| name | pg-mean-tests |
| description | Run or generate Pingouin code for one-sample, independent, paired, Welch, and corrected pairwise mean comparisons in psychology studies. |
PG Mean Tests
Use for t tests and post hoc pairwise comparisons where the dependent variable is approximately continuous.
Load
Read:
../../references/supervision-gates.md
../../references/pingouin-api-quickref.md
../../references/apa-output-template.md if writing results.
Decision Rules
- One sample against a known value ->
pg.ttest(x, y=<value>).
- Two independent groups ->
pg.ttest(x, y, paired=False, correction="auto").
- Same participants measured twice ->
pg.ttest(x, y, paired=True).
- More than two group levels or multiple pairwise contrasts ->
pg.pairwise_tests.
- Non-parametric pairwise comparisons ->
pg.pairwise_tests(..., parametric=False).
Required Inputs
- Outcome column.
- Group or condition column.
- Subject ID for paired/repeated comparisons.
- Which comparisons are planned versus post hoc.
- Multiple-comparison correction: default to
holm for post hoc families unless the user specifies another correction.
- Alternative hypothesis: default to
two-sided.
Code Patterns
Independent t test:
x = df.loc[df["group"].eq("A"), "score"]
y = df.loc[df["group"].eq("B"), "score"]
res = pg.ttest(x, y, paired=False, correction="auto",
alternative="two-sided", confidence=0.95).round(3)
pg.print_table(res)
Paired t test from wide columns:
res = pg.ttest(df["pre"], df["post"], paired=True,
alternative="two-sided", confidence=0.95).round(3)
pg.print_table(res)
Pairwise tests:
res = pg.pairwise_tests(data=df, dv="score", between="group",
parametric=True, padjust="holm",
effsize="hedges").round(3)
pg.print_table(res)
Repeated pairwise tests:
res = pg.pairwise_tests(data=df, dv="score", within="condition",
subject="id", padjust="holm",
effsize="hedges").round(3)
Output Checks
Inspect res.columns before writing prose. Expected t-test columns often include T, dof, p-val, CI95%, cohen-d, BF10, and power.
Guardrails
- Do not use deprecated
pairwise_ttests.
- Do not call independent tests for paired data.
- Do not omit multiplicity correction for exploratory multi-comparison families.
- Report Welch/student choice when independent groups are imbalanced.
- If the outcome is ordinal or severely non-normal with small n, mention non-parametric alternatives.
- End result-bearing answers with one compact S0-S5 audit line.