Relating Statistics And Experimental Design

This handy guide gives the novice researcher a clear description of the standard tools of the trade. Unlike some texts which focus on either design or statistics, this book covers the fundamentals of design, together with experiments and observational methods. There is an exposition of major tests of significance with formulas plus easy verbal interpretations, and "boxes" embedded in the text contain prototypic applications.

This open access textbook provides the background needed to correctly use, interpret and understand statistics and statistical data in diverse settings. Part I makes key concepts in statistics readily clear. Parts I and II give an overview of the most common tests (t-test, ANOVA, correlations) and work out their statistical principles. Part III provides insight into meta-statistics (statistics of statistics) and demonstrates why experiments often do not replicate. Finally, the textbook shows how complex statistics can be avoided by using clever experimental design. Both non-scientists and students in Biology, Biomedicine and Engineering will benefit from the book by learning the statistical basis of scientific claims and by discovering ways to evaluate the quality of scientific reports in academic journals and news outlets.

This is the first textbook for psychologists which combines the model comparison method in statistics with a hands-on guide to computer-based analysis and clear explanations of the links between models, hypotheses and experimental designs. Statistics is often seen as a set of cookbook recipes which must be learned by heart. Model comparison, by contrast, provides a mental roadmap that not only gives a deeper level of understanding, but can be used as a general procedure to tackle those problems which can be solved using orthodox statistical methods. Statistics and Experimental Design for Psychologists focusses on the role of Occam's principle, and explains significance testing as a means by which the null and experimental hypotheses are compared using the twin criteria of parsimony and accuracy. This approach is backed up with a strong visual element, including for the first time a clear illustration of what the F-ratio actually does, and why it is so ubiquitous in statistical testing. The book covers the main statistical methods up to multifactorial and repeated measures, ANOVA and the basic experimental designs associated with them. The associated online supplementary material extends this coverage to multiple regression, exploratory factor analysis, power calculations and other more advanced topics, and provides screencasts demonstrating the use of programs on a standard statistical package, SPSS. Of particular value to third year undergraduate as well as graduate students, this book will also have a broad appeal to anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the scientific method. Contents: What is Science?Comparing Different Models of a Set of DataTesting Hypotheses and Recording the Result: Types of ValidityBasic Descriptive Statistics (and How Pierre Laplace Saved the World)Bacon's Legacy: Causal Models, and How to Test ThemHow Hypothesis Testing Copes with Uncertainty: The Legacy of Karl Popper and Ronald FisherGaussian Distributions, the Building Block of Parametric StatisticsRandomized Controlled Trials, the Model T Ford of ExperimentsThe Independent Samples t-Test, the Analytical Engine of the RCTGeneralising the t-Test: One-Way ANOVAMultifactorial Designs and Their ANOVA CounterpartsRepeated Measures Designs, and Their ANOVA CounterpartsAppendices:On Finding the Right Effect SizeWhy Orthogonal Contrasts are UsefulMathematical Justification for the Occam LineGlossaryFurther ReadingReferencesIndex Readership: Students of undergraduate and graduate level psychology, and academics involved in research.

For this second edition, this best-selling textbook has been revised, the coverage of two-sample tests extended, and new sections added introducing one-sample tests, linear regression, and the product-moment correlation coefficient.

Professionals in all areas – business; government; thephysical, life, and social sciences; engineering; medicine, etc.– benefit from using statistical experimental design tobetter understand their worlds and then use that understanding toimprove the products, processes, and programs they are responsiblefor. This book aims to provide the practitioners of tomorrow with amemorable, easy to read, engaging guide to statistics andexperimental design. This book uses examples, drawn from a variety of established texts,and embeds them in a business or scientific context, seasoned witha dash of humor, to emphasize the issues and ideas that led to theexperiment and the what-do-we-do-next? steps after theexperiment. Graphical data displays are emphasized as means ofdiscovery and communication and formulas are minimized, with afocus on interpreting the results that software produce. The roleof subject-matter knowledge, and passion, is also illustrated. Theexamples do not require specialized knowledge, and the lessons theycontain are transferrable to other contexts. Fundamentals of Statistical Experimental Design and Analysisintroduces the basic elements of an experimental design, and thebasic concepts underlying statistical analyses. Subsequent chaptersaddress the following families of experimental designs: Completely Randomized designs, with single or multipletreatment factors, quantitative or qualitative Randomized Block designs Latin Square designs Split-Unit designs Repeated Measures designs Robust designs Optimal designs Written in an accessible, student-friendly style, this book issuitable for a general audience and particularly for thoseprofessionals seeking to improve and apply their understanding ofexperimental design.

In all the experimental sciences, good design of experiments is crucial to the success of research. Well-planned experiments can provide a great deal of information efficiently and can be used to test several hypotheses simultaneously. This book is about the statistical principles of good experimental design and is intended for all applied statisticians and practising scientists engaged in the design, implementation and analysis of experiments. Professor Mead has written the book with the emphasis on the logical principles of statistical design and employs a minimum of mathematics. Throughout he assumes that the large-scale analysis of data will be performed by computers and he is thus able to devote more attention to discussions of how all of the available information can be used to extract the clearest answers to many questions. The principles are illustrated with a wide range of examples drawn from medicine, agriculture, industry and other disciplines. Numerous exercises are given to help the reader practise techniques and to appreciate the difference that good design of experiments can make to a scientific project.

Experiment Design and Statistical Methods introduces the concepts, principles, and techniques for carrying out a practical research project either in real world settings or laboratories - relevant to studies in psychology, education, life sciences, social sciences, medicine, and occupational and management research. The text covers: repeated measures unbalanced and non-randomized experiments and surveys choice of design adjustment for confounding variables model building and partition of variance covariance multiple regression Experiment Design and Statistical Methods contains a unique extension of the Venn diagram for understanding non-orthogonal design, and it includes exercises for developing the reader's confidence and competence. The book also examines advanced techniques for users of computer packages or data analysis, such as Minitab, SPSS, SAS, SuperANOVA, Statistica, BMPD, SYSTAT, Genstat, and GLIM.

Presents readers with a user-friendly, non-technical introductionto statistics and the principles of plant and crop experimentation.Avoiding mathematical jargon, it explains how to plan and design anexperiment, analyse results, interpret computer output and presentfindings. Using specific crop and plant case studies, this guidepresents: * The reasoning behind each statistical method is explained beforegiving relevant, practical examples * Step-by-step calculations with examples linked to three computerpackages (MINITAB, GENSTAT and SAS) * Exercises at the end of many chapters * Advice on presenting results and report writing Written by experienced lecturers, this text will be invaluable toundergraduate and postgraduate students studying plant sciences,including plant and crop physiology, biotechnology, plant pathologyand agronomy, plus ecology and environmental science students andthose wanting a refresher or reference book in statistics.