Analysis of Quantitative Data

Analysis of Quantitative data
Introduction
Anne Segonds-Pichon
v2020-08
Outline of this section
• Assumptions for parametric data
• Comparing two means: Student’s t-test
• Comparing more than 2 means
• One factor: One-way ANOVA
• Two factors: Two-way ANOVA
• Relationship between 2 continuous variables:
• Linear: Correlation
• Non-linear: Curve fitting
• Model diagnostics: Goodness-of-fit
• Non-parametric tests
Introduction
• Key concepts to always keep in mind

– Null hypothesis and error types
– Statistics inference
– Signal-to-noise ratio
The null hypothesis and the error types
• The null hypothesis (H0): H0 = no effect
• e.g. no difference between 2 genotypes
• The aim of a statistical test is to reject or not H 0.
Statistical decision True state of H0

H0 True (no effect) H0 False (effect)
Reject H0 Type I error α Correct
False Positive True Positive
Do not reject H0 Correct Type II error β
True Negative False Negative
• Traditionally, a test or a difference is said to be “significant” if the probability of type I error is: α =< 0.05
• High specificity = low False Positives = low Type I error
• High sensitivity = low False Negatives = low Type II error
Sample Statistical inference Population
Difference Meaningful? Yes

Real?
Statistical test
Big enough? Statistic

e.g. t, F …
=
Difference + Noise + Sample

Signal-to-noise ratio
• Stats are all about understanding and controlling variation.
Difference
Difference + Noise
Noise
signal If the noise is low then the signal is detectable …

noise = statistical significance
signal … but if the noise (i.e. interindividual variation) is large

then the same signal will not be detected
noise = no statistical significance
• In a statistical test, the ratio of signal to noise determines the significance.

Analysis of Quantitative Data
• Choose the correct statistical test to answer your question:
• They are 2 types of statistical tests:
• Parametric tests with 4 assumptions to be met by the data,
• Non-parametric tests with no or few assumptions (e.g. Mann-Whitney test) and/or for
qualitative data (e.g. Fisher’s exact and χ2 tests).
Assumptions of Parametric Data
• All parametric tests have 4 basic assumptions that must be met for the
test to be accurate.
First assumption: Normally distributed data
• Normal shape, bell shape, Gaussian shape
• Transformations can be made to make data suitable for parametric analysis.

• Frequent departures from normality:
• Skewness: lack of symmetry of a distribution
Skewness < 0 Skewness = 0 Skewness > 0
• Kurtosis: measure of the degree of ‘peakedness’ in the distribution

• The two distributions below have the same variance approximately
the same skew, but differ markedly in kurtosis.
More peaked distribution: kurtosis > 0 Flatter distribution: kurtosis < 0

Second assumption: Homoscedasticity (Homogeneity in variance)
• The variance should not change systematically throughout the data
Third assumption: Interval data (linearity)

• The distance between points of the scale should be equal at all parts along the scale.
Fourth assumption: Independence

• Data from different subjects are independent
• Values corresponding to one subject do not influence the values corresponding to another subject.
• Important in repeated measures experiments
Analysis of Quantitative Data
• Is there a difference between my groups regarding the variable I am measuring?

• e.g. are the mice in the group A heavier than those in group B?
• Tests with 2 groups:
• Parametric: Student’s t-test
• Non parametric: Mann-Whitney/Wilcoxon rank sum test
• Tests with more than 2 groups:
• Parametric: Analysis of variance (one-way and two-way ANOVA)
• Non parametric: Kruskal Wallis (one-way ANOVA equivalent)
• Is there a relationship between my 2 (continuous) variables?

• e.g. is there a relationship between the daily intake in calories and an increase in body weight?
• Test: Correlation (parametric or non-parametric) and Curve fitting

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• Key concepts to always keep in mind

• The aim of a statistical test is to reject or not H 0.

Statistical decision True state of H0

Difference Meaningful? Yes

Big enough? Statistic

Difference + Noise + Sample

signal If the noise is low then the signal is detectable …

signal … but if the noise (i.e. interindividual variation) is large

• In a statistical test, the ratio of signal to noise determines the significance.

• Choose the correct statistical test to answer your question:

• They are 2 types of statistical tests:

• Parametric tests with 4 assumptions to be met by the data,

• Transformations can be made to make data suitable for parametric analysis.

Skewness < 0 Skewness = 0 Skewness > 0

• Kurtosis: measure of the degree of ‘peakedness’ in the distribution

More peaked distribution: kurtosis > 0 Flatter distribution: kurtosis < 0

Third assumption: Interval data (linearity)

Fourth assumption: Independence

• Is there a difference between my groups regarding the variable I am measuring?

• Is there a relationship between my 2 (continuous) variables?

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