Significance Testing
Hypothesis Tesing
Significant Difference


A statistical procedure that tests the viability of the null hypothesis. If data (or more extreme data) are very unlikely given that the null hypothesis is true, then the null hypothesis is rejected. If the data or more extreme data are not unlikely, then the null hypothesis is not rejected. If the null hypothesis is rejected then the result of the test is said to be significant. A statistically significant effect does not mean the effect is important.