T test and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests examine different null hypotheses about the data distribution The graph depicts four different sets of simulated EDIs (A to D) sampled from Gaussian distributions with different means and variances. Gray points indicate the sample data. The superimposed black point depicts the mean of each sample. The sample variance around its mean is depicted by black lines emanating from the mean (i.e., the black dot). Each set consists of 12 values, representing 12 subjects, which are submitted to both a t test and a Wilcoxon signed-ranked test. Both tests are right-tailed (meaning the tail extending into the positive direction) and test the null hypothesis that the data come from a distribution with zero mean (meaning no exemplar information across participants). p-values were pronounced significant (Y) if they passed the conventional threshold of p<0.05. Otherwise, they were unsignificant (N). (A) The sample mean is positive and the sample variance is small, hence both tests pass the significance threshold. (B) The sample mean is positive. However, an extreme value in the sample inflates the variance. Therefore the t test does not return a significant p-value anymore. (C) The mean is positive, but the sample contains a considerable number of negative EDIs. Accounting for the weight of the ranks of the data points, the Wilcoxon-sigend rank test penalizes this presence of negative data points, therefore its p-value does not pass the significance threshold. (D) The sample mean is close to zero, hence neither test indicates significant exemplar information.