He was well grounded in the real world of doing science with incomplete datasets. For researchers who gather data with surveys, this is a frequently encountered problem, so it is legitimate to discuss it an statistics course. If there is a problem, it is the multiple choice format. This issue of handling incomplete datasets would be make a good essay question. That said, it is perfectly reasonable to choose D and work with the information you have. That is what real world clinic studies do when they report the number of people who dropped out of a study. It is also reasonable to choose A and attempt to get better coverage. That is what real world election pollsters do.