Chapter 12 – Sampling Distributions, Sampling Distribution of the Mean, the
Normal Deviate (z) test
Know and Be Able To Do
1. You should be able to define the terms in the “Important Terms” section of this
chapter.
2. You should understand that analyzing data involves two steps: (1) calculating the
appropriate statistic and (2) evaluating the statistic based on its sampling distribution.
3. You should be able to give two definitions of the sampling distribution of a statistic.
4. You should know how to generate sampling distributions empirically.
5. You should be able to define the sampling distribution of the mean and be able to
state its characteristics.
6. You should know what the Central Limit Theorem states.
7. You should understand and be able to solve problems using the mean of a single
sample to answer the question, “Is it reasonable to consider this sample a random
sample from a population of known mean and standard deviation and of normal
shape,” via two methods. The first involves computing the tail obtained probability
for the sample mean and comparing it to the alpha level. The second involves using
the Normal Deviate (z) test, comparing zobt to zcrit.
8. You should know the conditions under which the z test is appropriate.
9. You should be able to compute power using the z test.
10. You should be able to state the relationship between power and N, size of real effect
and alpha level.
11. You should understand and be able to solve the illustrative example and practice
problems for this chapter.