Carlos Johanson, a quantitative analyst with Eastern Rhodium Institutional Brokerage, has been instructed to

perform a regression analysis to test whether the proliferation of neural networks is positively related to the

growth of domestic research grants. Mr. Johanson begins the process by formulating and stating a hypothesis.

Now that the hypothesis has been explicitly stated, Mr. Johanson should proceed to which of the following

steps? Choose the best answer.