Final answer:
The decision rule is to reject the null hypothesis if the test statistic is greater than the critical value corresponding to α = 0.01.
Step-by-step explanation:
The decision rule in hypothesis testing helps determine whether to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis based on the test statistic and the significance level (α). In this case, with α = 0.01, the decision rule is to reject the null hypothesis if the test statistic is greater than the critical value corresponding to α = 0.01.
The reason for this decision is that a test statistic greater than the critical value is considered to provide strong evidence against the null hypothesis.
Therefore, if the test statistic in the above case is greater than the critical value at α = 0.01, we would reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative hypothesis.