What is the advantage of a dependent t-test over an independent t-test?
Before we answer this question, we need to point out that you cannot choose one test over the other unless your study design allows it. What we are discussing here is whether it is advantageous to design a study that uses one set of subjects whom are measured twice or two separate groups of subjects measured once each. The major advantage of choosing a repeated-measures design (and therefore running a dependent t-test) is that you get to eliminate the individual differences that occur between subjects – the concept that no two people are the same – and this increases the power of the test. What this means is that if you are more likely to detect any significant differences, if they do exist, using the dependent t-test versus the independent t-test.
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