Psy 2020 Experimental I: Applied Statistics

Lab 4: t-tests

Dr. Obrecht Lindemann

Welcome! Here you will work through hypothesis testing examples using t-statistics. You will need to open the Lab 4 t-
tests.sav (SPSS datafile) in order to complete this lab. Please type your answers in this document and submit this file in
Blackboard by the end the week.

Overview

The datafile contains data from two different studies. Each study’s data should be analyzed using one of
the t-tests. First you‘ll need to determine which t-test to use, and then analyze the data and explain what
you found. Please see my lab tutorial for examples of how to do this. Also, I provide steps for how to
run the different types of t-tests at the end of the document (see SPSS guide for t-tests)

Study descriptions

Dataset 1: College students stated whether they were male or female, and reported the number of
speeding tickets they received in the past year. (Hint: students are in either the male group or the female
group; this tells you whether the variable sex is between or within subjects)

Dataset 2: Participants with a Bachelor’s degree reported their annual income. The mean income of
adults in the United States overall is μ = $41,027.

Dataset 1: Sex and speeding tickets

 1. Which t-test should be used to analyze whether sex predicts number of speeding tickets? (single
sample, repeated measures/within subjects, or independent samples/between subjects)
Independent Samples T-Test
2. State the independent variable (IV). Gender (male vs female)
3. State the dependent variable (DV). Number of speeding tickets received in the past year
4. State the Null hypothesis (H0): If we find a significant or a big difference in the number of
speeding tickets received depending on gender (female or male)
5. Run your t-test (see the SPSS guide at the bottom of the document for instructions). How many
speeding tickets did males and females get on average?
a. Male = 1.29
b. Female = .39

6. Next, type your results in APA format (t(df)=x.xx, p=.xx, d=.xx):

t(48)=2.865, p= .003, d= .902

7. Explain what your results mean. If you reject the null, be sure to include the direction of the
result, i.e., explain which sex generally speeds more. Mention whether you have a small,
medium, or large effect size (d ≈ .2 or -.2  small; d ≈ .5 or -.5  medium; d ≈ .8 or -.8 
large).

Reject the Null hypothesis with a significant effect.

a. Male = 1.29
c. Female = .39
We can see that men receive significantly more tickets than women; this was a large effect size.

8. Finally, use Excel to make a graph of your two group means (See instructions at the bottom of
this document, and/or my lab tutorial).

Dataset 2: Income with a Bachelor’s degree

 9. Which t-test should be used to analyze whether people with a Bachelor’s degree earn a different
amount of money compared to the general population (μ = $41,027)? (single sample, repeated
measures/within subjects, or independent samples/between subjects)

Single Sample t test

10. State the independent variable (IV). N/A

11. State the dependent variable (DV). Annual income of people with bachelor's degree
12. State the Null hypothesis (H0): People with a bachelor's degree earn more or the same as a
person without a bachelor's degree.

13. Run your t-test. Run your t-test (see the SPSS guide at the bottom of the document for
instructions). How much money does a person with a Bachelor’s degree make on average?
d. INCOME WITH BACHELOR’S= 48225.9322

14. Next, type your results in APA format (t(df)=x.xx, p=.xx, d=.xx):

t(58) = 3.172 , p= .00 , d = .41

 15. Explain what your results mean. If you reject the null, be sure to include the direction of the
result. Mention whether you have a small, medium, or large effect size (d ≈ .2 or -.2  small; d
≈ .5 or -.5  medium; d ≈ .8 or -.8  large).

Reject the Null hypothesis. We can see that the income of people with a bachelor's degree is
significantly higher; and the effect size is almost medium.