Choosing a Statistical Test (inferential testing)

• what are inferential statistics?

  the use of statistical tests to draw conclusions about the populations that the samples came from, they will tell us whether the results are statistically significant or not, based on the chosen significance level, and the probability
• what are the steps of choosing a statistical test?

  1. type of study (is it a test of difference or correlation)
  2. type of research (is it related or unrelated)
  3. type of data (nominal, ordinal or interval)
• what are unrelated experimental design?

  independent groups
• what are related experimental designs?

  matched pairs and repeated measures
• what is nominal data?

  • named data, can only be in one category e.g. introvert/extrovert
  • results in form of frequencies
  • no order in categories
  • difference in variables is qualitative
• what is ordinal data?

  • ordered data, rank data, subjective ranking
  • referred to as 'unsafe'
  • isn't an absolute zero to the scale
  • intervals are not equal
• what is interval data?

  • information about order
  • equal intervals
  • more objective than ordinal e.g. temperature
  • most accurate type of data
• Fill in the table

  A) Chi-squared

  B) Mann-Whitney

  C) Unrelated t-test

  D) Sign Test

  E) Wilcoxon

  F) Related t-test

  G) Chi-squared

  H) Spearman's rho

  I) Pearson's r