Hypothesis Testing
This is a technical method discussed in Social Media Analysis 10-802 in Fall 2012.
Introduction
Hypothesis testing refers to the process of choosing between competing hypotheses about a probability distribution, based on observed data from the distribution. It is a core topic in mathematical statistics, and indeed is a fundamental part of the language of statistics.
A statistical hypothesis test is a method of making decisions using data, whether from a controlled experiment or an observational study (not controlled). In statistics, a result is called statistically significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance alone, according to a pre-determined threshold probability, the significance level. The phrase "test of significance" was coined by Ronald Fisher: "Critical tests of this kind may be called tests of significance, and when such tests are available we may discover whether a second sample is or is not significantly different from the first."
