7.1 Learning Objectives

This week, we introduce the idea of comparing two groups to evaluate whether the data that we have sampled lead us to believe that the population distribution of the random variables are different. Of course, because we don’t get access to the function that describes the random variable, we can’t actually know if the populations are different. It is for this reason that we call it statistical inference – we are inferring from a sample some belief about the populations.

At the conclusion of this week, students will be able to:

1. Recognize the similarities between all frequentist hypothesis tests.
2. Evaluate the conditions that surround the data, and choose a test that is best-powered and justifiable.
3. Perform and Interpret the results of the most common statistical tests.