The logic of null hypothesis statistical testing


Slides for “The logic of null hypothesis statistical testing”

Control questions

  1. How do you translate a research question into a testable hypothesis?
  2. How do you translate a hypothesis into null and alternative hypotheses?
  3. What data should be collected to test the hypothesis?
  4. What does a test statistic measure?
  5. What is a null distribution?
  6. How is a p-value computed, and how should it be interpreted?

… no scientific worker has a fixed level of significance at which from year to year, and in all circumstances, he rejects hypotheses; he rather gives his mind to each particular case in the light of his evidence and his ideas.

Sir Ronald A. Fisher (1956)