Laboratory Exercise No.

3B

Hypothesis Testing – Paired t-test

Course : Experiment No. :

Group No. : Section :
Group Members : 1. Date Performed :
2. Date Submitted :
3. Instructor :
4.
5.
1. Objective(s)

To familiarize the students with the use of Minitab in performing hypothesis testing – Paired t-test

2. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

At the end of the exercise, the students are expected to:

1. Determine whether the mean of the differences between two paired samples differs from 0 (or a
target value).
2. Calculate a range of values that is likely to include the population mean of the differences.

3. Discussion

The paired t-test is useful for analyzing the same set of items that were measured under two different
conditions, differences in measurements made on the same subject before and after a treatment, or
differences between two treatments given to the same subject.

For example, the manager of a fitness facility uses a paired t-test to determine whether a group of
participants improved their fitness after an 8-week program. If there is a difference in fitness
measurements before and after the program, the manager can use the confidence interval to determine
whether the difference is practically significant.

Where to find this analysis

To perform a paired t-test, choose Stat > Basic Statistics > Paired t.

Data considerations for Paired t

To ensure that your results are valid, consider the following guidelines when you collect data, perform
the analysis, and interpret your results.
1. The data must be continuous.
Continuous data has an infinite number of values between any two values.

2. The sample data should not be severely skewed, and the sample sizes should be greater than
20
If your sample sizes are greater than 20 and the underlying distribution is unimodal and continuous, the
hypothesis test performs appropriately even if data are mildly skewed. If your sample sizes are less than
20, you should graph the data to check for skewness and unusual observations. If the data is severely
skewed or has many unusual observations, use caution when you interpret the results.

3. You should have a set of paired (dependent) observations, such as measurements made on
the same item under different conditions
If you have two samples of independent observations, use 2-Sample t instead.

4. The sample data should be selected randomly

In statistics, random samples are used to make generalizations, or inferences, about a population. If your
data are not collected randomly, your results may not be representative of the population

4. Materials and Equipment

 Minitab
 Computer

5. Procedure

A physiologist wants to determine whether a particular running program has an effect on resting heart
rate. The heart rates of 20 randomly selected people were measured. The people were then put on the
running program and measured again one year later. Thus, the before and after measurements for each
person are a pair of observations.

The physiologist performs a paired t-test to determine whether the heart rates differ before and after the
running program.

1. Open the sample data, RestingHeartRate.MTW.

2. Choose Stat > Basic Statistics > Paired t.
3. From the drop-down list, select Each sample is in a column.
4. In Sample 1, enter Before.
5. In Sample 2, enter After.
6. Click OK.
6. Data and Results

7. Data Analysis and Conclusion

Interpret the key results for Paired t

Complete the following steps to interpret a paired t-test. Key output includes the estimate of the mean of
the difference, the confidence interval, the p-value

Step 1: Determine a confidence interval for the population mean difference

First, consider the mean difference, and then examine the confidence interval. The mean difference is
the average of the differences between the paired observations in your sample.

The mean difference is an estimate of the population mean difference. Because the mean difference is
based on sample data and not on the entire population, it is unlikely that the sample mean difference
equals the population mean difference. To better estimate the population mean difference, use the
confidence interval of the difference.

The confidence interval provides a range of likely values for the population mean difference of the paired
observations. For example, a 95% confidence level indicates that if you take 100 random samples from
the population, you could expect approximately 95 of the samples to produce intervals that contain the
population mean difference. The confidence interval helps you assess the practical significance of your
results.

Key Results: Mean Difference, 95% CI for mean difference

Step 2: Determine whether the test results are statistically significant

To determine whether the difference between the population means is statistically significant, compare
the p-value to the significance level. Usually, a significance level (denoted as α or alpha) of 0.05 works
well. A significance level of 0.05 indicates a 5% risk of concluding that a difference exists when there is
no actual difference.
P-value ≤ α: The difference between the means is statistically significant (Reject H 0)
If the p-value is less than or equal to the significance level, the decision is to reject the null hypothesis.
You can conclude that the difference between the population means does not equal the hypothesized
difference. If you did not specify a hypothesized difference, Minitab tests whether there is no difference
between the means (Hypothesized difference = 0)

P-value > α: The difference between the means is not statistically significant (Fail to reject H 0)
If the p-value is greater than the significance level, the decision is to fail to reject the null hypothesis. You
do not have enough evidence to conclude that the mean difference between the paired observations is
statistically significant.

Key Result: P-Value

CONCLUSION
8. Reflection on the Attainment of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs):
9. Assessment Rubric