Paired T-Test: AKA Dependent Sample T-Test and Repeated Measures T-Test
Paired T-Test: AKA Dependent Sample T-Test and Repeated Measures T-Test
Paired T-Test: AKA Dependent Sample T-Test and Repeated Measures T-Test
Hypothesis testing
Decision
Type I error. A Type I error occurs when the researcher rejects a null
hypothesis when it is true. The probability of committing a Type I error is
called thesignificance level. This probability is also calledalpha, and is
often denoted by .
Type II error. A Type II error occurs when the researcher fails to reject a null
hypothesis that is false. The probability of committing a Type II error is
calledBeta, and is often denoted by . The probability ofnotcommitting a
Type II error is called thePowerof the test.
Decision (cont.)
H0 is true
H0 is false
Reject H0
Type I error
Correct rejection
Correct decision
Type II error
Fail to
reject H0
Power of a test
Sample size (n). Other things being equal, the greater the sample size, the
greater the power of the test.
Significance level (). The higher the significance level, the higher the
power of the test. If you increase the significance level, you reduce theregion
of acceptance. As a result, you are more likely to reject the null hypothesis.
This means you are less likely to accept the null hypothesis when it is false;
i.e., less likely to make a Type II error. Hence, the power of the test is
increased.
Effect size. The "true" value of the parameter being tested. The greater the
difference between the "true" value of a parameter and the value specified in
the null hypothesis, the greater the power of the test. That is, the greater the
effect size, the greater the power of the test.
Hypothesis testing
Independent t-test
For example, you are interested in comparing the anxiety level between male
and female.
Assumptions
Level of measurement
Random sampling
Independence of observations
The observation that make-up your data must be independent of one another.
Assumptions (cont.)
Outliers
Normal distribution
The distribution of the differences in the dependent variable between the two
related group should be approximately normally distributed. With sample size
of 30+, violation of this assumption is unlikely to cause any serious problem.
Example
Suppose a sample of n students were given a diagnostic test before
studying a particular module and then again after completing the module.
We want to find out if, in general, our teaching leads to improvements in
students knowledge/skills (i.e. test scores). We can use the results from
our sample of students to draw conclusions about the impact of this
module in general.
Let x = test score before the module, y = test score after the module
We will need to test the null hypothesis that the true mean difference is
zero.
Example (cont.)