Hypothesis Testing

I. Introduction
Statistical Inference is the procedure of generalizing to the
population, the observations found in the sample
Statistical inference has 2 areas:
Estimation
Hypothesis Testing
A hypothesis is a statement about one or more populations
There are 2 types of hypothesis:
Null Hypothesis
Alternative Hypothesis
II. What is Hypothesis Testing?
Hypothesis Testing comprises those procedures by which it is
decided to reject or not a hypothesis
Sampling Variation makes sure that any single sample will differ
somewhat from the population value
Sample values with small deviation from the parameter value
are more likely to happen while extreme values are otherwise
III. Steps in Hypothesis Testing
The hypothesis must be testable(open for statistical
assessment)
1. State the null and alternative hypothesis
The null hypothesis is the hypothesis of no difference, it is a
statement of equality
2. State the level of significance
the level of significance, alpha, is the probabaility level that
is considered too low to warrant support of the hypothesis
being tested
the experimter is liable to commit one of the two types of
errors, namely:
Type I Error(alpha error), rejecting a true hypothesis
Type II Error(beta error), accepting a false hypothesis
when alpha is 0.5, the probability of rejecting a true
hypothesis is at most equal to 5%
alpha and beta are related inversely
(1-beta) is called the power of the test, it is the probability of
rejecting a false hypothesis

3. Choose the test statistic and determine the sampling distribution

4. Determine the critical region
the region of non-rejection is equal to (1 alpha)
the critical region is equal to alpha
A one tailed test is used if the alternative hypothesis
specifies the direction of the predicted difference
5. Compute the test statistic
6. Make a statisical decision
to reject or not reject the null hypothesis, it is rejected if the
test statistic falls in the critical region
7. Draw conclusions
if the null hypothesis is rejected, we conclude that it is not
true
if the null hypothesis is not rejected, we conclude that the it
may not be true
the statistical decision should not be interpreted as definitive,
and should be considered along with all other reelevant
information available to the decision maker
IV. General criteria for test selection
Level of Measurement: (nominal & ordinal vs ration & interval)
are the observations nominal, ordinal, ratio or interval
Objectives /Purposes of the study: (# of samples being
compared)
trying to determine if a sample could have been from a
population with a stipulated mean or a proportion or from
a population of some pre-specified distribution
comparison of 2 sample means or proportions
comparison of more than 2 sample means or proportions
determination of correlation or association between
variables
Design of the Study: (paired or independent)
are the samples independent or paired?
Assumptions of the Test: (use non-parametric when the
assumptions of parametric are not tenable)s
parametric or non parametric?


V. Parametric vs Non-parametric
1. Parametric Tests
Parametric Tests, are statistical tests that are based on the
assumption made by concerning the parameters of the
population
The assumptions which must be satisifed by parametric
tests:
random selections of sample
normal distribution of the population from which the
samples were drawn
when more than one population is sampled, equality of
variances must be satisfied
Parametric tests usually involve numerical data measured
either in interval or ratio scale
2. Non-parametric Tests
Non-parametric Tests are defined as tests in which no
hypothesis is madeabout specific values of the population
parameters
Distributon-free Tests are defined as tests in which the
hypothesis is tested with no assumptions made by
concerning the form of the distribution of the variables
This test is used when the researcher is in no position to
make any assumptions about the population parameters, or
about the form of the distribution, or if he doubts the validity
od the parametric assumptions
Non-parametric tests usually involve non-numerical data,
being nominal or an ordinal scale
VI. The meaning of P-value
P-value can be thought as the probability of obtaining a result
as extreme or more extreme than the actual sample value
obtained given the null hypothesis is true
Guidelines for judging significance of P-value:
If 0.1 < p <= 0.5, then significant
If 0.001 < p <= 0.1, then highly significant
If p <= 0.001, then very highly significant
If p > 0.05, then not statistically significant

if 0.05 < p < 0.1, then a trend towards statistical

signficance is established

VII. General comments about the test of hypothesis:

The null hypothesis is always expressed in terms of population
parameters
Statstical signififcance is not the same thing as practical or
clinical signficance
Statistical inference is not valid or applicable
Steps in a Test of Significance:
1. Formulate Ho and Ha
2. Choose alpha, level of significance
3. Determine test statistic
4. Determine critical region
5. Make a decision
6. Draw conclusion
Test of significance yields a p-value pertaining to how extreme the
observations are under the null hypothesis (Fishers approach)
Hypothesis testing set up both a null hypothesis and an alternative
hypothesis and work as a decision rule for accepting the null
hypothesis (Neyman and Pearsons approach)