In Other Words
In other words, you conclude that your results are statistically significant, but in reality, they were just caused by luck or chance.
What is a Type I error?
Also known as H1, this hypothesis reflects what the researcher believes the study outcome will be.
What is the scientific hypothesis?
This common test is used to determine if the means of two independent groups differ more than expected by chance.
What is a t-test?
When used to test hypotheses about associations in a target population rather than just describing a sample, correlations are considered this type of statistic.
What are inferential statistics?
In other words, you miss a real difference that actually exists, often because your sample size was too small to detect it.
What is a Type II error (or beta)?
The difference between a survey sample and the population being researched.
What is sampling error?
You would use this type of analysis instead of a t-test when comparing the means of three or more groups.
What is Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)?
This procedure identifies which multiple independent variables contribute most to explaining the variance in a single dependent variable.
multiple regression
In other words, the results of the study were very unlikely to have happened by sheer accident.
What is statistical significance?
What is the null hypothesis (H0)?
Researchers use this nonparametric test to determine if frequencies in categories (nominal data) differ from what is expected by chance.
What is the chi-square test?
A correlation coefficient falling between .8 and 1.0 is described as being in this strength category.
What is very strong?
In other words, this number tells you the average amount of "mistake" your sample mean makes when trying to guess the true population mean.
What is the standard error of the mean?
Whatever alpha level is chosen, a researcher must compare this to that threshold to decide whether to reject the null hypothesis.
What is the p-value?
Measures the probability that your study results happened by random chance, assuming there is no real effect (null hypothesis)
What is the p-value?
Refers to the likelihood of obtaining a statistically significant result as the sample size increases.
What are degrees of freedom?
In other words, this number (between -1.0 and +1.0) tells you how much two things "move together"—if one goes up, does the other go up too?
What is a correlation coefficient (or Pearson r)?
Beyond statistical significance, this term refers to a study’s real-world value.
What is practical significance?
The predetermined probability of making a Type I error—rejecting the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is actually true.
What is the alpha level (α)?
Describes the strength and direction of the relationship between variables.
What is correlation?