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What Statistical Test is Appropriate for Your Study

The document outlines the process of selecting appropriate statistical tests based on research questions, dependent and independent variables, and data types. It distinguishes between tests for comparing means and those for investigating relationships, as well as parametric versus non-parametric tests. Key examples are provided to illustrate the application of various statistical tests in different research scenarios.

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Loli Walker
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2 views

What Statistical Test is Appropriate for Your Study

The document outlines the process of selecting appropriate statistical tests based on research questions, dependent and independent variables, and data types. It distinguishes between tests for comparing means and those for investigating relationships, as well as parametric versus non-parametric tests. Key examples are provided to illustrate the application of various statistical tests in different research scenarios.

Uploaded by

Loli Walker
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What statistical test is

appropriate for your study?


Choosing the right test
1) A clearly defined research question

2) What is the dependent variable and what type of variable is


it?

3) How many independent variables are there and what data


types are they?

4) Are you interested in comparing means or investigating


relationships?

5) Do you have repeated measurements of the same variable for


each subject?
Research question
• Clear questions with measurable quantities

• Which variables will help answer these questions

• Think about what test is needed before carrying out a


study so that the right type of variables are collected
Dependent variables

INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT
(explanatory/ affects (outcome)
predictor) variable
variable

Does attendance have an association with exam score?


Do women do more housework than men?
What variable type is the dependent?
Dependent

Scale Categorical

Ordinal Nominal
Data types

Research question Dependent/ Independent/


outcome variable explanatory variable
Does attendance have an Exam score (scale) Attendance (Scale)
association with exam score?
Do women do more Hours of Gender (binary)
housework than men? housework per
week (Scale)
Example
How would you investigate the following topics? State the
:dependent and independent variables and their variable types.
Research question Dependent/ Independent/
outcome variable explanatory variable
Were Americans more likely to Survival (Binary) Nationality (Nominal)
survive on board the Titanic?

Does weekly hours of work Hours of housework Hours of work (Scale)


(Scale)
influence the amount of time
spent on housework?
Which of 3 diets is best for Weight lost on diet Diet (Nominal)
losing weight? (Scale)
Comparing means
• Dependent = Scale
• Independent = Categorical

• How many means are you comparing?

• Do you have independent groups or repeated


measurements on each person?
Comparing means
Independent t-
test
2
Comparing BETWEEN
groups
One way ANOVA
3+

Comparing
means
Comparing 2 Paired t-test
measurements WITHIN
the same subject

3+ Repeated
measures
ANOVA
ANOVA = Analysis of variance
Example
Research question Dependent Independent Test
variable variable
Do women do more Housework (hrs Gender Independent t-
housework than men? per week) (Nominal) test
(Scale)
Does Margarine X Cholesterol Occasion Repeated
reduce cholesterol? (Scale) (Nominal) measures ANOVA
Everyone has
cholesterol measured
on 3 occasions
Which of 3 diets is best Weight lost on Diet One-way ANOVA
for losing weight? diet (Scale) (Nominal)
Tests investigating relationships

Investigating Dependent Independent Test


relationships between variable variable
2 categorical variables Categorical Categorical Chi-squared test
2 Scale variables Scale Scale Pearson’s correlation
Predicting the value of Scale Scale/binary Simple Linear
an dependent variable Regression
from the value of a Binary Scale/ binary Logistic regression
independent variable

Note: Multiple linear regression is when there


are several independent variables
Example
Research question Dependent Independent Test
variable variables
Does attendance Exam score Attendance Correlation/
affect exam score? (Scale) (Scale) regression
Do women do more Housework Gender (Binary) Regression
housework than men? (hrs per week) Hours worked
(scale) (Scale)
Were Americans more Survival Nationality Chi-squared
likely to survive on (Binary) (Nominal)
board the Titanic?
Survival Nationality , Logistic
(Binary) Gender, class regression
Parametric or non-parametric?
Statistical tests fall into two types:
Assume data follows a
Parametric tests particular distribution e.g.
normal

Nonparametric techniques are


Non-parametric usually based on ranks/ signs
rather than actual data
Non-parametric tests
 Non-parametric methods are used when:
– Data is ordinal
– Data does not seem to follow any particular shape or distribution (e.g.
Normal)
– Assumptions underlying parametric test not met
– A plot of the data appears to be very skewed
– There are potential influential outliers in the dataset
– Sample size is small
Do these look normally distributed?
yes

no yes
Non-parametric tests
Parametric test What to check for Non-parametric test
normality
Independent t-test Dependent variable by Mann-Whitney test
group
Paired t-test Paired differences Wilcoxon signed rank test
One-way ANOVA Residuals/Dependent Kruskal-Wallis test
Repeated measures ANOVA Residuals Friedman test
Pearson’s Correlation At least one of the variables Spearman’s Correlation Co-
Co-efficient should be normal efficient
Linear Regression Residuals None – transform the data

Notes: The residuals are the differences between the observed and
expected values.

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