Tests of Significance
This item is included in the following series/curriculum: Statistically Speaking
- Grade Level: Senior High (10-12)-Adult
- Subjects: Business mathematics
- Produced By: Coast Learning Systems
- Year: 2011
- Country: United States
- Language: English
- Running Time: 30m
Email a friend Share on Facebook
Testing ideas lies at the heart of statistics. Researchers must have unifying criteria to determine whether the results they see are evidence of real effects or difference, or whether they are simply due to chance. You have learned in previous lessons about probability and how to calculate it. But how do you know when chance accounts for sample results? What is the cutoff? To answer that question, statisticians have developed tests to determine whether findings are likely to be real or the result of chance. This lesson explains the reasoning behind such tests.