Alternative (alternate) hypothesis

The logical alternative to the null hypothesis in NHST (Null Hypothesis Significance Testing). At the logical level the null and alternative hypotheses are just two hypotheses about the population: that there is nothing systematic in the population (the null) or that there is (alternative). However, quantitatively they are very different. The null hypothesis is a point hypothesis quantitatively the effect in the population is of size zero, there is nothing going on in the population. However, the alternative hypothesis covers many quantitative effects in the population from “a little, an unimportant little is going on” to “there is a huge effect here”. See null hypothesis and inferential testing.

Powered by BetterDocs