The IQ Experiment

2 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2017

See all articles by Phillip E. Pfeifer

Phillip E. Pfeifer

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Anton Ovchinnikov

Smith School of Business - Queen's University; INSEAD - Decision Sciences

Abstract

This case describes an IQ experiment in which 66 students, under the direction of their professor, used Excel to generate simulated IQs. The instructions were such that the generated IQs should have come from a normal distribution with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15. The sample average IQ, however, was 104.3. Students are asked to use their data-analysis skills to make sense of the results. The data set also contains gender (male or female) and fall section (A, B, C, D, or E) for each student, which allow for additional statistical analyses (tests of equality of means).

Excerpt

UVA-QA-0770

Aug. 31, 2011

The IQ Experiment

In a classroom experiment, the professor instructed the class to enter the following function into Excel for the purpose of generating IQs from a normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15:

=ROUND(NORM.INV(RAND(),100,15),0)

“Instruments designed to measure real IQs,” the professor had explained, “were set up to produce IQs with exactly that distribution.”

. . .

Keywords: statistical analysis

Suggested Citation

Pfeifer, Phillip E. and Ovchinnikov, Anton, The IQ Experiment. Darden Case No. UVA-QA-0770, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2975138 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2975138

Phillip E. Pfeifer (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States
434-924-4803 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty/Pfeifer.htm

Anton Ovchinnikov

Smith School of Business - Queen's University ( email )

143 Union Str. West
Kingston, ON K7L3N6
Canada

INSEAD - Decision Sciences ( email )

United States

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