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Objectives
At the end of this report, we should be able to:

! Understand what t- Test is ! Establish the basic assumptions in the use of t- test ! Determine when the t- Test is appropriate to use ! Apply t Test in hypothesis testing

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Students t - Test
! Introduced in 1908 by William Sealy Gosset, using his pen name Student, when he worked for the Guinness brewery in Dublin, Ireland. ! He devised the t-test as a way to cheaply monitor the quality of stout.

So what is a T- test?

! It is a statistical method for testing the difference between 2 groups. It follows a Student's t distribution (or t distribution) if the null hypothesis is true. ! Particularly useful in experimental and quasiexperimental designs in which an experimental and control group are compared

! The t- test uses the mean, the variance and a Table of Critical Values for a t Distribution to calculate a t value. ! t- distributions - A set of distributions of means of randomly drawn samples from a normally distributed population. All t distributions have a normal distribution with a mean equal to the mean of the population

How is it different from a Z - test?

! We use z test when the purpose is to compare the sample to the population (perhaps to see if it is representative of the population) AND when the population parameters (mean and standard deviation) are known for the variable you are studying. ! We run a T-test when we want to compare two independent samples (unrelated samples) and when we do not know the parameters of the two samples or groups.

TYPE of DATA REQUIRED

! Data required are of 2 samples/ groups ! 2 Independent variables (can be of nominal level or ordinal level) !Dependent variable (should be an interval or ratio level)

! T- test can be applied to answer each research question when the independent variable is dichotomous with only two groups and the dependent variable is continuous.

Examples:
! Do males and females significantly differ on their level of math anxiety? IV: Gender (2 groups: males and females) DV: Level of math anxiety ! Do older people exercise significantly less frequently than younger people? IV: Age (2 groups: older people and younger people) DV: Frequency of getting exercise

ASSUMPTIONS that MUST be met

1.! Requires interval level data for the dependent measure 2.! Independent observations: this means that the results of one sample are not due to the other sample. When this is violated, as when samples are measured twice, a paired t test must be appropriate

3.! Normal distribution: the population from which the sample is drawn is normally distributed. 4.! Homogeneity of variance: the two populations from which the samples are drawn have equivalent variance. This assumption is very important. If violated, a meaningful interpretation of the results can be negated.

3 DIFFERENT FORMULAS BASED ON THE t DISTRIBUTION

1.! Pooled (Equal variance) formula

Formula for pooled t -tests

2. Separate (Unequaled variance) formula

Formula for Separate t- test

3. Correlated t- test or t-test for paired comparisons

! concerned with the differences between the average scores of a single sample of individuals who are assessed at 2 different times (such as before treatment and after treatment ) or on 2 different measures ! The main advantage of a paired samples ttest is that it uses the same individuals in all the treatment conditions.

Formula for Paired t- test

This tests is appropriate for pre test and post test scores

How do we determine which t test to use

Paired t test (Dependent t-test; Correlated t-test)

Are the score for the two means from the same subjects (or related subjects)? YES NO

Are there the same number of people in the two groups?

NO

YES

Equal Variance (Pooled t- test)

Are the variances of the two groups different?

YES
Significance level is p ! .05

NO

Equal Variance (Pooled t- test)

Significance level is p >.05

Unequal Variance (Separate t- test)

t-tests and hypothesis testing

4 main steps involved in hypothesis testing using t-test

1)! State the hypotheses. 2)! Set a criterion for rejecting the Ho (Null hypothesis) 3)! Collect the data and calculate the tstatistics. 4)! Compare test statistic to criterion and make a decision

Step 1: State the hypotheses

Ho: The null hypothesis states that the two samples come from the same population. In other words, There is no statistically significant difference between the two groups on the dependent variable.
Symbols: Non-directional: Ho: Directional:

1 = 2
or

! If the null hypothesis is tenable, the two group means differ only by sampling fluctuation how much the statistics value varies from sample to sample or chance.

Ha: The alternative hypothesis states that

the two samples come from different populations. In other words, There is a statistically significant difference between the two groups on the dependent variable.

Symbols: Non-directional:

Directional:

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Step 2: Set a Criterion for Rejecting Ho

! ! ! Compute degrees of freedom Set alpha level Identify critical value(s)
! T table

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A. Computing Degrees of Freedom ! Calculate degrees of freedom (df) to determine rejection region.
df = 2) ! df describe the number of scores in a sample that are free to vary. ! We subtract 2 because in this case we have 2 samples.
(sample size for sample1+ sample size for sample2

More on Degrees of Freedom ! In an Independent samples t-test, each sample mean places a restriction on the value of one score in the sample, hence the sample lost one degree of freedom and there are n-1 degrees of freedom for the sample.

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B. Set alpha level ! The alpha level is a probability value used to define the critical regions. ! Usually the alpha level is set at ! = 0.05. This means that there is a 5% chance of finding a statistically significant result. ! If the alpha level is ! = .01, this means that there is a 1% chance of finding a statistically significant result.
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B. Set alpha level

*Therefore, the smaller the alpha level, the smaller the chance of finding a significant result.

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C. Locate the critical region in the tdistribution

! The critical region is found by referring to a t-distribution table. ! To determine the critical region, you need to know:
a. df if df are not in the table, use the next lowest number to be conservative b. directionality of the test c. alpha level
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!The location of the critical regions depends on the alpha level and the degrees of freedom.

!Results that fall in the critical regions are statistically significant because they are unlikely to have occurred by chance.

Step 3: Collect data and Calculate t statistic

variance

Whereby: n: Sample size

s2 = variance

df

:Sample mean subscript1 = sample 1 or group 1 subscript2 = sample 2 or group 2

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Step 4: Compare test statistic to criterion and make a decision !For t-statistics within the critical region, H0 is rejected, allowing us to conclude that that there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups on the dependent variable, t = , p < ".

!If the t-statistic is not within the critical region, we fail to reject H0, allowing us to conclude that there is no statistically significant difference between the two groups on the dependent variable, t = , p > ".

Practice exercises
A researcher was interested in comparing the amount of time spent watching television by women and by men. Independent simple random samples of 14 women and 17 men were selected and each person was asked how many hours he or she had watched television during the previous week. The summary Statistics are as follows;

!At 5% significance level, do the date provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the mean time spent watching television by women is less than the mean time spent watching television by men? !Preliminary data analyses indicate that you can reasonably consider the assumptions for using pooled t procedures satisfied. Perform the required hypothesis test using the steps discussed.

ANSWERS:
1. What is your hypothesis? ! H0: 1 = 2 There is no significant difference between the time spent watching television by women and by men.! ! Ha: 1 < 2 The mean time spent by women watching television is less than the mean time spent watching television by men

2. What is your criterion for rejecting the null hypothesis? a. Compute for the degrees of freedom = df = b. Determine your alpha level c. Locate your critical value from the t table using df and alpha level

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2. What is your criterion for rejecting the null hypothesis? a. Compute for the degrees of freedom = df = (14 + 17 ) 2 = 31 2 = 29 b. Determine your alpha level ! = 0.05. c. Critical value = 1.699

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3. Compute for the t value using the formula (remember as stated earlier Preliminary data analyses indicate that you can reasonably consider the assumptions for using pooled t procedures satisfied.)

T- value: 2.359

4. Compare results with criterion (critical value) and make a decision: ! Since t- value (2.359) is GREATER than the critical value (1.699), our decision would be to REJECT Ho (which states There is no significant difference between the time spent watching television by women and by men).