Crawling. A study published in 1993 found that babies born at different times of the year may develop the ability to crawl at different ages! The author of the study suggested that these differences may be related to the temperature at the time the infant is 6 months old. (Benson and Janette, Infant Behavior and Development, 1993)
a) The study found that 32 babies born in January crawled at an average age of 29.84 weeks, with a standard deviation of 7.08 weeks. Among 21 July babies, crawling ages averaged 33.64 weeks with a standard deviation of 6.91 weeks. Is this difference significant?
b) For 26 babies born in April, the mean and standard deviation were 31.84 and 6.21 weeks, while for 44 October babies the mean and standard deviation of crawling ages were 33.35 and 7.29 weeks. Is this difference significant?
c) Are these results consistent with the researcher's claim? (We'll examine these data in more detail in a later chapter.)