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Biostatistics

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8.5 THE FACTORIAL EXPERIMENT 363<br />

Before collecting data, the researchers may decide to test only one of the possible<br />

hypotheses. In this case they select the hypothesis they wish to test, choose a significance<br />

level a, and proceed in the familiar, straightforward fashion. This procedure is free of the<br />

complications that arise if the researchers wish to test all three hypotheses.<br />

When all three hypotheses are tested, the situation is complicated by the fact that the<br />

three tests are not independent in the probabilistic sense. If we let a be the significance level<br />

associated with the test as a whole, and a 0 ; a 00 ; and a 000 the significance levels associated<br />

with hypotheses 1, 2, and 3, respectively, we find<br />

a < 1 ð1 a 0 Þð1 a 00 Þð1 a 000 Þ (8.5.2)<br />

If a 0 ¼ a 00 ¼ a 000 ¼ :05, then a < 1 ð:95Þ 3 , or a

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