Hypothesis Testing


Hypothesis testing is a method of inferential statistics. An experimenter starts with a hypothesis about a population parameter called the null hypothesis. Data are then collected and the viability of the null hypothesis is determined in light of the data. If the data are very different from what would be expected under the assumption that the null hypothesis is true, then the null hypothesis is rejected. If the data are not greatly at variance with what would be expected under the assumption that the null hypothesis is true, then the null hypothesis is not rejected. Failure to reject the null hypothesis is not the same thing as accepting the null hypothesis.

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