inferential statistics

• 1. p<0.05 = probability of results being due to chance is less than 5% → accept experimental hypothesis
• 1. Sometimes a researcher may need even more certainty their results were not due to chance → choose stricter significance level (0.01) 
• • When statistical test has been calculated the researcher is left with a number → observed / calculated value
  • This needs to be compared with a critical value to decide whether the results are significant  
• sign test :

  1. Use plus or minus sign to indicate direction of difference
  2. Calculate observed value → add up the number of times the less frequent sign occurs. This will give you the S value 
  3. Get the critical value  of S from a table 
• • If research is significant we reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis
  • If the research is not significant we reject the alternative hypothesis and accept the null hypothesis