t tests

David C. Howell

There is a lot to say about the t test, but I haven't thought of it yet. I'll fill in as I have time.

• The study of the effects of optimism on the performance of collegiate swimmers is a nice example to use in class. It is a good study for use with students in psychology, and it illustrates a variety of issues.
• You could start with looking at the sampling distribution of t and its associated power.
• There is a lab assignment that will allow students to see how t changes as a function of the difference between mu1 and mu2, as well as with the correlation between pre- and post scores. This could be useful. It also touches on correlation.
• Two of the examples in the t-test chapter(s) deal with the moon illusion. Don McReady, at the Univ. of Wisconsin-White Water, has developed an alternative theory of the illusion and created a set of pages on it. The link is at http://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/. This has little to do with statistics, but it does put the examples in a context.

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Last revised: 7/11/98