Wilcoxon Test

Wilcoxon test
Wilcoxon test (Wilcoxon matched pairs signedrank) is the nonparametric alternative to the dependent t test. Thus when the two groups are related, through either matching or repeated measurements, and the assumptions or requirements of the parametric procedures cannot be met, the Wilcoxon is the best choice. The Wilcoxon, like the Mann-Whitney U Test, an Ho which asserts that population from which the samples are drawn are the same. The H1 can be either be non-directional or directional.

Assumptions:
The samples must be correlated It must be possible to rank the differences between the two samples.

To compute Wilocoxon Tobt

1. Determine the difference score (D) for each pair of scores. Subtract the score in one condition from the score in the other for each pair. It makes no difference which score is subtracted from which, but subtract the scores the same way for all pairs. Determine the N of nonzero difference scores. Ignore any difference scores equal to zero, and count the number of other difference scores. Assign ranks to the non-zero difference scores. Ignore the sign (+ or -) of each difference. Assign the rank of 1 to the smallest difference, the rank of 2 to the smallest difference, and so on. Record ranked scores in column.

2.

3.

To compute Wilocoxon Tobt

4. Separate the ranks, using the sign of the difference scores. Create two columns of ranks, labeled R- and R+ The R- column contains the ranks assigned to negative differences in step 32 above. The R- column contains the ranks assigned to positive differences. 5. Compute the sum of ranks for the positive and negative scores. Compute the R for the column labelled R+, and the column R- . 6. Determine the Wilocoxon Tobt.

To compute Wilocoxon Tobt

7. Find the critial value of T in the Table. 8. Compare Tobt to Tcrit. 9. Make decision. 10. Draw conclusion.

Example:
An experiment to find out whether different work schedules will result in different productivity ratings is conducted on 10 accountants in an accounting firm. Productivity is measured for 1 month on the regular 9-to5 schedule, and then have their productivity measured, after a 2 week adjustment period, for 1 month on the earlier 6-to-2 schedule. Productivity is measured by the number of dollars produced for all the company accountants, divided by the mean number of dollars produced by all company accountants. The productivity measure of the 10 accountants on the two different work schedules are listed below. Is it significant at = 0.05?

Solution:
Intervals within this data is not equal, so it does not meet the minimum data type requirements for the test. A non-parametric test must be used to analyse the data. Same participants were used in both conditions, i.e the two samples should be correlated. The Wilcoxon T test is the most appropriate

 Hypothesis: Ho: Different work schedules will not result in different productivity rating. H1: Different work schedules will result in different productivity rating.

Find the Wilcoxon T

R+ = 30 R- = 15

Wilcoxon T = 15

To find the critical value, you need to find out the research hypothesis if it is one-tailed or tw0-tailed. In this case it is two-tailed or non-directional. n = 9 because there were 10 original pairs and only one of those had zero difference. So the critical value of Wilcoxon T that correspond to 9 signed rank at = 0.05 is 5.

 Test value 15 > than critical value 5 Do not reject your null hypothesis. Different work schedules will not result in different productivity rating.

Exercise
An experiment to find out whether there is different reaction time to different colour symbol is conducted. A certain symbol printed in (i) red ink and (ii) black ink is tested on 10 people. Reaction times are taken using the red ink symbol followed by black in symbols. The data are as follows. Can we conclude at = 0.05, that there is no significant difference between the reaction time and the colour of symbols?

Participant
1 2 3 4 5 6

Reaction Time to red symbols

540 580 600 680 430 740

Reaction time to black symbols

760 710 1105 880 500 990

7
8 9 10

600
690 605 520

1050
640 595 520

Thank You