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Using Statistics in Research Psych 231: Research Methods in Psychology Final Drafts of class experiment due in labs the week after Thanksgiving Don’t forget to look over the grading checklist in the PIP packet Announcements Purpose: To make claims about populations based on data collected from samples What’s the big deal? Example Experiment: Group A - gets treatment to improve memory Group B - gets no treatment (control) After treatment period test both groups for memory Results: Group A’s average memory score is 80% Group B’s is 76% Is the 4% difference a “real” difference (statistically significant) or is it just sampling error? Inferential Statistics Step 1: State your hypotheses Step 2: Set your decision criteria Step 3: Collect your data from your sample(s) Step 4: Compute your test statistics Step 5: Make a decision about your null hypothesis “Reject H0” “Fail to reject H0” Testing Hypotheses Step 1: State your hypotheses Null hypothesis (H0) • “There are no differences (effects)” Alternative hypothesis(ses) This is the hypothesis that you are testing • Generally, “not all groups are equal” You aren’t out to prove the alternative hypothesis (although it feels like this is what you want to do) If you reject the null hypothesis, then you’re left with support for the alternative(s) (NOT proof!) Testing Hypotheses Step 1: State your hypotheses In our memory example experiment Null H0: mean of Group A = mean of Group B Alternative HA: mean of Group A ≠ mean of Group B (Or more precisely: Group A > Group B) It seems like our theory is that the treatment should improve memory. That’s the alternative hypothesis. That’s NOT the one the we’ll test with inferential statistics. Instead, we test the H0 Testing Hypotheses Step 1: State your hypotheses Step 2: Set your decision criteria Your alpha level will be your guide for when to: • “reject the null hypothesis” • “fail to reject the null hypothesis” This could be correct conclusion or the incorrect conclusion • Two different ways to go wrong • Type I error: saying that there is a difference when there really isn’t one (probability of making this error is “alpha level”) • Type II error: saying that there is not a difference when there really is one Testing Hypotheses Real world (‘truth’) H0 is correct Reject H0 Experimenter’s conclusions Fail to Reject H0 Error types H0 is wrong Type I error Type II error Real world (‘truth’) Defendant is innocent Defendant is guilty Type I error Jury’s decision Find guilty Type II error Find not guilty Error types: Courtroom analogy Type I error: concluding that there is an effect (a difference between groups) when there really isn’t. Sometimes called “significance level” We try to minimize this (keep it low) Pick a low level of alpha Psychology: 0.05 and 0.01 most common Type II error: concluding that there isn’t an effect, when there really is. Related to the Statistical Power of a test 1 How likely are you able to detect a difference if it is there Error types Step 1: State your hypotheses Step 2: Set your decision criteria Step 3: Collect your data from your sample(s) Step 4: Compute your test statistics Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, etc.) Inferential statistics (t-tests, ANOVAs, etc.) Step 5: Make a decision about your null hypothesis Reject H0 Fail to reject H0 “statistically significant differences” “not statistically significant differences” Testing Hypotheses “Statistically significant differences” When you “reject your null hypothesis” • Essentially this means that the observed difference is above what you’d expect by chance • “Chance” is determined by estimating how much sampling error there is • Factors affecting “chance” • Sample size • Population variability Statistical significance Population mean Population Distribution x n=1 Sampling error (Pop mean - sample mean) Sampling error Population mean Population Distribution Sample mean x n=2 x Sampling error (Pop mean - sample mean) Sampling error Generally, as the sample Population mean size increases, the sampling error decreases Sample mean Population Distribution x x n = 10 x x x x x x xx Sampling error (Pop mean - sample mean) Sampling error Typically the narrower the population distribution, the narrower the range of possible samples, and the smaller the “chance” Small population variability Sampling error Large population variability These two factors combine to impact the distribution of sample means. The distribution of sample means is a distribution of all possible sample means of a particular sample size that can be drawn from the population Population Distribution of sample means Samples of size = n XA XB XC XD “chance” Sampling error Avg. Sampling error “A statistically significant difference” means: the researcher is concluding that there is a difference above and beyond chance with the probability of making a type I error at 5% (assuming an alpha level = 0.05) Note “statistical significance” is not the same thing as theoretical significance. Only means that there is a statistical difference Doesn’t mean that it is an important difference Significance Failing to reject the null hypothesis Generally, not interested in “accepting the null hypothesis” (remember we can’t prove things only disprove them) Usually check to see if you made a Type II error (failed to detect a difference that is really there) • Check the statistical power of your test • Sample size is too small • Effects that you’re looking for are really small • Check your controls, maybe too much variability Non-Significance Different statistical tests “Generic test” T-test Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Have a great Thanksgiving break Next time: Inferential Statistical Tests