HYPOTHESIS TESTING

What is Hypothesis?
Is a statement about a population developed
for the purpose of testing.
In most cases the population is too large that
it is not feasible to study all items in the
population.
We can, therefore, test a statement to
determine whether the sample does or does
not support the statement concerning the
population.

SIGNIFICANCE
When we make quantitative judgments, or
hypotheses, about situations, we are either right
or wrong.
However, if we are wrong we may not be far
from the real figure or that is our judgment is
not significantly different. Thus our hypotheses
may be acceptable.

Example
A contractor says that it will take 9 months to
construct a house for a client. The house is
finished in 9 months and 1 week. The
completion time is not 9 months however it is
not significantly different.

STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Significance is typically designated with words such as
significance,
statistical
significance,
or
probability.
The latter word is the source of the letter that
represents significance, the letter p.
The p value identifies the likelihood that a particular
outcome may have occurred by chance.

Example:
A group A may score an
average of 37 on a scale of depression while group B
scores 41 on the same scale.
If a T test determines that group A differs from group
B at a p = .01 level of significance, it may be
concluded that there is a 1 in 100 probability that the
resulting difference happened by chance, and a 99 in
100 probability that the discrepancy in scores is a
reliable finding.
The smaller the value the greater confidence the
researcher has that his or her findings are valid.

Null Hypotheses
The first step is to state the hypothesis being tested. It
is called the null hypothesis, designated (Ho)
There is usually a not or a no term in the null
hypothesis, meaning that there is no change.
For example, the null hypothesis is that the number of
miles driven on the steel-belted tire is not different
from 60,000.
Therefore, Ho: = 60,000.
We either reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis.
The null hypothesis is a statement that is not rejected
unless our sample data provide convincing evidence
that it is false.

Alternate Hypotheses
The alternate hypothesis describes what you will
conclude if you reject the null hypothesis. It is
written as H.. It is also called the research
hypothesis.
The alternate hypothesis is accepted if the sample
data provide us with enough statistical evidence that
the null hypothesis is false.
A recent article indicated that the mean age of U.S.
commercial aircraft is 15 years.
The null hypothesis represents the current or reported
condition.
Ho: = 15.
The alternate hypothesis is that the statement is not
true: H1: 15.

The t Test Procedure

 Independent Samples t Tests

Paired Samples t Tests
One Sample t Tests

Independent Samples t
Tests
Compares the means of two different samples.
The two samples share some variable of interest in
common.
Business analyst may want to find out the difference
between the expenditure patterns of the two different
geographical regions.

Example:
The trade show Bureau conducted a survey to
determine why people go to trade shows.
The respondents were asked to rate a series of a
reasons on a scale from 1 to 5.
1 = little importance
5 = great importance
One of the reasons suggested was general curiosity.
The following responses for 50 people from the
computers/electronics industry and 50 people from
food/ beverage industry were recorded.

Determine whether there is a significant

difference between people in these two
industries on this question

Food/Beverage

Computers/Electronics
1
3
3
3
1
2
2
3
3
4

2
3
3
2
2
4
1
5
3
3

1
2
1
3
3
2
4
3
2
3

3
4
2
2
2
3
1
3
2
2

2
3
2
3
1
3
4
2
3
3

1
4
3
4
1
2
2
2
2
4

3
5
2
3
1
4
3
1
1
3

3
2
2
3
3
4
1
2
1
3

2
4
2
3
3
4
1
2
2
3

1
3
2
3
2
4
1
5
3
2

Nike Case
In a pretest data on Nike were obtained from 45
respondents. These data were given in the SPSS file,
which gives the usage, gender, awareness, attitude,
preference, intention, and loyalty toward Nike of a
sample of Nike users.
Usage has been coded as 1, 2, or 3, representing
light, medium and heavy users
The gender has been coded as 1 for females and 2
for males.
Awareness, attitude, preference, intention, and
loyalty are measured on 7-type likert type scales (1
= very unfavorable, 7 = very favorable.)

Paired Samples t - Test

Health Spa
A health spa in a town advertises a combined fitness
and diet programme where it guarantees that
participants who are overweight will definitely loose
a significant amount of weight if they scrupulously
follow the course.
The weights of all participants in the programme are
recorded each time they come to the spa.
The authorities are somewhat scepitical of the
advertising claim so they select at random13 of the
regular participants and they recorded weights in
kilograms before and after 6 months in the
programme.

Migraine Headaches
Migraine headaches are not uncommon. They begin
with blurred vision either in one or both eyes and
then are often followed by severe headaches.
There are medicines available but their efficiency is
often questioned. Studies have indicated that
migraine is caused by stress, drinking too much
coffee, or consuming too much sugar.

 A study was made on 10 volunteer patients who

were known to be migraine sufferers.
These patients were first asked to record over a six
month period the number of migraine headaches
they experienced. This was then calculated into the
average number per month.
Then they were asked to stop coffee for 3 months
and record again the number of migraine attacks
they experienced. This again was reduced to
monthly basis.

One Sample t - test

One Sample t - test

It is designed to test whether the mean of a
distribution differs significantly from some present
value.
Did the performance of a particular class differ
significantly from the professors goal of an 82%
average?
Lower Tail Test

Upper Tail Test

Ho: o
H1: < o

Ho: o
H1: > o

Waiting Time Case

The Bank manager has to develop a new system to
reduce the time customers spend waiting for teller
service during peak hours.
The manager hopes the new system will reduce
waiting times from the current 9 to 10 minutes to
less than 6 minutes.
Suppose the manager wishes to use the random
sample of 100 waiting times to support the claim
that the mean waiting time under the new system is
shorter than six minutes.

Example
A soft drink company produces 2 liters bottles of one
of its popular drinks. The quality control department
is responsible for verifying that each bottle contains
exactly two liters of soft drinks.
Data in SPSS format
Use
= .01 whether each bottle contains exactly
two litres of soft drink

ANOVA

ANOVA
Analysis of variance or ANOVA is a technique of
testing hypothesis about the significant
differences in several population means.

Teaching Methods
Imagineaprofessorwasinterestedinhowdifferent
teachingmethodsaffectedstudentsknowledge.
He noticed that some professors were aloof and
arrogant in their teaching style and humiliated
anyone who asked them a question, while others
were encouraging and supporting of questions and
comments.
Theprofessortookthreestatisticscoursesandtaught
thesamematerial.
Foronegroupofstudentshewanderedaroundwith
a large cane and beat anyone who asked draft
questionsorgotquestionswrong(punish).

 In the second group he used his normal teaching

styles, which is to encourage students to discuss
things that they find difficult and to give anyone
workinghardanicesweetreward(reward).
The final group he remained indifferent to and
neither punished or nor rewarded students efforts
(indifferent).
As the dependent measure he took students exam
marks.
UseANOVAtotestwhetherthethreeteachingstyles
aresignificantlydifferent.

Foreign Travel
Preference for foreign travel was measured on a 9point scale (1 = no preference, 9 = strong preference).
Sex was coded as male = 1, female = 2.
Frequency of travel was coded as light = 1, medium =
2, and heavy = 3.
Perform the following analysis:
Do the males and females differ in their preference for
foreign travel?
Do the light, medium and heavy travelers differ in
their preference for foreign travel?

Thanks