WILCOXON SIGNED-

RANK TEST
Louie C. Juera
 WHEN TO USE?
• The Wilcoxon signed-rank test compares two conditions when
the same participants take part in each condition and the
resulting data violate an assumption of the dependent t-test.

Before After
 THEORY
• The Wilcoxon signed-rank test works in a fairly similar way to
the dependent t-test in that it is based on the differences
between scores in the two conditions you’re comparing.
Once these differences have been calculated they are
ranked but the sign of the difference (positive or negative) is
assigned to the rank.
 EXAMPLE
For example, a neurologist might collect data to investigate
the depressant effects of certain recreational drugs. She
tested 10 clubbers and were given an ecstasy tablet to take
on a Saturday night. Levels of depression were measured
using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) the day after and
midweek.

𝐻0 : 𝑀𝑑 = 0 (𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙)

𝐻𝑎 : 𝑀𝑑 ≠ 0
 NORMALITY TESTING
Ho: Distribution is normally distributed
Ha: Distribution is not normally distributed
 EXAMPLE
To calculate the significance of the test statistic (T), we again look at
the mean (𝑇) and standard error (𝑆𝐸𝑇 ), which are functions of the
sample size, n:

𝑛 𝑛+1 𝑇−𝑇
𝑇= 𝑧=
4 𝑆𝐸𝑇

𝑛 𝑛 + 1 2𝑛 + 1
𝑆𝐸𝑇 =
24
 EXAMPLE
𝑛 𝑛+1 8 8+1
𝑇= = = 18
4 4 𝑇 − 𝑇 0 − 18
𝑧= = = −2.52
𝑆𝐸𝑇 7.14
8 8 + 1 2(8) + 1
𝑆𝐸𝑇 = = 7.14
24
USING SPSS
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
 CALCULATING AN EFFECT SIZE
The equation to convert a z-score into the effect size estimate, r, is as
follows (from Rosenthal, 1991:19)

𝑧
𝑟=
𝑁
Where:
z = the z-score
N = the size of the study ( number of total observations)

−2.53
𝑟= = −0.57
20
 CONCLUSION

Since the p-value (0.08) is less than 0.05, hence, the

researcher reject the null hypothesis.

Therefore, for ecstasy users, were significantly higher on

Wednesday than on Sunday.
 LET’S CHECK IT OUT!

An electronics engineer would like to develop a

device to measure height using ultrasonic
sensor. He tested the prototype on 15
respondents. Test for normality of data. Manual Automatic
What is your conclusion and 85.00
70.00
150.00
25.00
recommendations? 40.00 85.00
65.00 10.00
80.00 20.00
75.00 5.00
55.00 40.00
20.00 35.00