17.7 Paired Comparisons

Comparison arises in many situations, and not all of these involve comparing the means in two independent samples. Data sometimes provide two measurements for each subject: paired data. For inference with paired data, we confine attention to confidence intervals.

Paired comparisons are useful because they isolate the effects of a treatment. One of the best ways to compare strategies is to put them in a head-to-head contest. For example, rather than have one group of people rate the taste of Pepsi and a different group rate the taste of Coke, we obtain a better idea of preferences by having the same people taste and rate both colas. This head-to-head approach is called a paired comparison of the treatments. It is said to ...

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