Assignment task: A researcher is interested in whether drinking different sources of caffeine (tea vs. coffee) leads to differences in women's attentional control performance. She decides to put up flyers at Her Gym locations around Texas to recruit participants. People can read the flyer and contact her to participate if they are interested in the study. She decides to have participants take an attention task called "Simon task" after drinking either 2 cups of black tea or after drinking 2 cups of regular coffee. She randomly assigns her participants to either the tea or the coffee beverage condition. After collecting and analyzing the data, she obtains a p = .027.
1. What is the researcher's scientific/alternative hypothesis?
2. What is the researcher's null hypothesis?
3. What type of sample is the researcher using? And what is a disadvantage to using this sample type?
4. What can the researcher conclude about these data?
5. If, in the population, women actually show NO difference in attentional control performance after drinking black tea versus coffee, what type of statistical error has the researcher made?