Greek Symbols

Question 1

1. What does the greek letter α (alpha) stand for in statistics?

Answer 1

The probability of making a Type I error

Type I error

When the null hypothesis is true and you reject it, you make a type I error. The probability of making a type I error is α, which is the level of significance you set for your hypothesis test. An α of 0.05 indicates that you are willing to accept a 5% chance that you are wrong when you reject the null hypothesis. To lower this risk, you must use a lower value for α. However, using a lower value for alpha means that you will be less likely to detect a true difference if one really exists.

Question 2

2. What does the greek letter Beta β = in statistics?

Answer 2

The probability of making a Type II error

Type II error

When the null hypothesis is false and you fail to reject it, you make a type II error. The probability of making a type II error is β, which depends on the power of the test. You can decrease your risk of committing a type II error by ensuring your test has enough power. You can do this by ensuring your sample size is large enough to detect a practical difference when one truly exists.

Question 3

3. What does βi = in statistics?

Answer 3

Standardised regression coefficient

Question 4

4. What does Mu - μ stand for?

Answer 4

The mean of a population of scores

Question 5

5. What does Sigma σ stand for?

Answer 5

The standard deviation in a population of data

Question 6

6. What does σ² stand for?

Answer 6

The variance in a population of data

Question 7

6. What does χ 2 stand for?

Answer 7

Chi-squared test statistic