Question

1. How might we determine whether an observed result is “extreme” enough to suggest someone might truly have ESP? Statisticians do this by employing a p-value. This is the probability of obtaining a sample statistic as extreme or more extreme than the observed sample statistic, if we assume to begin with that our null hypothesis is true.

1. In this example, we start with a hypothesis that subjects are just guessing when presented with Zener cards and would do no better than what is expected “just by chance alone.” We would write this hypothesis out as follows: H_o: p = 0.20. We call this the __________________ hypothesis.

2. Remember that with hypothesis testing, we always begin with a set of competing hypotheses. This means we must have another hypothesis that subjects do indeed have psychic powers and thus would do better than “just guessing.” In symbols, we would write this hypothesis as: H_a: p > 0.20. We call this the ______________________hypothesis.

3. In the hypotheses above (given in Parts A and B), what does the “p” stand for?

4. Why are we beginning by assuming that p = 0.20?

Answer 1