Calculating and Interpreting the

ShapiroWilk Statistic
Using statistics in small-scale language education research
Jean Turner

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Exploring and reporting the attributes of a

set of interval-scale or interval-like data

Calculate and report descriptive statistics.

Create and review a histogram.*

Calculate and interpret the ShapiroWilk statistic.

*a.k.a. frequency distribution

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Heres a set of 21 interval-scale scores from

a test with a total of 15 points.
Student #

Score

Student #

Score

1st

12th

13

2nd

13th

13

3rd

14th

13

4th

15th

14

5th

16th

14

6th

17th

14

7th

18th

15

8th

10

19th

15

9th

10

20th

15

10th

10

21st

15

11th

13

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The descriptive statistics are

Mean = 11.14286

Median = 13

Mode = 13 and 15

Range = 11 points

Standard deviation = 3.42927

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The histogram

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The descriptive statistics give a sense of ...

central tendency
dispersion

The histogram gives a sense of...

the general shape of the distribution
the possibility of outlier scores

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And

In Parametric Statistics Land...

Researchers believe their data will match the normal
distribution model.

The hypothesis that one of these researchers would

propose is:
Null hypothesis: The data are (probably) normally
distributed.
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But

How likely is it that the scores are normally

distributed?
The ShapiroWilk statistic
Tests that hypothesis!

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Using R to check the hypothesis

Enter the data.

>mydata = c(4, 5, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10,

13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 14, 15, 15, 15, 15)

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Calculate descriptive statistics. (Remember how?)

>summary
>subset (table (mydata), table(mydata)==max (table(mydata)))
>sd
> maximum score minimum score

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Make a histogram.

>hist (mydata, col = orange, breaks = 10)

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Calculate the ShapiroWilk statistic

Calculate the ShapiroWilk statistic.

>shapiro.test (mydata)

ShapiroWilk normality test

data: mydata
W = 0.9002, p-value = 0.03527

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In the ShapiroWilk output

The observed value of the ShapiroWilk statistic is:

W = 0.9002

The exact probability of the outcome, W = 0.9002, is:

p-value = 0.03527

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But

What does this mean?are the data

probably normally distributed or not?

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For the ShapiroWilk statistic:

If p is more than .05, we can be 95% certain that the data are
normally distributed. (In other words, the null hypothesis is
probably true.)
If p is less than .05, we can be 95% certain that the data are not
normally distributed. (In other words, the null hypothesis is
probably false.)

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Oh, p = 0.03527 is less than .05.

The null hypothesis is probably not true.
I can be 95% certain that it isnt true!
The data are probably not normally distributed.

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Check homework practice problem #19 from Chapter

Two.
The null hypothesis: The data are (probably) normally distributed.

Enter the data.

>spanish.vocab = c(41, 33, 32, 29, 27, 27, 26, 24, 19,
19, 18, 17, 14)

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shapiro.test (spanish.vocab)

ShapiroWilk normality test

data: spanish.vocab
W = 0.958, p-value = 0.7225

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The observed value of the ShapiroWilk statistic is:

W = 0.958

The exact probability of the observed value, W = 0.958, is:

p-value = 0.7225

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Im reminding myself

For the ShapiroWilk statistic:

If p is more than .05, we can be 95% certain that the data are
normally distributed. (In other words, the null hypothesis is
probably true.)
If p is less than .05, we can be 95% certain that the data are not
normally distributed. (That is, the null hypothesis is probably
false.)
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For the Spanish data, p = .7725, which is greater

than .05.
The null hypothesis is probably true.
I can be 95% certain the hypothesis is true.
The data probably are normally distributed.

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