1. Chapter 2 Comparing Two Proportions
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
Test a difference in proportions
Use technology to simulate a difference in proportions
Make conclusions from experiments

2. In Chapter 1, we examined if an athlete’s or team’s ABILITY increased or decreased from an early time period to a later time period.
In Chapter 2, we will examine if an athlete or team has a greater ABILITY in one context or another, during the same time period.
Examples
If a baseball player’s ABILITY to hit is greater against left-handed pitchers than against right-handed pitchers during his career.
If a team’s ABILITY to win at home is greater than their ABILITY to win on the road during the regular season.

3. Is there a home field advantage in the NFL?
It is assumed in the NFL (and most other leagues) that the home team has an advantage.
Here are the results of the Arizona Cardinal’s games from the 2008 NFL season:
This table is known as a two-way table.

4. How would we find their winning percentage?
A two-way table displays the distribution of a categorical variable in at least two different contexts.
The team’s regular season overall record was 9-7, meaning they won 9 games and lost 7, thus they played a total of 16 games.
How would we find their winning percentage?
To calculate winning percentage, divide the total number of wins by the total number of games played, and then multiply by 100.

5. Let’s calculate their different winning percentages:

6. What’s one way we can compare these PERFORMANCES?
It certainly looks like there is evidence that the Cardinals had a greater ABILITY to win at home. However, is our evidence convincing evidence?

7. Performance vs Ability
If the Cardinals could continue playing the 2008 season indefinitely, in the same conditions, their overall winning percentage in home games would be their ABILITY to win at home.
The Cardinals PERFORMANCES at home (and on the road) in the actual 2008 season will vary from their ABILITY due to random chance.

8. Why were the Cardinals better at home?
We have two possible explanations:
Claim 1: The Cardinals had the same ABILITY to win at home and on the road, and the difference in PERFORMANCES was due to RANDOM CHANCE.
Claim 2: The Cardinals had a greater ABILITY to win at home than on the road.

9. Remember the comparison to our judicial system
Remember the comparison to our judicial system. We must start with the assumption that someone is innocent until proven guilty. Only if we have convincing evidence can we claim someone is guilty.
In this instance, we must start with the assumption that the Cardinals had the same ABILITY to win at home and on the road, and the difference in PERFORMANCES was due to RANDOM CHANCE.
If our simulations show that the difference in PERFORMANCES is unlikely to occur by RANDOM CHANCE, then we will have convincing evidence that the Cardinals had a greater ABILITY to win at home.

10. Stating Hypotheses The two competing claims are known as hypotheses.
Null hypothesis: describes the initial belief that there has been no change in ABILITY or that there is no difference in ABILITY in two different contexts
The null hypothesis is denoted as
This is read as H-naught, or H-sub 0.

11. Alternative hypothesis: describes what we want to establish or what we suspect is true
The alternative hypothesis is denoted as
This is read as H-sub a.
Let’s formally state our hypotheses:

12. Things to keep in mind…
Hypotheses are always stated in terms of ABILITY, which is what we are trying to estimate.
The null hypothesis should always claim equality.
The alternative hypothesis will either claim an inequality, or claim non-equality. For this chapter, most alternative hypotheses will contain a “greater” inequality.
The alternative hypothesis is what we suspect is true, not the null hypothesis.
A hypothesis test is the formal process used to decide whether the data provide convincing evidence to support the alternative hypothesis.
Before we talk more about this, let’s practice writing hypotheses…

13. Example 1
Do golfers have a lower ABILITY to land on the green when it rains? To investigate, you compare the percentage of time landing on the green for Tiger Woods in tournaments when it rained and in tournaments when it was sunny. State the null and alternative hypotheses for investigating this claim.

14. Example 2
Do quarterbacks have a greater ABILITY to complete passes at home as opposed to on the road? To investigate, you compare the pass completion percentages for Shane Falco (of the Washington Sentinels) in games at home and in games on the road. State the null and alternative hypotheses for investigating this claim.

15. Test Statistics
A test statistic is a measure calculated from a team’s (or player’s) PERFORMANCES that is used as evidence in a hypothesis test.
The test statistic in this chapter is the difference in proportions (percentage of successes).
The Cardinals home winning percentage was 75%, and their road winning percentage was 37.5%. Since we want the difference in proportions, subtract them, and we get our test statistic of 37.5%.

16. To do this, let’s run a simulation! How would we set up our spinner???
We will be testing to see how likely it is for a team that goes 9-7 overall to have a difference in PERFORMANCES at home and on the road of at least 37.5% due to RANDOM CHANCE alone, assuming there is no difference in their ABILITY at home and on the road.
In other terms, we want to see how likely it is to get a difference of at least 37.5%, assuming the null hypothesis is true.
To do this, let’s run a simulation! How would we set up our spinner???
Problem: We do not have an assumed ABILITY.
Solution: We have to use a different type of simulation.

17. We are going to use index cards to run this simulation
We are going to use index cards to run this simulation. This will tell us what values of the test statistic could occur by RANDOM CHANCE alone. Here’s what you will do:
1) Start with 16 equally sized index cards.
2) The outcomes will go on the cards.
-On 9 of the cards, write a “W” on one side to represent the 9 wins. On the remaining 7 cards, write a “L” on one side to represent the 7 losses.
3) Next, fully shuffle the cards. Then deal 8 cards into one pile to represent the team’s simulated PERFORMANCE at home, and the other 8 cards into another pile to represent the simulated road PERFORMANCE.

18. Here are the results for my simulation:
Here, the Cardinals still performed better at home, but only by 12.5%, not the 37.5% we saw in the actual 2008 season.
Let’s record some of our observations. Note: you can have a negative difference! This would occur if the road winning percentage was higher than the home winning percentage.

20. Here is 100 simulated seasons.
From this simulation, does it look like we have convincing evidence to claim that the Cardinals had a greater ABILITY to win at home than on the road?

21. 16 out of 100 (16%) simulations produced a difference greater than or equal to the actual difference of 37.5%. As a result, we do not have convincing evidence to state that the Cardinals have a greater ABILITY to win at home than on the road.
The value 16/100 (.16) is called our approximate p-value (probability value).
A p-value measures how likely it is to get a test statistic at least as extreme as the observed test statistic by RANDOM CHANCE, assuming that the null hypothesis is true. The results of a simulation provide an estimate of the p-value.

22. Making Conclusions
There are two possible conclusions that we can reach:
1) Reject the null hypothesis
2) Fail to reject the null hypothesis
The p-value gives us the information we need about the null hypothesis to reach a conclusion.
If the p-value is small, we will reject the null hypothesis.
If the p-value is large, we will fail to reject the null hypothesis.

23. The significance level of a test is a predetermined level of evidence that is required to essentially rule out RANDOM CHANCE as a plausible explanation.
Most of the time we use a significance level of 5%. (Sometimes you will see other values. Other common values are 1% and 10%).
The p-value is considered small if it is less than the significance level.

25. The smaller the p-value, the more convincing our evidence is.
For example, a p-value of would be more convincing than a p-value of 0.03.
This video best sums it all up:
Understanding p-value
Remember, if p is low, null must go!!!

26. Our initial hypotheses:
The p-value in our simulation was 16%.
Conclusion: Fail to reject the null hypothesis.
At the 5% level of significance, we do not have convincing evidence to support the claim that the 2008 Cardinals had a greater ABILITY to win at home than on the road.

27. Tennis anyone???

28. Using Technology for Simulation
Even though index cards are super fun, they are also super time consuming. Let’s look at a quicker way we can simulate a difference in proportions by using technology.
We will go back to the example in the beginning of the chapter of the 2008 Arizona Cardinals. Reminder: they were 6-2 at home, and 3-5 on the road. We are going to need this data!

29. Steps to simulate a difference in proportions by using technology:
Either go to , or click on my teacher page and click the link “Statkey”
In the right hand column under “Randomization Hypothesis Tests” click “Test for Difference in Proportions.”
On the top of the page click on “Edit Data”
Group 1 count: 6 Group 1 sample size: 8
Group 2 count: 3 Group 2 sample size: 8
Click on “right tail”
Click “generate 100 samples”

30. It might seem a little odd that we did not find convincing evidence for home field advantage, seeing as how most fans believe it exists.
Is there anything we can do to try and improve this study?
Perhaps if we increased the sample size, we may find convincing evidence for home field advantage.
Sample size: the number of observations (games, shots, etc…)
Remember, when sample size is increased, the effects of RANDOM CHANCE are decreased, and the PERFORMANCE will be closer to the actual ABILITY.

31. Instead of looking at the PERFORMANCES of the Cardinals for just the 2008 season, let’s look at the PERFORMANCES for the seasons.
What are the hypotheses we want to test?

32. Before we test these hypotheses, let’s calculate our test statistic.
Now let’s head back to Statkey and test the likelihood of a difference of at least 32.5% due to RANDOM CHANCE.

33. Edit Data
Group 1 Count: 23 Group 1 Sample size: 40
Group 2 Count: 10 Group 2 Sample size: 40
Right tail
Generate 100 samples
Try it again and generate 1000 samples

34. Here are the results of 1000 trials of the simulation:
Estimate the p-value from this simulation.

35. Make a Conclusion Conclusion: Reject the null hypothesis
At the 5% level of significance, there is convincing evidence to support the claim that the Cardinals had a greater ABILITY to win at home than on the road.

36. Something to think about…
When we used 5 year’s worth of data, a difference of 32.5% was convincing evidence of home field advantage.
When we used 1 year’s worth of data, a difference of 37.5% was not convincing evidence of home field advantage. So a larger difference was actually not convincing.
One of the most important concepts of this course is that if there really is a difference in ABILITY, we are more likely to find convincing evidence of the difference when we use a larger sample size.

37. More technology…
Head to my teacher webpage and click on “Book Website.”
Then click on “Statistical Applets” and “Difference in Proportions.”

38. Let’s do the 2008 example first.
Context 1 Context 2
Successes: 6 Successes: 3
Total attempts: 8 Total attempts: 8
Click on “calculate observed difference in proportions.”
Then simulate 100 differences, and hit “add more trials.”
Next, try the example over 5 seasons from
Successes: 23 Successes: 10
Total attempts: 40 Total attempts: 40

39. Causation
There are many things that can contribute to home field advantage: fans, comfort level, familiarity with the field, etc…
Is it possible to tell which one of these variables causes the home field advantage effect?
When it is impossible to tell which variable is causing an effect, we say the variables are confounding.
While we have convincing evidence that home field advantage exists, we cannot be convinced that we know the cause.

40. Have you ever been watching a college basketball game, a player on the visiting team is shooting free-throws, and the home student section is going absolutely crazy trying to distract the free throw shooter?
This begs the question “Do basketball players have a lower ABILITY to make free-throws in a hostile environment?”
If you have never seen this in action, here are a few examples of college fans distracting free-throw shooters:
Sport Science
Speedo Guy
Wild Bill

41. Experiments
The way we can test something like whether environment makes a difference is by performing an experiment.
In an experiment, treatments are deliberately imposed on individuals to measure their responses.
Let’s talk about some of the key elements of experiments, and how we would set up an experiment to test if there is a difference in environments when shooting free throws…

42. Treatment: what each individual in the experiment is assigned to do
This experiment would compare shooting percentage using two different treatments:
1) shooting free-throws in a distraction free environment
2) shooting free-throws in an environment with distractions
Response variable: measures the outcome of interest
What would be the response variable here?
Whether or not the shot was made
Explanatory variable: what is deliberately changed to see if this change causes a change in the response variable
What would be the explanatory variable here?
The type of environment

43. Setup
It is important to think about the setup of the experiment. Would it be fair to have a participant should 50 shots in a distraction-free environment and then 50 shots with distractions?
No because the participant may get tired and shoot worse in the second set
How can we avoid this?
We need to randomly assign our treatments, meaning we need to use a chance process to assign the treatments to individuals so that no treatment is given an advantage.

44. One way to randomly assign treatments for this experiment would be to use notecards. If the participant will take 100 total shots, then write a “D” for distraction on 50 cards and a “N” for no distraction on the other 50 cards. Then shuffle up the cards and reveal them one at a time to determine which environment each shot will be taken in. Doing this will ensure that one environment isn’t given a disadvantage (or advantage) over the other.

45. Another important aspect of an experiment is making sure to control the environment. This means that all conditions are kept exactly the same for each trial, except for the treatments being compared.
In this context, you want to make sure that the conditions the participant is shooting in are the same for all shots.
Some things that should be kept the same:
Same basketball
Same sneakers
Shoot at the same hoop
Shoot in the same gym
Shoot in the same time period

46. By controlling for other conditions, we will be able to say the explanatory variable is the cause for the change in ABILITY (providing we have convincing evidence).
In this example, if we found convincing evidence, we would be able to say that the reason is the shooting environment. However, if we had not controlled for something (say the same hoop), we would not know if a change in ABILITY was due to the shooting environment or simply shooting on a different hoops.

47. What would be our hypotheses for this experiment?
By setting them up this way, we should be dealing with a positive test statistic.

48. Time for the experiment
Most of the examples we have dealt with have been about one athlete, so we will have one athlete perform the experiment. Then, we can use our hypothesis testing procedure to see if we have any convincing evidence. Afterwards, we can run the experiment again with a new athlete.
In the favor of time, we will do 10 shots with distractions, and 10 shots without distractions.

49. Here are the results from someone who took 100 attempts.

50. The p-value is 2%. What is the conclusion. Reject the null hypothesis
The p-value is 2%. What is the conclusion? Reject the null hypothesis. At the 5% level of significance, there is convincing evidence to conclude that this particular student has a greater ABILITY to make free throws when shooting without distractions.

51. Making Conclusions from Experiments
Up until this point, we have only been dealing with observational studies.
Observational studies use available data and do not impose treatments.
As a result, even if we do have convincing evidence of a difference in ABILITY, we cannot conclude that a change in one variable causes a change in another variable. This is because other variables are not controlled in an observational study and these variables might be confounded with the explanatory variable.

52. This contrasts from experiments, which control all variables (other than the explanatory variable), as well as randomly assign the treatments. This then allows us to make a cause-and-effect conclusion.
In the free-throw experiment, everything stayed the same except the environment. If we find convincing evidence (which we did with the 100 shot example), then we can conclude that the only plausible explanation for shooting percentage being higher was the environment without distractions.

53. If this happened to be an observational study, we would be able to say that we have convincing evidence that ABILITY to make free-throws increases when shooting without distractions, but we would not be able to conclude why. We did not control for any variables, so perhaps the environment could have caused the ABILITY to increase, but other things could have caused it to increase as well, such as the basketball being used, the hoop being shot on, etc…