Testing hypothesis and analysis of variance

Introduction
One of the most important techniques of making statistical inference about the population
parameter(s) or about the form of the population distribution is of testing statistical
hypothesis.
Statistical Hypothesis:
Any statement or assumption regarding either population parameter(s) or form of the
population distribution is called hypothesis and is denoted by .
A sample investigation produces results; and with these results, decisions are made on the
population. But such decisions involve an element of uncertainty causing wrong decisions.
Hypothesis is an assumption which may or may not be true about a population parameter.
For example, tossing a coin 300 times, one may get 190 heads and 110 tails. At this instance,
we are interested in testing whether the coin is unbiased or not. Therefore, we may conduct a
test to judge significance whether the difference is due to sampling.
Null Hypothesis
The simple hypothesis reveals that the value of sample and the value of the population under
study do not show any difference. The hypothesis we have assumed is said to be null
hypothesis; it means that the true difference between the mean of sample and the mean of
population is nil. The rejection of null hypothesis reveals that the decision is correct.
For example:
(i) The average daily sales of a firm is $ 4000.
(ii) The average income of a mean of a particular locality is $ 2000
All these statements will have to be verified on the basis of sample tests. Generally a
hypothesis states that there is no difference between the mean of sample and the population.
A null hypothesis is denoted by .
Alternative Hypothesis
Rejection of
leads to the acceptance of alternative hypothesis, which is denoted by
For example,
(Null hypothesis)
(Alternative Hypothesis)

Type I and Type II errors

When there are two hypotheses set up, the acceptance or rejection of a null hypothesis is
based on a sample study. Thus it leads to two wrong conclusions. (i) Rejecting
when
is true (ii) Accepting
when
is false. This can be expressed in the following table:
Decision from sample
Accept
Reject
Correct
decision
true
Wrong decision (Type I error
)
Correct decision
false
Wrong decision (Type II error
Level of significance
The maximum probability of committing type I error, which we specified in a test, is known
as the level of significance. Generally, 5% level of significance is fixed in statistical tests.

This implies that we can have 95% confidence in accepting a hypothesis or we could be
wrong 5%.
Power of a test
In hypothesis testing, the power of a test statistic is the probability of rejecting the null
hypothesis
when
is false. It is denoted by
.
Acceptance and rejection regions
The range of variation has two regions acceptance region and rejection region. If the sample
statistics falls in critical region we have to reject the hypothesis, as it leads to false decision.
We go for , if the computed sample statistic falls in rejecting region.

Example
One sample test
Two sample tests
Chi-square test

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Experiment: An experiment is any process or study which results in the collection of data,
the outcome of which is unknown. In statistics, the term is usually restricted to situations in
which the researcher has control over some of the conditions under which the experiment
takes place.
Example
Before introducing a new drug treatment to reduce high blood pressure, the manufacturer
carries out an experiment to compare the effectiveness of the new drug with that of one
currently prescribed. Newly diagnosed subjects are recruited from a group of local general
practices. Half of them are chosen at random to receive the new drug, the remainder receiving
the present one. So, the researcher has control over the type of subject recruited and the way
in which they are allocated to treatment.
Experimental Unit
A unit is a person, animal, plant or thing which is actually studied by a researcher; the basic
objects upon which the study or experiment is carried out.
For example, a person, a monkey, a sample of soil, a pot of seedlings, a postcode area, a
doctor's practice.
The basic principles of experimental designs are:
(1) Randomization (2) Replication and (3) Local control. These principles make a valid test
of significance possible.
(1) Randomization.
The first principle of an experimental design is randomization, which is a random process of
assigning treatments to the experimental units. The random process implies that every
possible allotment of treatments has the same probability. An experimental unit is the

smallest division of the experimental material and a treatment means an experimental

condition whose effect is to be measured and compared.
Purpose of randomization
-The purpose of randomization is to remove bias and other sources of extraneous variation,
which are not controllable.
-Another advantage of randomization (accompanied by replication) is that it forms the basis
of any valid statistical test.
Hence the treatments must be assigned at random to the experimental units. Randomization is
usually done by drawing numbered cards from a well-shuffled pack of cards, or by drawing
numbered balls from a well-shaken container or by using tables of random numbers.
(2) Replication
Replication is a repetition of the basic experiment. In other words, it is a complete run for all
the treatments to be tested in the experiment. In all experiments, some variation is introduced
because of the fact that the experimental units such as individuals or plots of land in
agricultural experiments cannot be physically identical. This type of variation can be
removed by using a number of experimental units. We therefore perform the experiment
more than once, i.e., we repeat the basic experiment. An individual repetition is called a
replicate. The number, the shape and the size of replicates depend upon the nature of the
experimental material.
A replication is used:
-To secure more accurate estimate of the experimental error, a term this represents the
differences that would be observed if the same treatments were applied several times to the
same experimental units.
-To decrease the experimental error and thereby to increase precision this is a measure of the
variability of the experimental error.
- (iii) to obtain more precise estimate of the mean effect of a treatment, since
where denotes the number of replications.

(3) Local Control

It has been observed that all extraneous sources of variation are not removed by
randomization and replication. This necessitates a refinement in the experimental technique.
In other words, we need to choose a design in such a manner that all extraneous sources of
variation are brought under control.
For this purpose, we make use of local control, a term referring to the amount of balancing,
blocking and grouping of the experimental units.
-Balancing means that the treatments should he assigned to the experimental units in such a
way that the result is a balanced arrangement of the treatments.
-Blocking means that like experimental units should be collected together to form a relatively
homogeneous group. A block is also a replicate.
The main purpose of the principle of local control is to increase the efficiency of an
experimental design by decreasing the experimental error. The point to remember here is that
the term local control should not be confused with the word control. The word control in

experimental design is used for a treatment. Which does not receive any treatment but we
need to find out the effectiveness of other treatments through comparison.
t-test
F-test along with theoretical and practical examples and interpretations