1. Introduction to Hypothesis Testing

In this module, we introduce hypothesis testing. The video places hypothesis testing into the larger context of the scientific method and introduces the process of testing a hypothesis. The video in this module discusses one specific type of hypothesis test, a bivariate hypothesis test, to introduce the basic idea and intuition behind hypothesis testing. However, this is just one category of hypothesis testing.

In this module, we want to emphasize that there are many types of hypotheses and many ways to test our hypotheses. We need to be careful to choose an appropriate statistical test, depending on our particular hypothesis and data. In this module, you’ll find information about a few of the most common tests and a guide explaining when to use each one. We have also collected links to other instructional videos that will walk you through calculating different types of tests. As always, we encourage you to test your learning with the practice quiz questions in this module.

Module Learning Outcomes

After completing this module, you should be able to...

1. Understand the role of hypothesis testing in the scientific method
2. Recognize different types of hypothesis tests 
3. Identify the appropriate test statistic to use, given a sample hypothesis and brief description of the available data, 
4. Implement a variety of different hypotheses tests, given data and an example hypothesis, and
5. Discuss the limitations of bivariate hypothesis testing

 

The image below shows a simplified version of the scientific method, and highlights the where concepts covered in this module fit into the larger process.