ES 211 – EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

HADJI ALI, FATHIMA D.

I – MSCE

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1:
1. What is t-test and z-test? State their properties and compare it in the table
form

BASIS FOR
t-test z-test
COMPARISON
Meaning t-test refers to a type of z-test implies a hypothesis
parametric test that is applied test which ascertains if the
to identify, how the means of means of two data sets are
two sets of data differ from different from each other
one another when variance is when variance is given
not given
Based on Student-t distribution Normal distribution
Population variance Unknown Known
Sample size Small (n<30) Large (n≥30)

2. When can we use the t-test and z-test? Give specific example.

A t-test is a hypothesis test used by the researcher to compare population means

for a variable, classified into two (2) categories depending on the less than interval
variable. More precisely, it is used to examine how the means taken from two (2)
independent samples differ. T-test follows t-distribution, which is appropriate
when the sample size is small, and the population standard deviation is not
known.

Z-test determines to what extent a data point is away from its mean of the data
set, in standard deviation. The researcher adopts z-test, when the population
variance is known, in essence, when there is a large sample size, sample variance
is deemed to be approximately equal to the population variance. In this way, it is
assumed to be known, despite the fact that only sample data is available and so
normal test can be applied.

3. Explain in your own understanding the importance of hypothesis testing?

Basically, it is used to evaluate the strength of evidence from the sample and
provides a framework from making determinations related to the population. It
helps the researcher decide whether adequate statistical evidence exists in favor
of a certain belief.

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4. What is the difference between Classical Approach and P-value Approach?
Explain in detail.

The classical approach to hypothesis testing is to compare a test statistic (t-score)

and critical value (z-score) from the standard normal table. If the test statistic
falls in the rejection zone, null hypothesis shall be rejected. It is best used for
distribution which give areas and requires you to look up the critical value, like
the student-t distribution, rather than distributions which have you look up a
test statistic to find an area, like the normal distribution. It also has three (3)
different decision rules, depending on whether it is a left tail, right tail or two tail
test. However, the problem with this approach, if a different level of significance
is desired, a different critical value must be read from the table.

While p-value (probability value) approaches hypothesis testing from a different

manner, instead of comparing z-scores or t-scored as in the classical approach,
here probabilities or area are being compared. The level of significance is the area
in the critical region. That is, the area in the tails to the right or left of the critical
values. The p-value is the area to the right or left of the test statistic. If it is a two
(2) tail test, then look up the probability in one tail and double it. If the test
statistic is in the critical region, then the p-value will be less than the significance.
It does not matter whether it is a left tail, right tail or two tail test. This rule
always holds. The null hypothesis will be rejected if the p-value is less than the
level of significance. You will fail to reject the null hypothesis if the p-value is
greater than or equal to the level of significance.

5. What is Type I error and Type II error? If the other type is increasing or
decreasing, explain their relationship by describing the effect of the other
type.

A type I error is the rejection of a true null hypothesis (also known as a false
positive, for example an innocent person is convicted), while a type II error is the
non-rejection of a false null hypothesis (also known as a false negative, for
example a guilty person is not convicted).

As the sample size increases, the probability of a type II error (given false null
hypothesis) decreases, but the maximum probability of a Type I error (given a
true null hypothesis) remains alpha by definition.

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