in sequence? Explain why or why not. How does the five-step procedure for
hypothesis testing differ when comparing two groups using a t- or z-test? How is
the process similar?
ANSWER:
The five steps of the hypothesis testing procedure are:
1. Write the null hypothesis (H0).
2. Write the alternative hypothesis (H1).
3. Set alpha level (amount of error allowed) and determine degrees of freedom.
4. Pick & calculate the significance test that fits your design.
5. Decision Step: Accept or Reject the null.
The five steps of the hypothesis testing should be followed in order, because each step
is reliant of the step before it.
The T-test is a statistical examination of two population means. A two-sample t-test
examines whether two samples are different and is commonly used when the variances
of two normal distributions are unknown and when an experiment uses a small sample
size. For example, a t-test could be used to compare the average floor routine score of
the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastic team to the average floor routine score of China’s
women’s team.
The Z-test is a statistical test used to determine whether two population means are
different when the variances are known and the sample size is large. The test statistic is
assumed to have a normal distribution and nuisance parameters such as standard
deviation should be known in order for an accurate z-test to be performed.
They are similar in that they are used to examine two population means.
References:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/t-test.asp#ixzz22KBQ29tD
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/z/z-test.asp#ixzz22KBncCsj