The following essay questions review the basie

principles and concepts of inferential statistics. The

order of the questions roughly follows the fivese,

model.

a. Hypothesis testing or significance testing can be

conducted only with a random sample. Why?

b. Under what specific conditions can it be

assumed that the sampling distribution is normal

in shape?

c. Explain the role of the sampling distribution in a

test of hypothesis.

d. The null hypothesis is an assumption about real-

ity that makes it possible to test sample outcomes

for their significance. Explain.

e. What is the critical region? How is the size of the

critical region determined?

f.

Describe a research situation in which a one.

tailed test of hypothesis would be appropriate.

g. With regard to the shape of the sampling dis-

tribution, why does use of the t distribution (as

opposed to the Z distribution) make it more dit-

ficult to reject the null hypothesis?

h. What exactly can be concluded in the one-sample

case when the test statistic falls in the critical

region?