Applications of Hypothesis Tests

Type I error involves the rejection of a null hypothesis that is true. This kind of an error can be equated to false positives (Ary, Ary, 2014). For example I had estimated that it would take a minimum of 20 minutes to prepare, have breakfast and leave the house but I imagine that 20 minutes would be too much to spend on preparing. However, I ended up using more than the 20 minutes I thought would be too much and thus woke up quite late. The resultant cost associated with the extra time wasted to cover up for the time needed to avoid lateness can be regarded as the consequence of this type 1 error. If the null hypothesis, that it would take at least 20 minutes to prepare and have breakfast, is rejected, then this would be untrue that more than 20 minutes is needed and it is a false claim that such much time would be needed to perform the task, but if the hypothesis accepted, then in a real scenario it would take more than the stated time to complete the same task. The amount of time allocated for the task has a significant direct bearing on the type I error. This error can be said to be controllable.

Type II error on the other hand can be equated to a false claim. It occurs where a hypothesis that is false is not rejected (Ary, Ary, 2014). In the above scenario, if the estimated time for performing the task is less than 20 minutes and such a null hypothesis is accepted, a type II error is bound to occur. The consequences of type 1 and type II errors thus depend on the null hypothesis statement.

Reference

Ary, D., & Ary, D. (2014). Introduction to research in education. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.176-178