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Section 9.2: What is a Test of Significance?. Remember… . H o is the Null Hypothesis When you are using a mathematical statement, the null hypothesis uses ≥, ≤, and = functions. H a is the Alternative Hypothesis
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Remember… • Ho is the Null Hypothesis • When you are using a mathematical statement, the null hypothesis uses ≥, ≤, and = functions. • Ha is the Alternative Hypothesis • When you are using a mathematical statement, the alternative hypothesis uses <, >, and ≠ functions.
Before you begin an experiment… • You make a decision… • Is it your goal to reject the null hypothesis? • Is it your goal to fail to reject the null hypothesis (does not necessarily mean you accept it)? • Remember, the only way to be completely certain is to test the entire population in your experiment—not practical. So you need to take a sample instead and use a sample proportion as your data in which draw your conclusions.
You can’t always be right… • You may reject the null hypothesis, but it turned out to be true. They refer to this as a Type 1 Error. • You may fail to reject the null hypothesis, but it was false. They refer to this as a Type 2 Error.
The Four Outcomes • There are four outcomes of a hypothesis test of an experiment…
Which error would be more serious? • Is it worse to say something is wrong, when it is right? • Or is it worse to say something is right, when it is wrong? • Like in a jury trial, which is worse: to put an innocent man in jail, or set a guilty man free? • Innocent man put in jail is a Type 1 Error. • Guilty man set free is a Type 2 Error.
Alpha and Beta… • In a hypothesis test, the level of significance is your maximum allowable probability of making a type 1 error, denoted by α (alpha). • The probability of making a type 2 error is denoted by β (beta). • By setting it to a small value, you are saying you want the probability of rejecting the true null hypothesis to be small. The most commonly used levels of significance are α = 0.10, 0.05, and 0.01 (10%, 5%, and 1%).
About the level of significance… • You do not want to always set the level of significance to 0.01. By reducing the probability of making a Type 1 Error, you are increasing the probability of making a Type 2 Error.
The Jury’s Errors… • A jury is instructed that the prosecution must provide proof of guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt”. If the probability of a Type 1 error is small (an innocent man goes to jail), then the probability of a Type 2 error (a guilty man goes free) increases. • The relationship between α and β is an inverse one: as one goes up, the other goes down; and vice versa.
Other Thoughts… • Failing to reject a Null Hypothesis does not mean you have accepted it as true. It means there was not enough evidence to reject it. (Like in a trial, if they find you “Not Guilty”, they are not saying you are “Innocent”, they are saying there was not enough evidence to prove your guilt.)