Paired T-test

The paired sample t-test, sometimes called the dependent sample t-test is a
statistical procedure used to determine whether the mean difference between the
two sets of observation is zero. In a paired sample t-test, each subject or entity is
measured twice, resulting in pairs of observations.

Paired T-Test

The paired sample t-test hypothesis. The paired sample t-test hypotheses are
formally defined below.
μ
 The null hypothesis ( H 0 ¿ assumes that the true mean (¿¿ d ) is
¿
equal to zero.
 The two-tailed alternative hypothesis ( H 1 ) assumes that μd is
not equal to zero.
 The upper-tailed alternative hypothesis ( H 1 ) assumes that μd
is greater than zero.
 The lower-tailed alternative hypothesis ( H 1 ¿ assumes that μd is
less than zero.

The mathematical representations of the null and alternative hypotheses are

defined below:

 H0 : μd =0

 H 1 : μd ≠ 0 (two-tailed)

 H1 : μd > 0 (upper-tailed)

 H 1 : μd < 0 (lower-tailed)

Note. It is important to remember that hypotheses are never about data, they are
Derivation of Paired T-Test

x
n

∑ (¿¿ i− x́ )2
i=1
n−1
S x = √¿

√
n

∑ (x 2i −2 x́ x i+ x́ 2 )
i=1
¿
n−1
xi
∑¿

√
n

∑ x 2i −2 x́ ∑ x i +n x́ 2 ¿
¿ i=1 ¿2
n−1 ¿
n x́ 2=n ¿

¿
√ ∑ x 2i −2 x́ ∑ x i + x́ ∑ x i
n−1

xi
∑¿
¿
2
¿
¿
¿
¿¿

¿
√∑ x −x́ ∑ x
2
i i
n−1
∑ xi
¿
n
∑ xi
 xi
∑¿
¿
¿2
¿
−¿ ¿ x́ ∑ x i
xi2 ¿
n∑ ¿
¿
√¿
¿¿
xi
∑¿
¿
¿2
¿ ∎
¿
2
x i −¿
n∑ ¿
√¿
¿¿

Example 1.

Let us consider a simple example of what is often termed "pre/post" data or

"pretest posttest" data. Suppose you wish to test the effect of Prozac on the well-
being of depressed individuals, using a standardized "well-being scale" that sums
Likert-type items to obtain a score that could range from 0 to 20. Higher scores
indicate greater well-being (that is, Prozac is having a positive effect). While there
are flaws in this design (e.g., lack of a control group) it will serve as an example of
how to analyse such data.

The value that we are interested in is the change score, and we obtain it by
taking the difference between time 2 and time one. The following snapshot of an
SPSS data window provides the data that we can work with.

Data for the paired sample t test.

Notice that we have subtracted the first score away from the second to get a
difference score or change score. Person #3's well-being score decreased by one
point at the post-test. Person #5 increased their well-being score from 4 point to 10
points. The mean of the Pretest data is 3.33 and the mean of the Post test data is 7.0.
The question is, "Is this a significant increase?"

Compare Means -> Paired Sample T test

Step 1: Stating the hypotheses:

Ho: md = 0

H1: md not equal to 0

The alternative is two-tailed and alpha = .05

Step 2: Check assumptions

The assumptions underlying the repeated samples t-test are similar to the
one-sample t-test but refer to the set of difference scores.

1. The observations are independent of each other

2. The dependent variable is measured on an interval scale

3. The differences are normally distributed in the population.

The measures are approximately interval scale numbers (self-report scores)

and we assume that each person's score has not been influenced by other people's
scores. The numbers look to have no major extremes or unusual distribution.

Step 3: Calculate test statistic

The output is given in Output 6.5. Detailed comments on the output follow.

Paired Samples Statistics. Here, the variables being compared are identified,
the Mean, N, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean for each variable is
given.

Paired Samples Correlations. Here the correlation between each of the pairs
of variables is given. Because this is a repeated measures analysis, the same people
are measured twice. You would expect a high degree of correlation between the two
sets of scores. A person who was fairly low well-being score before the treatment
should still have a fairly low well-being score relative to the others after the
treatment, even if everyone improved (e.g., cases #2). Similarly, someone who had a
high well-being score beforehand will probably have one of the highest well-being
score afterward (e.g., case #2), even if every one improves by a certain amount. Here
the correlation between the two sets of scores is quite minimal for real data (you can
tell they were manufactured). There is no consistent pattern of change (see cases #4
and 8). If there is little correlation between the two sets of scores, you might as well
be using an Independent Groups T-test.
 Paired Samples Test. Table 1. Here the descriptive statistics for the difference
between each pair of variables is given. The mean difference of 3.67 is what is
actually being tested against zero. Is this a large number or a small number? Is this
difference a real one or one that we could reasonably expect due to chance alone?

Notice the 95% Confidence Interval values are also given here. We do not
place much emphasis on these in this unit. This information says that the true
population mean lies between 6.357 and -.9763 with a 95% probability. Notice the
hypothesis mean of zero does not fall within this range.

The answer! Here we can determine that the chance of this number occurring
by chance alone (given the null hypothesis) is about .014 (or 1.4%).

Step 4: Evaluate the result

The result is significant t ( 9 )=−3.143, p=.012 . We reject the null

hypothesis in favour of the alternative. Only once or twice out of every 100 times we
repeated this experiment (and the null hypothesis was true) would we get a t-
statistic of this size. We therefore conclude that it is more likely to have been due to
some systematic, deliberate cause. If all other confounds are eliminated, this
systematic cause must have been the Prozac drug.

2 ¿ (−3.143 )2
(−3.143 )2+ 9=0.523 . So, 52.3% of the variability in well-being scores
❑
can be explained by the use of the drug or not.

Step 5: Interpret the result

A significant increase in well-being occurred (t(9) = -3.14, p = .012,

eta symbol2 = .52) in the Prozac treated group compared to the control group.

We have found strong evidence that Prozac enhances well-being in depressed

individuals. However, the major lack of controls in this study would suggest we keep
quiet about it until we can repeat the finding with more stringent safeguards against
confounds!

Exercise 1.

The head of the English department is interested in the difference in writing

score between freshman English students who are taught by different teachers. The
incoming freshmen are randomly assigned to one of two English teachers and are
given a standardized writing test after the first semester. We take a sample of eight
students from one class and nine from the other. Is there a difference in achievement
on the writing test between the two classes?

Here’s the data from the two classes:

Class 1 Class 2
35 52
51 87
66 76
42 62
37 81
46 71
60 55
55 67
53
Mean 49.44 68.88
Standard Deviation 10.38 12.30