8.4 - Considerations in hypothesis testing

Now that we have seen the manner in which a hypothesis test is conducted, it is time for us to see some of the considerations that a statistician has when hypothesis testing. These considerations influence and are influenced by the sorts of conclusions that are desired in the test, how certain the tester would like to be, and the resources available for the test.

In this section we will investigate the uncertainties and errors inherent in a hypothesis test and what a tester can do to improve their ability to draw conclusions from a test.

Learning objectives

In this section you will learn about:

  1. what the level of significance means to a statistician
  2. Type I and Type II errors in a hypothesis test
  3. the likelihood of Type I and Type II errors
  4. decreasing the likelihood of Type I and Type II errors by increasing the sample size
  5. the power of a hypothesis test