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Hypothesis testing question

Previous research has indicated that changes in the activity of dopamine may be a contributing factor to schizophrenia. The dopamine levels among 11 patients classified as suffering from psychosis and 11 that aren't are measured and give the following statistics respectively.


Psychotic : xˉ1=0.032\bar{x}_1 = 0.032 and S1=0.003S_1 = 0.003
Not Psychotic : xˉ2=0.014\bar{x}_2 = 0.014 and S2=0.002S_2 = 0.002

At 1% significance level does the data suggest dopamine levels are higher among patients who have psychosis?

My attempt:

Ho= μ1μ2=0\mu_1 - \mu_2 = 0
Ha= μ1μ2>0\mu_1 - \mu_2 > 0

We can assume the Ho to be true and therefore
Unparseable latex formula:

\mu_\bar{x}1-\bar{x}2

=0= 0


xˉ1xˉ2=0.018\bar{x}_1 - \bar{x}_2 = 0.018

I'm going to assume that the data follows a t-distribution because n = 11 for each data set. We need to find the t-value at which the probability of being above is 1% at 22 degrees freedom (degrees freedom = n1 +n2 = 22). From the tables t0.01,22 = 2.508

Next we need to work out σ\sigma and see if 0.018 is further from μ\mu than 2.508σ2.508 \sigma .

σ=((0.003)2/11+(0.002)2/11)=0.001087\sigma = \sqrt{((0.003)^2/11+(0.002)^2/11)} = 0.001087


2.508σ=0.002732.508 \sigma = 0.00273. 0.018 is much larger than that number and so lies far to the right of the critical value. This means that we can reject our null hypothesis and conclude that dopamine levels are higher in patients that have psychosis.

I feel like I've gone wrong somewhere because 0.018 is so much larger than the critical value of 0.00273. If anyone could look over this and confirm weather I'm right or not it would help lots! Thanks in advance.
Reply 1
Original post by MathsProblems
Previous research has indicated that changes in the activity of dopamine may be a contributing factor to schizophrenia. The dopamine levels among 11 patients classified as suffering from psychosis and 11 that aren't are measured and give the following statistics respectively.


Psychotic : xˉ1=0.032\bar{x}_1 = 0.032 and S1=0.003S_1 = 0.003
Not Psychotic : xˉ2=0.014\bar{x}_2 = 0.014 and S2=0.002S_2 = 0.002

At 1% significance level does the data suggest dopamine levels are higher among patients who have psychosis?

My attempt:

Ho= μ1μ2=0\mu_1 - \mu_2 = 0
Ha= μ1μ2>0\mu_1 - \mu_2 > 0

We can assume the Ho to be true and therefore
Unparseable latex formula:

\mu_\bar{x}1-\bar{x}2

=0= 0


xˉ1xˉ2=0.018\bar{x}_1 - \bar{x}_2 = 0.018

I'm going to assume that the data follows a t-distribution because n = 11 for each data set. We need to find the t-value at which the probability of being above is 1% at 22 degrees freedom (degrees freedom = n1 +n2 = 22). From the tables t0.01,22 = 2.508

Next we need to work out σ\sigma and see if 0.018 is further from μ\mu than 2.508σ2.508 \sigma .

σ=((0.003)2/11+(0.002)2/11)=0.001087\sigma = \sqrt{((0.003)^2/11+(0.002)^2/11)} = 0.001087


2.508σ=0.002732.508 \sigma = 0.00273. 0.018 is much larger than that number and so lies far to the right of the critical value. This means that we can reject our null hypothesis and conclude that dopamine levels are higher in patients that have psychosis.

I feel like I've gone wrong somewhere because 0.018 is so much larger than the critical value of 0.00273. If anyone could look over this and confirm weather I'm right or not it would help lots! Thanks in advance.


I haven't checked the arithmetic but qualitatively this seems sensible - the sample variances for both samples are absolutely tiny compared to the differences in the means, so it seems as though we should expect an "extreme" test statistic as you've found.

Having said that, you should be looking at the 1% level for the t_20 distribution rather t_22.

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