The sign test

Question 1

Why is the sign test used?

Answer 1

To test the data from experiments with a repeated measures design experiment to check that the results are not the result of chance

Question 2

What is the first stage of the sign test?

Answer 2

Subtract each participant value from the experimental column from their value in the control column, recording its sign and if they are both the same then the sign is a 0

Question 3

What is the second stage of the sign test?

Answer 3

Count the number of times the less frequent sign occurs which gives us S

Question 4

What is the third stage of the sign test?

Answer 4

Count the total number of pluses and minuses which gives you N

Question 5

What is the 4th stage of the sign test?

Answer 5

Decide if the hypothesis is one tailed or two tailed to see which column of level of significance you use

Question 6

What is the 5th stage of the sign test?

Answer 6

Use the critical values table to look at the N value at the significance level at 0.05 for either one tailed or two tailed depending on the type of hypothesis

Question 7

When is a result significant in the sign test?

Answer 7

If the value for S is smaller or equal to the critical value worked out in the table

Question 8

If the value of S is larger than the critical value, what do you say?

Answer 8

Accept the null hypothesis, cant reject it, as there is no significant difference

Question 9

If the value if S is smaller than the critical value, what do you say?

Answer 9

Reject the null hypothesis, cant accept it, as there is a statistically significant difference