A statistician will make a decision about these claims. This process is called “hypothesis testing.” A hypothesis test involves collecting data from a sample and evaluating the data. Then, the statistician makes a decision as to whether or not there is sufficient evidence, based upon analyses of the data, to reject the null hypothesis.
In this chapter, you will conduct hypothesis tests on single means and single proportions. You will also learn about the errors associated with these tests.
Hypothesis testing consists of two contradictory hypotheses or statements, a decision based on the data, and a conclusion. To perform a hypothesis test, a statistician will:
Activity
To do the hypothesis test homework problems for this chapter and later chapters, make copies of the appropriate special solution sheets. See Appendix E.
Glossary
- Confidence Interval (CI)
- an interval estimate for an unknown population parameter. This depends on:
- The desired confidence level.
- Information that is known about the distribution (for example, known standard deviation).
- The sample and its size.
- Hypothesis Testing
- Based on sample evidence, a procedure for determining whether the hypothesis stated is a reasonable statement and should not be rejected, or is unreasonable and should be rejected.