Summary: Matched or Paired Samples

Key Concepts

  • Two measurements (samples) are drawn from the same pair of individuals or objects.
  • Differences are calculated from the matched or paired samples.
  • The differences from the sample are used to conduct the hypothesis test.
  • Either the matched pairs have differences that come from a population that is normal or the number of differences is sufficiently large (more than 30).
  • The distribution that is used to conduct the hypothesis test on the differences is a t-distribution.

Glossary

Degrees of Freedom (df): the number of objects in a sample that are free to vary.

Matched or Paired Samples: when data is gathered from two similar subjects (or the same subject) to create a pair of data.