In what research situations should the paired samples t test

In what research situations should the paired samples t test be used rather than the independent samples t test?

Solution

Use a paired samples t-test when you\'re testing the same people twice, such as when you give the same person a pre-test (Time 1), then a post-test (Time 2), and you compare his/her scores at two different times (to see if there\'s a significant difference between the scores at Time 1 vs. the scores at Time 2).

Use an independent samples t-test when you\'re testing different people\'s scores (such as men vs. women) to see if there\'s a significant difference between their scores.

It doesn\'t have to do with whether the sampling is random.