A research article reports the results of a new drug test. The drug is to be used to decrease vision loss in people with Macular
Degeneration. The article gives a p-value of .04 in the analysis section. Items 11, 12, and 13 present three different interpretations of this p-value. Indicate if the interpretation below is valid or invalid (true or false). In this context valid means that the statement is correct and invalid means the statement is incorrect. The probability of getting results as extreme as or more extreme than the ones in this study if the drug is actually not effective. A. Valid.
B. Invalid.
The P-value is the probability of getting this result or sample statistic if the null hypothesis is true. That is why a low P-value (smaller than the significance level) is considered evidence to reject the null hypothesis, because the result has little probability of being due to chance.
The statement that the P-value is "the probability of getting results as extreme as or more extreme than the ones in this study if the drug is actually not effective" is valid, as the null hypothesis states generally the opposite of the objective of the study (demonstrate that the drug is effective), and the very low value of the P-value is indicative that this result, if the drug was not effective, has a very low probability.
