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Week 9:Independent t -test

t test for Two Independent Samples
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Independent Samples t - test
The reason for hypothesis
testing is to gain knowledge
about an unknown
population.
Independent samples t-test is
applied when we have two
independent samples and
want to make a comparison
between two groups of
individuals. The parameters
are unknown.
How is this different than a Z-
test and One Sample t-test?




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Independent t - test
We are interested in the difference between
two independent groups. As such, we are
comparing two populations by evaluating the
mean difference.
In order to evaluate the mean difference
between two populations, we sample from
each population and compare the sample
means on a given variable.
Must have two independent groups
(i.e.samples) and one dependent variable
that is continuous to compare them on.
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Examples:
Do males and females significantly differ on
their level of math anxiety?
IV: Gender (2 groups: males and females)
DV: Level of math anxiety
Do older people exercise significantly less
frequently than younger people?
IV: Age (2 groups: older people and younger
people)
DV: Frequency of getting exercise

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Examples:
Do 8
th
graders have significantly more
unexcused absences than 7
th
graders in
Toledo junior highs?
IV: Grade (2 groups: 8
th
grade and 7
th
grade)
DV: Unexcused absences
Note that Independent t-test can be applied
to answer each research question when the
independent variable is dichotomous with
only two groups and the dependent variable
is continuous.
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Generate examples of research questions
requiring an Independent Samples t-test:
What are some examples that you can
come up with? Remember- you need
two independent samples and one
dependent variable that is continuous.
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Assumptions
The two groups are independent of one another.

The dependent variable is normally distributed.
Examine skewness and kurtosis (peak) of distribution
Leptokurtosis vs. platykurtosis vs. mesokurtosis

The two groups have approximately equal
variance on the dependent variable. (When
[equal sample sizes] ,the violation of this
assumption has been shown to be unimportant.)
n n
2 1
=
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Steps in Independent Samples t-test


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Step 1: State the hypotheses
Ho: The null hypothesis states that the two samples come from the same
population. In other words, There is no statistically significant
difference between the two groups on the dependent variable.

Symbols:
Non-directional: H
o
:
1
=
2


Directional: or


If the null hypothesis is tenable, the two group means differ only by
sampling fluctuation how much the statistics value varies from
sample to sample or chance.


2 1
:
0
s
H

2 1
:
0
>
H
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Ha: The alternative hypothesis states that the two
samples come from different populations. In other
words, There is a statistically significant difference
between the two groups on the dependent variable.

Symbols:
Non-directional:

Directional:

2 1
:
1
=
H

2 1
:
1
>
H

2 1
:
1
<
H
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Step 2: Set a Criterion for
Rejecting Ho
Compute degrees of freedom
Set alpha level
Identify critical value(s)
Table C. 3 (page 638 of text)
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Computing Degrees of Freedom
Calculate degrees of freedom (df) to determine
rejection region.
df =
sample size for sample
1
+ sample size for sample
2
- 2
df describe the number of scores in a sample that are
free to vary.
We subtract 2 because in this case we have 2
samples.


2
2 1
+
n n
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More on Degrees of Freedom
In an Independent samples t-test, each
sample mean places a restriction on the
value of one score in the sample, hence
the sample lost one degree of freedom and
there are n-1 degrees of freedom for the
sample.

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Set alpha level
Set at .001, .01 , .05, or .10, etc.
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Identify critical value(s)
Directional or non-directional?
Look at page 638 Table C.3.
To determine your CV(s) you need to
know:
df if df are not in the table, use the next
lowest number to be conservative
directionality of the test
alpha level
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Step 3: Collect data and Calculate t
statistic







( ) ( )
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
+

=
n n n n
n s n s
x x
t
2 1 2 1
2
2
2 1
2
1
2 1
1 1
2
1 1
Whereby:
n: Sample size s
2
= variance

:Sample mean subscript
1
= sample 1 or group 1
subscript
2
= sample 2 or group 2



x
df
variance
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Step 4: Compare test statistic to
criterion





df = 18 = .05 , two-tailed test in this example
critical values are 2.101 in this example
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Step 5: Make Decision





Fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is no statistically
significant difference between the two groups on the dependent variable,
t = , p > .
OR
Reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is a statistically
significant difference between the two groups on the dependent variable,
t = , p < .
If directional, indicate which group is higher or lower (greater, or less
than, etc.).
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Interpreting Output Table:
Retrieved on July 12, 2007 from SPSSShortManual.html
t-value Degrees of
freedom
p - value
Levenes tests the assumption of equal
variances if p < .05, then variances
are not equal and use a different test
to modify this:
Here, we have met
the assumption so
use first row.
Observed difference
between the groups
Mean APGAR
SCORE
CI
Sample size
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Interpreting APA table:
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Variable Math anxiety t
Gender
Male 3.66
Female 3.98 3.35***
Age
Under 40 years 3.32
Over 41 years 3.64 2.67**
Note. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
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Examples and Practice
See attached document.
Create the following index cards from this
lecture:
When to conduct a t-test (purpose, conditions,
and assumptions)
t-test statistic formula for computation
t-test statistic formula
df formula