STATISTICAL TESTS

DATA PROCESSING
SEHS STATISTICS

STATISTICAL TESTS T TEST

How can we determine if students born in month
Jan- June are signifcantly taller than students born
in July- December?

T-TEST VERSUS CHI-SQUARED TEST

The t-test is used to determine whether there is a
difference between two means
The chi-squared test is used to determine whether
data follows an expected pattern.
Which one is more appropriate for our height
comparison?

REVIEW OF IMPORTANT TERMS

Null hypothesis (Ho)
Alternate hypothesis (HA)

Brainstorm with a partner what the difference is

between the two above terms.

DEFINITIONS.
Null hypothesis = a hypothesis set up to be nullified
or refuted in order to support an alternative
hypothesis.
Alternate hypothesis = the hypothesis used in
hypothesis testing that is contrary to the null
hypothesis. It is usually taken to be that the
observations are the result of a real effect.

MORE IDEAS
Is everyone in your group the same height? How
different are you from the mean?
What does it mean for data to be normally
distributed?

Brainstorm with a partner

THE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION

T-TEST
used to find out whether there is a significant
difference between the means of two
populations
A p value (probability) is always calculated
Calculated using TI-83 calculators
If the p value is greater than the relevant
critical t value from the table, the difference
between the means is considered to be
significant (& the null hypothesis (HO) is
rejected)

IS YOUR T TEST ONE OR TWO TAILED?

A two tailed test is used to determine if two mean
values of normally distributed data are different
from each other, either higher or lower than the
other. It is the most common test.
A one-tailed hypothesis is simply one that specifies
the direction of a difference or correlation (ex. Does
years of schools correlate to income level? )

UNPAIRED, PAIRED OR EQUAL

VARIANCE?
A paired test is used to determine a difference
before and after a given treatment.
e.g. sig diff in heart rate, with and without caffeine, (i.e. they
are paired up)

An equal variance test is used if you are dividing

a population and treating them in different ways
e.g. running speed during a 10km race if you give one
group eload and a second water.
A normal students t test is two tailed with equal variance
(unpaired)

DBQ IN TEXT PAGE 157

Raw data (in seconds) for 2 field hockey players on
a ball dribbling test. Calculate the means and SD
for each. Calculate the p value, is their a significant
difference between the two girls scores?
Roisin: 10.1, 10.4, 13.0, 11.1, 14.6, 9.0, 11.8, 9.2, 8.8,
11.0
Mary: 8.0, 9.2, 7.9, 10.0, 9.9, 8.1, 10.0, 7.5, 9.5, 10.3

T-TEST STEPS USING TI-83

Determine the p value using the following steps:

Stats
tests
4: 2-samp TTest
Inpt: data
Enter data as above into L1 and L2
1 2
pooled: yes
calculate
p- value = ?

HOW DO YOU INTERPRET THE PVALUE?

If p is less than 0.05, you can reject the Null
Hypothesis. (there is less than 5% chance that the
differences in means are just due to chance)
If p is greater than 0.05 you can accept the Null
Hypothesis. (= there is no difference between the
means)

IS THERE A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN THE MEANS?
What is your conclusion?