Note: you can assume a different null hypothesis for a Chi-square test. I will discuss the next steps in calculating a Chi square value later, but for now I'll focus on the background information. This is the information we would need to calculate the likelihood that gender and party affiliation are independent. Assuming that there's a 50/50 chance of males or females being in either party, we get the very simple distribution shown below. Meanwhile, however, I've constructed an example which will allow very easy calculations. This is where the totals we put in the margins will become handy: later on, I'll show how you can calculate your estimated data using the marginals. To test this hypothesis, we need to construct a model which estimates how the data should be distributed if our hypothesis of independence is correct. So, as implied, the null hypothesis in this case would be that gender and party affiliation are independent of one another. A Chi-square test would allow you to test how likely it is that gender and party affiliation are completely independent or in other words, how likely it is that the distribution of males and females in each party is due to chance. We now have a complete data set on the distribution of 100 individuals into categories of gender (Male/Female) and party affiliation (Democrat/Republican). However, this is actually incomplete, in a sense generally, the data table should include "marginal" information giving the total counts for each column and row, as well as for the whole data set: 2x2 grids like this one are often the basic example for the Chi-square test, but in actuality any size grid would work as well: 3x3, 4x2, etc. The following table would represent a possible input to the Chi-square test, using 2 variables to divide the data: gender and party affiliation. Wherever the observed data doesn't fit the model, the likelihood that the variables are dependent becomes stronger, thus proving the null hypothesis incorrect! The test compares the observed data to a model that distributes the data according to the expectation that the variables are independent. The null hypothesis that the variables are independent. This does not mean that categories based on age are a bad idea, but only that you need to be aware of the control you have over organizing data of that sort.Īnother way to describe the Chi-square test is that it tests For example, if you are working with data on groups of people, you can divide them into age groups (18-25, 26-40, 41-60.) or income level, but the Chi-square test will treat the divisions between those categories exactly the same as the divisions between male and female, or alive and dead! It's up to you to assess whether your categories make sense, and whether the difference (for example) between age 25 and age 26 is enough to make the categories 18-25 and 26-40 meaningful. However, it cannot tell you whether the categories you constructed are meaningful. IMPORTANT: Be very careful when constructing your categories! A Chi-square test can tell you information based on how you divide up the data. Thus, by dividing a class of 54 into groups according to whether they attended class and whether they passed the exam, you might construct a data set like this: Additionally, the data in a Chi-square grid should not be in the form of percentages, or anything other than frequency (count) data. However, arranging students into the categories "Pass" and "Fail" would. For example, if you want to test whether attending class influences how students perform on an exam, using test scores (from 0-100) as data would not be appropriate for a Chi-square test. It will not work with parametric or continuous data (such as height in inches). That means that the data has been counted and divided into categories. It is also called a "goodness of fit" statistic, because it measures how well the observed distribution of data fits with the distribution that is expected if the variables are independent.Ī Chi-square test is designed to analyze categorical data. The Chi-square test is intended to test how likely it is that an observed distribution is due to chance. Tutorial: Pearson's Chi-square Test for Independence Ling 300, Fall 2008
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