• Improve student ability to assess research findings in published papers

• Critique representations and interpretations of original research

• Increase awareness of experimental design

• Encourage collaboration and team-based learning (TBL)

1. Students read the Diner Beware Study of Studies (column published by the Atlantic magazine) out loud

2. Assigned one of the 12 research articles to be skimmed and assessed in groups

3. Compare the findings of the original research article with the summary presented in the Study of Studies

4. Synthesize findings and present to instructor and classmates through RPubs (platform for sharing R Markdown documents)

• Title: Odors and consumer behavior in a restaurant
• Author: Nicolas Guéguen and Christine Petr [6]

• Publication: International Journal of Hospitality Management

• Study of Studies' claims: "Particular scents also have an effect: diners who got a whiff of lavender stayed longer and spent more than those who smelled lemon, or no scent"

Students asked to assess this finding and compare with Guéguen and Petr's conclusions

• Purpose: Analyze the effect of scent (lemon and lavender) on length of time and amount of money spent by customers in a restaurant

• Subjects: 88 patrons of a small pizzeria in France

• Experiment: Study carried out from 8 pm to 11 pm on three Saturdays in May

• Hypothesis: Lavender is considered a relaxing odor while lemon is stimulating

"The results confirmed the hypothesis that scents have an influence on customers' behavior. The study found that both length of time and the amount of money spent were positively affected by lavender. However, the lemon aroma was found to have no effect on either the above two variables" - from Guéguen and Petr's Discussion section.

Sample Description

Assessing Research's Accurate Representation

• Students were generally skeptical of the conclusions in Study of Studies

• General critiques:
  • Insufficient sample size
  • Correlation does not imply causation
  • Confounding variables
  • Not fully generalizable

• Activity was successfully implemented

• Increased awareness about analyzing research papers and assessing the justification for the stated claims

• Study can be undertaken with introductory statistics in a single class period

• Different topics can be assessed due to the Atlantic's frequent publishing of this column

• Tasheena Narraidoo'18

• Professor Xiaofei S. Wang

• Introductory and Intermediate Statistics Students

• Gregory Call Fund from the Amherst College Dean of the Faculty

Garfield, Joan et al., "Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education: College Report." Amstat Online (American Statistical Association, 2005)

Lam, Bourree. "Diner Beware: How Restaurants Trick You in Eating Less and Spending More." (The Atlantic, Apr. 2015)

Guéguen and Petr, "Odors and Consumer Behavior in a Restaurant" (International Journal of Hospitality Management, June 2006)