A statistical hypothesis is a scientific hypothesis that is testable on the basis of observing a process that is modeled via a set of random variables. A statistical hypothesis test is a method of statistical inference used for testing a statistical hypothesis. A test result is called statistically significant if it has been predicted as unlikely to have occurred by sampling error alone, according to a threshold probability—the significance level. Hypothesis tests are used in determining what outcomes of a study would lead to a rejection of the null hypothesis for a pre-specified level of significance. In the Neyman-Pearson framework (see below), the process of distinguishing between the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis is aided by identifying two conceptual types of errors (type 1 & type 2), and by specifying parametric limits on e.g. how much type 1 error will be permitted. An alternative framework for statistical hypothesis testing is to specify a set of statistical models, one for each candidate hypothesis, and then use model selection techniques to choose the most appropriate model. The most common selection techniques are based on either Akaike information criterion or Bayes factor. Statistical hypothesis testing is sometimes called confirmatory data analysis. It can be contrasted with exploratory data analysis, which may not have pre-specified hypotheses.
