A general framework

The examples in earlier pages of this section involved different types of data and different analyses. Indeed, you may find it difficult to spot their common theme!

All analyses were examples of hypothesis testing. We now describe the general framework of hypothesis testing within which all of these examples fit. This general framework is the basis for important applications in later sections of CAST.

The concepts in this page are extremely important — make sure that you understand them well before moving on.

Interpreting the p-value

Although it may be regarded as an over-simplification, the table below can be used as a guide to interpreting p-values.

p-value Interpretation
over 0.1 no evidence that the null hypothesis does not hold
between 0.05 and 0.1 very weak evidence that the null hypothesis does not hold
between 0.01 and 0.05 moderately strong evidence that the null hypothesis does not hold
under 0.01 strong evidence that the null hypothesis does not hold

Earlier examples