DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

ASSIGNMENT ON: STATISTICS

Topic
:

t-ratio, Level of significance,

Type-I and Type-II error Submitted by: A.John Joseph Roll no: 4 M.Phil., scholar Department of physical education Pondicherry University

Submitted to: Dr.D.Sakthignanavel Professor & head Department of physical education Pondicherry University

Submitted on:
Contents Introduction to Statistics

Meanings T-ratio Significance Level Type I and II errors Reference

Introduction to Statistics

Statistics is a set of tools used to organize and analyze data. Data must either be numeric in origin or transformed by researchers into numbers. For instance, statistics could be used to analyze percentage scores English students receive on a grammar test: the percentage scores ranging from 0 to 100 are already in numeric form. Statistics could also be used to analyze grades on an essay by assigning numeric values to the letter grades, e.g., A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, and F=0. Employing statistics serves two purposes, (1) description and (2) prediction.

Statistics are used to describe the characteristics of groups. These characteristics are referred to as variables. Data is gathered and recorded for each variable. Descriptive statistics can then be used to reveal the distribution of the data in each variable. Statistics is also frequently used for purposes of prediction. Prediction is based on the concept of generalizability : if enough data is compiled about a particular context (e.g., students studying writing in a specific set of classrooms), the patterns revealed through analysis of the data collected about that context can be generalized (or predicted to occur in) similar contexts. The prediction of what will happen in a similar context is probabilistic . That is, the researcher is not certain that the same things will happen in other contexts; instead, the researcher can only reasonably expect that the same things will happen. Prediction is a method employed by individuals throughout daily life. For instance, if writing students begin class every day for the first half of the semester with a fiveminute freewriting exercise, then they will likely come to class the first day of the second half of the semester prepared to again freewrite for the first five minutes of class. The students will have made a prediction about the class content based on their previous experiences in the class: Because they began all previous class sessions with freewriting, it would be probable that their next class session will begin the same way. Statistics is used to perform the same function; the difference is that precise probabilities are determined in terms of the percentage chance that an outcome will

occur, complete with a range of error. Prediction is a primary goal of inferential statistics.

Meanings: T-ratio: The distribution of the ratio of two random variables which follow the bivariate t-distribution, developed by Press(1969).The distribution arises in Bayesian approaches to inference in econometrics.

Significance Level: In hypothesis testing, the significance level is the criterion

used for rejecting the null hypothesis.

Type I and II errors: There are two kinds of errors that can be made
in significance testing: (1) a true null hypothesis can be incorrectly rejected and (2) a false null hypothesis can fail to be rejected. The former error is called a Type I error and the latter error is called a Type II error.
1

t-ratio

The distribution of the ratio of two random variables which follow the bivariate tdistribution, developed by Press(1969).The distribution arises in Bayesian approaches to inference in econometrics.
2

The t ratio is used to test the difference between two sample means. First, compute

the t ratio. Next, locate the position of the t value in the t distribution with a given degrees of freedom. The probability associated with the t value can be obtained from any statistical program. Last, compare the observed probability to the chosen significance level (e.g., .05). When the observed probability is equal to or less than the chosen significance level, we declare the result to be statistically significant. How does the t-ratio done ?

Step:1 Find the mean Step:2 Find the standard deviation Step:3 Find the standard error Step: 4 Standard error measures

Step: 5

How does the t-ratio do this? The t test sets up a sampling distribution of differences with a mean of zero. is far in the tails of

The t test calculates if your difference between the means the sampling distribution or far away from zero.

If it is, the difference may be too big to be chance. If your groups were really the same, then the difference between the means (and your t-score) should be close to zero. The t-score is made a relative score by dividing the difference between the means by the standard error of the difference, which is like the standard deviation in a score.
3

Significance Level
In hypothesis testing, the significance level is the criterion used for rejecting

the null hypothesis. The significance level is used in hypothesis testing as follows: First, the difference between the results of the experiment and the null hypothesis is determined. Then, assuming the null hypothesis is true, the probability of a difference that large or larger is computed. Finally, this probability is compared to the significance level. If the probability is less than or equal to the significance level, then the null hypothesis is rejected and the outcome is said to be statistically significant. Traditionally, experimenters have used either the 0.05 level (sometimes called the 5% level) or the 0.01 level (1% level), although the choice of levels is

largely subjective. The lower the significance level, the more the data must diverge from the null hypothesis to be significant.

Therefore, the 0.01 level is more conservative than the 0.05 level. The Greek letter alpha () is sometimes used to indicate the significance level.
4

Type I and II errors

There are two kinds of errors that can be made in significance testing: (1) a true null hypothesis can be incorrectly rejected and (2) a false null hypothesis can fail to be rejected. The former error is called a Type I error and the latter error is called a Type II error. These two types of errors are defined in the table. True State of the Null Hypothesis H 0 True Type I error Correct H 0 False Correct Type II error

Statistical Decision Reject H 0 Do not Reject H 0

The probability of a Type I error is designated by the Greek letter alpha (a) and is called the Type I error rate; the probability of a Type II error (the Type II error rate) is designated by the Greek letter beta () . A Type II error is only an error in the sense that an opportunity to reject the null hypothesis correctly was lost. It is not an error in the sense that an incorrect conclusion was drawn since no conclusion is drawn when the null hypothesis is not rejected.

A Type I error, on the other hand, is an error in every sense of the word. A conclusion is drawn that the null hypothesis is false when, in fact, it is true. Therefore, Type I errors are generally considered more serious than Type II errors. The probability of a Type I error () is called the significance level and is set by the experimenter. There is a tradeoff between Type I and Type II errors. The more an experimenter protects himself or herself against Type I errors by choosing a low level, the greater the chance of a Type II error. Requiring very strong evidence to reject the null hypothesis makes it very unlikely that a true null hypothesis will be rejected. However, it increases the chance that a false null hypothesis will not be rejected, thus lowering power. The Type I error rate is almost always set at .05 or at .01, the latter being more conservative since it requires stronger evidence to reject the null hypothesis at the .01 level then at the .05 level.

Reference:1. http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/t%20ratio 2 .http://www.visualstatistics.net/visual%20statistics%20multimedia/The_t_%20

test.htm

3. http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/A72117.html 4. http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/A2917.html 5. http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops /stat_workshp/ttest_betwn/ttest_betwn_05.html 6. http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/stats/pop2a.cfm