Question

1) After a scientist conducts research and reaches a conclusion about the null hypothesis, is there any way for the scientist to know if he/she has made either a Type I or Type II error? If there is a way for the scientist to know, explain what that is and how it will show the scientist if he/she made either type of error. If there is NOT a way for the scientist to know, explain why not. NOTE: When giving your answer, assume the scientist’s research was done correctly and the scientist did not make any mathematical mistakes while analyzing the data.

Answer 1

• This is an instance of the common mistake of expecting too much certainty.
• There is always a possibility of a Type I error; the sample in the study might have been one of the small percentage of samples giving an unusually extreme test statistic.
• This is why replicating experiments (i.e., repeating the experiment with another sample) is important. The more experiments that give the same result, the stronger the evidence.
• There is also the possibility that the sample is biased or the method of analysis was inappropriate; either of these could lead to a misleading result.