A clinical psychologist is studying the association between education level and smoking. She collects a measure of smoking frequency from a group of participants with a high school or lower education, and she collects the same measure from a group of college graduates. Because the two measurements are obtained from different samples or people, she uses an independent-samples t test to analyze the data. The difference in the number of cigarettes smoked was 3 points, and the t test gave a probability value of .01 (1%). Which of the following interpretations is correct regarding the probability value? Select one:
a. A difference of 3 points has a 1% probability of occurring due to random chance
b. If there is truly no difference in the population, a difference of 3 cigarettes or more would occur in 1% of all random samples from such a population
c. If there is truly a difference in the population, a difference of 3 cigarettes or more would occur in 1% of all random samples from such a population
d. There is a 1% probability that the null hypothesis is true in the population