in science, when we say something is significant, it means that the relationship has been tested with statistical methods and falls within some accepted range.
A difference among observed values, such as group means, deemed large enough to be considered reliable. Determination of significance comes from a statistical test, and carries with it the probabilistic characterization of significance level. As used in the statistics context, the word does not have its everyday connotation of importance.
The result of a hypothesis test is significant if we can reject H0. Sometimes a level of significance () is specified and H0 is rejected if the p-value is less than (often 0.05). The term significant is often used in summing up the result, e.g. there is a significant difference between the speeds of males and females on the bike track.
adj. (sig-NIH-fih-kent) In statistics, describes a mathematical measure between groups that is probably caused by something other than mere chance. Also called statistically significant.
(see statistically significant)
important in effect or meaning; "a significant change in tax laws"; "a significant change in the Constitution"; "a significant contribution"; "significant details"; "statistically significant"
too closely correlated to be attributed to chance and therefore indicating a systematic relation; "the interaction effect is significant at the .01 level"; "no significant difference was found"
A statistical measure of relationships and differences between groups – the difference or relationship is said to be significant if it is known to be different from random chance with a specified level of certainty. The term ‘significantâ€(tm) usually indicates a probability of 95 percent or more that the results lie within calculated upper and lower limits called confidence intervals.
Statistics: By convention, unless otherwise stated, significant is assumed to mean statistically significant at a five percent (p 0.05) level. See: Statistically Significant, P Value
A term used in statistics which has a very precise definition. It means that the observed event would occur by chance under hypothesized conditions less than a specified proportion of the time. For example, we may be interested in knowing whether the means of two samples are the same or different. If the sample means are different enough, we might conclude on the basis of a statistical test that the population means are "significantly different at the 5% level". This states that, if the means are actually the same, a difference as large as we observed would occur less than 5% of the time.
A statistical term indicating that the results of a study are stronger than would be expected from chance alone.
In statistics, describes a mathematical measure of difference between groups. The difference is said to be significant if it is greater than what might be expected to happen by chance alone. Also called statistically significant.