Introduction

The independent-samples t-test (or independent t-test, for short) compares the means between
two unrelated groups on the same continuous, dependent variable. For example, you can use
an independent t-test to determine whether knowledge on financial literacy of Commerce
students differed between two groups, male and female (i.e., your dependent variable would be
"knowledge on financial literacy " and your independent variable would be "sex", which has two
groups: "male" and "female"). Alternately, you can use an independent t-test to determine
whether there is a significant difference in clients' satisfaction towards E-banking services of a
certain bank when clients are grouped on job status (i.e., your dependent variable would be
"clients' satisfaction" and your independent variable would be "job status", which has two
groups: "regular" and "contractual").

The following are the five assumptions for t- test:

Assumption 1 The dependent variable should be measured at the interval or ratio

Examples of variables that meet this criterion include customers’ satisfaction (measured
from 1 to 5), intelligence (measured using IQ score), exam performance (measured from 0
to 100), weight (measured in kg), and so forth.

Assumption 2
The independent variable should consist of two categorical, independent
groups.

Examples of independent variables that meet this criterion include gender (2 groups:
male or female), employment status (2 groups: employed or unemployed), residence (2
groups: rural or urban), and so forth.

Assumption
. 3 There should be an independence of observations, meaning we are
comparing in t-test two unrelated groups. Unrelated groups, also called unpaired groups
or independent groups, are groups in which the cases (e.g., participants) in each group
are different. This means that there is no relationship between the observations in each
group or between the groups themselves

Assumption 4
 1. The dependent variable should be approximately normally distributed for
each group of the independent variable. There should be at least 15 samples per group

Assumption 5 There is need for homogeneous variances. This means that the population
variances in each group are equal. The independent t-test assumes the variances of the two
groups you are measuring are equal in the population. The assumption of homogeneity of
variance can be tested using Levene's Test of Equality of Variances, which is produced in SPSS
Statistics when running the independent t-test procedure.

Step1: In the variable view encode groupings (independent variable) and moisture(dependent
variable)

             Enter in the value labels; 1 fruits, 2 vegetables

Step2: In the data view, encode the data in the activity below
Step3

When done with encoding, click data view, run the t-test using the steps below

Analyze, compare means, Independent Sample t test

            Enter groupings to grouping variable

            In the define groups,  enter group 1 - fruits; group 2 - vegetables

This is the output view of t- test for independent samples in PSPP

since sig(2-tailed)=0.005 is less than 0.05

the result shows that there is a significant difference in the moisture content between fruits and
vegetables

therefore the moisture content between fruits and vegetables varies significantly in favor of
vegetables (higher mean)
Step6

What if the result of t-test for independent samples looks this?

the result shows that there is no significant difference in the moisture content between fruits and
vegetables

therefore the moisture content between fruits and vegetables varies is considered to be the same.
 Steps in Hypothesis Testing

Example 1:

1. State the null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis

Ho: There is no significant difference in the moisture content of fruit and vegetable

Ha: There is a significant difference in the moisture content of fruit and vegetable

2. Choose the Level of significance: 0.05

5. Make Decision

Since the Sig(2-tailed) > 0.05

0.563 > 0.05 ; Not Significant ;

The mean of two groups being compared do not vary significantly; perceived to be the same

Note since Sig = 0.039 ( Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances) we will use the value of Sig (2-
tailed) in the Equal variances not assumed
Example 2:

1. State the null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis

Ho: There is no significant difference in the moisture content of fruit and vegetable

Ha: There is a significant difference in the moisture content of fruit and vegetable

2. Choose the Level of significance: 0.05

5. Make Decision

Since the Sig(2-tailed) ≤ 0.05

0.008 < 0.05 ; Significant;

The mean of two groups being compared vary significantly in favor of the higher mean

Note since Sig = 0.706 ( Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances) we will use the value of Sig (2-
tailed) in the Equal variances assumed