Paired Sample T-Test

The t-Test Paired Two Sample for Means tool performs a paired two-sample to ascertain if the
null hypothesis (means of two populations are equal) can be accepted or rejected. Paired t-tests
are typically used to test the means of a population before and after some treatment.

Assumptions
In a paired sample t-test, the observations are defined as the differences between two sets of
values, and each assumption refers to these differences. The paired sample t-test has four main
assumptions:

• The dependent variable must be continuous (interval/ratio).

• The observations are independent of one another.
• The dependent variable should be approximately normally distributed.
• The dependent variable should not contain any outliers.

Statistical Significance
Statistical significance is determined by looking at the p-value. The p-value gives the probability
of observing the test results under the null hypothesis. The lower the p-value, the lower the
probability of obtaining a result like the one that was observed if the null hypothesis was true.
Thus, a low p-value indicates decreased support for the null hypothesis. The cutoff value for
determining statistical significance is ultimately decided on by the researcher, but usually a value
of .05 or less is chosen.

Nominal

A variable can be treated as nominal when its values represent categories with no intrinsic
ranking; for example, the department of the company in which an employee works. Examples of
nominal variables include region, zip code, or gender of individual or religious affiliation.
Nominal scale can also be coded by the researcher in order to ease out the analysis process, for
example; M=Female, F= Female.

Ordinal

A variable can be treated as ordinal when its values represent categories with some intrinsic
ranking; for example, levels of service satisfaction from highly dissatisfied to highly satisfied.
Examples of ordinal variables include degree of satisfaction among the consumers, preference
degree from very high to very low, and degree of concern towards the certain issue. Generally, it
is preferable to assign numeric codes to represent the degree of something among respondents.
For example 1=Highly satisfied, 2=satisfied, 3= neutral, 4= dissatisfied, 5= highly dissatisfied.
Scale

A variable can be treated as scale when its values represent ordered categories with a
meaningful metric, so that distance comparisons between values are appropriate. Examples of
scale variables include age in years, and income in thousands of Rupees, or score of a student in
GRE exam. For example in a classroom of 60 students, each one would have given GRE
entrance test, and therefore Scale is used to determine the average score for the class, or the
highest and lowest score in the class so on and so forth.

Sample Problem
Suppose a sample of students were given a test before the teacher applies an intervention to his
lesson. Another test was given after the application of the intervention to his lesson.

We want to find out in general if the intervention leads to improvement in students’

knowledge/skills (i.e. test scores). The scores are shown in the table.

STUDENT PRE-TEST POST TEST DIFFERENCE

1 18 22 +4
2 21 25 +4
3 16 17 +1
4 22 24 +2
5 19 16 -3
6 24 29 +5
7 17 20 +3
8 21 23 +2
9 23 19 -4
10 18 20 +2
11 14 15 +1
12 16 15 -1
13 16 18 +2
14 19 26 +7
15 18 18 0
16 20 24 +4
17 12 18 +6
18 22 25 +3
19 15 19 +4
20 17 16 -1
The p-value is the level of marginal significance within a statistical hypothesis test representing the
probability of the occurrence of a given event. The p-value is used as an alternative to rejection points
to provide the smallest level of significance at which the null hypothesis would be rejected.

Null and Alternate Hypothesis Ho(Null Hypothesis): Assumes that the two population being compared
are not different.

HA/H1 (Alternative Hypothesis): Assumes that the two groups are different. Two competing Hypothesis
are not treated on an equal basis.

Special consideration is given to the null hypothesis. We test the null hypothesis and if there is enough
evidence to say that the null hypothesis is wrong, we reject the null hypothesis in favor of the
alternative hypothesis. Rejecting null hypothesis suggests that the alternative hypothesis may be true.