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Old 11-24-2008, 01:12 PM   #15 (permalink)
Guybrush
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lucifer_sam View Post
I think he/she/it is just trying to establish a correlation between interest in music and performance in math.
I realize that, I'm pointing out that there might be weaknesses by doing it that way.

Just as an example, what if the people who play instruments on average come from families with a significantly higher income than the ones who don't? Family income could then be a variable that helps explain the data, but it's not accounted for in the survey ("hidden variable"). You might end up saying that ability with an instrument correlates positively with understanding of maths when it should have been family income.

Just an example of a variable - there could be many more .. Probably also much better examples.
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