Hypothesis Testing Procedure

Chapter 7. Hypothesis Testing: Introduction to Hypothesis Testing (p-value Approach)

Hypothesis Testing Procedure

This chapter introduces the concept of hypothesis testing, one of the most commonly used inferential procedures.
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Hypothesis Testing

Hypothesis testing is a statistical procedure that is used to test certain statements about a population on the basis of sample data.

There are many different hypothesis tests and although they all have their own nuances, the general procedure is the same for each one:

State the hypotheses
Set the criteria for a decision
Collect the sample data and compute the test statistic
Calculate the #p#-value
Make a decision

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In this chapter, you will learn how to employ a #Z#-test to test certain statements about a population mean #\mu#.
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Z-test

A #\boldsymbol{Z}#-test is any statistical test for which the distribution of the test statistic is assumed to be (approximately) normally distributed.