Independent Samples t test.
The link below gives a brief description of the independent samples t test and provides a link for computing a t test.
(The following example is take from Howell, 2007; p. 200.)
Aronson and his colleagues have done several studies on what he termed the "stereotype threat," (Aronson, Lustina, Good, Keough, Steel, & Brown, 1998) which he described as what happens when members of a stereotyped group feel heightened pressure in situations where their behavior can confirm the negative reputation that their group lacks a valued ability. This feeling is assumed to lower group members' performance from what it would have been had they not felt threatened.
In one of their studies, Aronson, et al. (1998) used two independent groups of white college students who excelled in mathematics and for whom doing well in math was considered important. One group of students was assigned to a control condition where they were told simply to complete to a difficult mathematics exam. The second group, labeled the Threat Group, were told that Asian students typically did better than other students on math tests and that the purpose of having the students complete the test what to help the investigator understand this phenomenon. The researchers reasoned that simply telling white students that Asians did better on math tests would arouse feeling of stereotype threat and diminish their performance.
The data in the table below reflect the data Aronson, et al. obtained. Do the data support Aronson and his colleagues' hypothesis. Perform an appropriate analysis and write-up the results.
Control Group
4, 9, 1, 2, 8, 9, 13, 12, 13, 12, 7, 6
Threat Group
7, 8, 7, 2, 6, 9, 7, 10, 5, 0, 10, 8
You can use the t test procedure given in the link above, Excel ToolPac, or SPSS (or all three). It might be a good exercise for you to attempt to "program" the analysis in Excel.