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#Unit 13. Methods in Biology

The level of significance is the measurement of the statistical significance.

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#Unit 13. Methods in Biology

level of significance defines whether the null hypothesis is assumed to be accepted or rejected. It is expected to identify if the result is statistically significant for the null hypothesis to be false or rejected.

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#Unit 13. Methods in Biology

The level of significance is denoted by the Greek symbol α (alpha).

Therefore, the level of significance is defined as follows: 

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#Unit 13. Methods in Biology

To measure the level of statistical significance of the result, the investigator first needs to calculate the p-value. It defines the probability of identifying an effect which provides that the null hypothesis is true.

TLS Online TPP Program

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#Unit 13. Methods in Biology

When the p-value is less than the level of significance (α), the null hypothesis is rejected. If the p-value so observed is not less than the significance level α, then theoretically null hypothesis is accepted.

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#Unit 13. Methods in Biology

But practically, we often increase the size of the sample size and check if we reach the significance level. The general interpretation of the p-value based upon the level of significance of 10%: