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Statistics for Decision- Making in Business - Maricopa Community ...

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Hypothesis Test<br />

Conclusion<br />

Our chosen risk of a Type I error is called the criterion or alpha-level, and is denoted by the .<br />

Typical values <strong>for</strong> are:<br />

That is, rarely will we choose a very small or considerably large alpha-level.<br />

Suppose that we reject when the probability of observ<strong>in</strong>g someth<strong>in</strong>g as or more extreme as<br />

what we have observed is 5% (or smaller). We have that .<br />

This means that there is still a 5% (or smaller) chance that we observe a value (sample mean,<br />

sample proportion, etc.) more extreme than what we have observed. That is, there is a 5% chance<br />

that we have falsely rejected the null hypothesis. Probabilistically,<br />

( ) ( )<br />

( )<br />

To visualize this, consider the diagram below. Recall that a conditional probability statement<br />

limits us to the event after the “pipe,” |, and then asks the question, “what percentage of the time<br />

can we expect the event to occur, out of the times the specified condition occurs. The modified<br />

table below shows that.<br />

Truth<br />

Don‟t<br />

Reject<br />

True<br />

True Positive<br />

95%<br />

Reject<br />

False Negative<br />

(Type I Error)<br />

5%<br />

100%<br />

At this po<strong>in</strong>t we might wonder: why shouldn‟t we set<br />

Type 1 error risk<br />

extremely small so that we m<strong>in</strong>imize the<br />

Good question. Imag<strong>in</strong>e that your alpha is 0.0001. This means you will only reject 0.01% (or<br />

1 out of 10,000 times) of the time, when it is true. Certa<strong>in</strong>ly, your risk of a Type I error is<br />

extremely small.<br />

<strong>Statistics</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Decision</strong>-<strong>Mak<strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>in</strong> Bus<strong>in</strong>ess © Milos Podmanik Page 214

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