Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

  1. Define inferential statistics and explain why they are necessary.
  2. Describe the process of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST).
  3. Distinguish between Type I and Type II errors and define power.
  4. Distinguish between parametric and nonparametric tests and choose an appropriate test statistic for research designs with one and two factors.
  5. Distinguish between a main effect and an interaction.
  6. Identify main effects and interactions in a summary table and in a graph.
  7. Distinguish between a chi-square goodness-offit-test and a chi-square test for independence.
  8. Identify and describe the following effect size measures: Cohen’s d, eta squared, the coefficient of determination, and Cramer’s V.
  9. Distinguish between a point estimate and an interval estimate and explain how estimation relates to the significance and effect size of an outcome.
  10. Distinguish between the precision and the certainty of an interval estimate.