17/01/2021 Choosing the Right Statistical Test | Types and Examples

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Statistical tests: which one should you use?

Published on January 28, 2020 by Rebecca Bevans. Revised on December 28, 2020.

Statistical tests are used in hypothesis testing. They can be used to:

determine whether a predictor variable has a statistically significant relationship with an

outcome variable.
estimate the difference between two or more groups.

Statistical tests assume a null hypothesis of no relationship or no difference between groups.

Then they determine whether the observed data fall outside of the range of values predicted
by the null hypothesis.

If you already know what types of variables you’re dealing with, you can use the flowchart to
choose the right statistical test for your data.

Statistical tests flowchart

What does a statistical test do?

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Statistical tests work by calculating a test statistic – a number that describes how much the
relationship
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It then calculates a p-value (probability value). The p-value estimates how likely it is that you
would see the difference described by the test statistic if the null hypothesis of no relationship
were true.

If the value of the test statistic is more extreme than the statistic calculated from the null
hypothesis, then you can infer a statistically significant relationship between the predictor
and outcome variables.

If the value of the test statistic is less extreme than the one calculated from the null
hypothesis, then you can infer no statistically significant relationship between the predictor
and outcome variables.

When to perform a statistical test

You can perform statistical tests on data that have been collected in a statistically valid
manner – either through an experiment, or through observations made using probability
sampling methods.

For a statistical test to be valid, your sample size needs to be large enough to approximate the
true distribution of the population being studied.

To determine which statistical test to use, you need to know:

whether your data meets certain assumptions.

the types of variables that you’re dealing with.

Statistical assumptions
Statistical tests make some common assumptions about the data they are testing:

1. Independence of observations (a.k.a. no autocorrelation): The observations/variables

you include in your test are not related (for example, multiple measurements of a single
test subject are not independent, while measurements of multiple different test subjects
are independent).
2. Homogeneity of variance: the variance within each group being compared is similar
among all groups. If one group has much more variation than others, it will limit the

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test’s effectiveness.
3. Normality
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data: the data follows a normal distribution (a.k.a. a bell curve). This
assumption applies only to quantitative data.

If your data do not meet the assumptions of normality or homogeneity of variance, you may
be able to perform a nonparametric statistical test, which allows you to make comparisons
without any assumptions about the data distribution.

If your data do not meet the assumption of independence of observations, you may be able to
use a test that accounts for structure in your data (repeated-measures tests or tests that
include blocking variables).

Types of variables
The types of variables you have usually determine what type of statistical test you can use.

Quantitative variables represent amounts of things (e.g. the number of trees in a forest).
Types of quantitative variables include:

Continuous (a.k.a ratio variables): represent measures and can usually be divided into
units smaller than one (e.g. 0.75 grams).
Discrete (a.k.a integer variables): represent counts and usually can’t be divided into units
smaller than one (e.g. 1 tree).

Categorical variables represent groupings of things (e.g. the different tree species in a
forest). Types of categorical variables include:

Ordinal: represent data with an order (e.g. rankings).

Nominal: represent group names (e.g. brands or species names).
Binary: represent data with a yes/no or 1/0 outcome (e.g. win or lose).

Choose the test that fits the types of predictor and outcome variables you have collected (if
you are doing an experiment, these are the independent and dependent variables). Consult
the tables below to see which test best matches your variables.

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Choosing a parametric test: regression, comparison, or

correlation
Parametric tests usually have stricter requirements than nonparametric tests, and are able to
make stronger inferences from the data. They can only be conducted with data that adheres
to the common assumptions of statistical tests.

The most common types of parametric test include regression tests, comparison tests, and
correlation tests.

Regression tests
Regression tests are used to test cause-and-effect relationships. They look for the effect of
one or more continuous variables on another variable.

Simple linear regression

Predictor variable:
Continuous
1 predictor

Outcome variable:
Continuous
1 outcome

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Research question example: What is the effect of income on longevity?

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Multiple linear regression

Predictor variable:
Continuous
2 or more predictors

Outcome variable:
Continuous
1 outcome

Research question example: What is the effect of income and minutes of exercise per day on
longevity?

Logistic regression

Predictor variable:
Continuous

Outcome variable:
Binary

Research question example: What is the effect of drug dosage on the survival of a test subject?

Comparison tests
Comparison tests look for differences among group means. They can be used to test the
effect of a categorical variable on the mean value of some other characteristic.

T-tests are used when comparing the means of precisely two groups (e.g. the average heights
of men and women). ANOVA and MANOVA tests are used when comparing the means of more
than two groups (e.g. the average heights of children, teenagers, and adults).

Paired t-test

Predictor variable:
Categorical

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1 predictor

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Outcome variable:
Quantitative
groups come from the same population

Research question example: What is the effect of two different test prep programs on the average
exam scores for students from the same class?

Independent t-test

Predictor variable:
Categorical
1 predictor

Outcome variable:
Quantitative
groups come from different populations

Research question example: What is the difference in average exam scores for students from two
different schools?

ANOVA

Predictor variable:
Categorical
1 or more predictor

Outcome variable:
Quantitative
1 outcome

Research question example: What is the difference in average pain levels among post-surgical
patients given three different painkillers?

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MANOVA
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Predictor variable:
Categorical
1 or more predictor

Outcome variable:
Quantitative
2 or more outcome

Research question example: What is the effect of flower species on petal length, petal width, and
stem length?

Correlation tests
Correlation tests check whether two variables are related without assuming cause-and-
effect relationships.

These can be used to test whether two variables you want to use in (for example) a multiple
regression test are autocorrelated.

Pearson’s r

Predictor variable: Continuous

Outcome variable: Continuous

Research question example: How are latitude and temperature related?

Choosing a nonparametric test

Non-parametric tests don’t make as many assumptions about the data, and are useful when
one or more of the common statistical assumptions are violated. However, the inferences they
make aren’t as strong as with parametric tests.

Spearman’s r

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Predictor variable:
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Quantitative

Outcome variable:
Quantitative

Use in place of…: Pearson’s r

Chi square test of independence

Predictor variable:
Categorical

Outcome variable:
Categorical

Use in place of…: Pearson’s r

Sign test

Predictor variable:
Categorical

Outcome variable:
Quantitative

Use in place of…: One-sample t-test

Kruskal–Wallis H

Predictor variable:
Categorical
3 or more groups

Outcome variable:
Quantitative

Use in place of…: ANOVA

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ANOSIM
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Predictor variable:
Categorical
3 or more groups

Outcome variable:
Quantitative
2 or more outcome variables

Use in place of…: MANOVA

Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test

Predictor variable:
Categorical
2 groups

Outcome variable:
Quantitative
groups come from different populations

Use in place of…: Independent t-test

Wilcoxon Signed-rank test

Predictor variable:
Categorical
2 groups

Outcome variable:
Quantitative
groups come from the same population

Use in place of…: Paired t-test

Flowchart: choosing a statistical test

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This flowchart helps you choose among parametric tests. For nonparametric alternatives,
check
theTable
table of
above.
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Frequently asked questions about statistical tests

What are the main assumptions of statistical tests? 

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What is a test statistic? 

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What is statistical significance? 

What is the difference between quantitative and categorical variables? 

What is the difference between discrete and continuous variables? 

Is this article helpful?

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Rebecca Bevans
Rebecca is working on her PhD in soil ecology and spends her free time writing. She's very
happy to be able to nerd out about statistics with all of you.

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321

Test statistics explained

The test statistic is a number, calculated from a statistical test, used to find if your data could have occurred under the
null hypothesis.

25

Understanding normal distributions

In a normal distribution, data is symmetrically distributed with no skew and follows a bell curve.

21

1 comment

Rebecca Bevans (Scribbr-team) · January 28, 2020 at 7:28 PM

Thanks for reading! Hope you found this article helpful. If anything is still unclear, or if
you didn’t find what you were looking for here, leave a comment and we’ll see if we
can help.

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