A statistics professor works tirelessly to catch students cheating on his exams. He has particular routes for his teaching assistants to patrol, an elevated chair to ensure an unobstructed view of all students, and even a video recording of the exam in case additional evidence needs to be collected. He estimates that he catches 95% of students who cheat in his class, but 1% of the time that he accuses a student of cheating he is actually incorrect. Consider the null hypothesis, "the student is not cheating." What is the probability of a Type I error?
A) 1%
B) 5%
C) 95%
D) 99%

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A Type I error occurs when the null hypothesis is true but is incorrectly rejected. In this scenario, the null hypothesis is that the student is not cheating, and a Type I error would be accusing a student of cheating when they are not. The professor's system has a 1% chance of incorrectly accusing a student of cheating, which directly corresponds to the probability of committing a Type I error.

A Statistics Professor Works Tirelessly to Catch Students Cheating on His