Chapter 7. Significance Tests and Tests of Hypotheses

  1. Robert C. Elston1,
  2. William D. Johnson2

Published Online: 31 OCT 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470740781.ch7

Book Title

Basic Biostatistics for Geneticists and Epidemiologists: A Practical Approach

Basic Biostatistics for Geneticists and Epidemiologists: A Practical Approach

Additional Information

How to Cite

Elston, R. C. and Johnson, W. D. (2008) Significance Tests and Tests of Hypotheses, in Basic Biostatistics for Geneticists and Epidemiologists: A Practical Approach, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK. doi: 10.1002/9780470740781.ch7

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University, USA

  2. 2

    Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System, USA

Publication History

  1. Published Online: 31 OCT 2008
  2. Published Print: 24 OCT 2007

ISBN Information

Print ISBN: 9780470024898

Online ISBN: 9780470740781

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CHAPTER TOOLS

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Keywords:

  • research hypothesis, null hypothesis, test criterion, significance level, p-value;
  • one-sided (one-tail) test, two-sided (two-tail) test;
  • F-distribution;
  • two-sample t-test, paired, or matched-pair, t-test;
  • distribution-free methods: rank sum test, signed rank sum test, sign test;
  • type I error, validity;
  • type II error, power

Summary

This chapter contains sections titled:

  • Principle of Significance Testing

  • Principle of Hypothesis Testing

  • Testing a Population Mean

  • One-Sided versus Two-Sided Tests

  • Testing a Proportion

  • Testing the Equality of Two Variances

  • Testing the Equality of Two Means

  • Testing the Equality of Two Medians

  • Validity and Power

  • Summary

  • Further Reading

  • Problems

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