Statistics : Role in Research

Statistics: A collection of procedures and processes to enable researchers in the unbiased pursuit of Knowledge

Statistics is an important part of the Scientific Method

State a Hypothesis

Analyze the Data

Design a Study and Collect Data

Interpret the Results—Draw Conclusions

State a Hypothesis: The OBJECTIVE or OBJECTIVES of the Study

A HYPOTHESIS OR SET OF HYPOTHESES should state exactly what you want to DO or LEARN or STUDY

SHOULD ANSWER

What are the factors to be studied and what relationships are to be investigated? What is the experimental material? Etc.?

The area of STATISTICS would not be needed if each time you measured an experimental unit you would obtain the same

response or valueBUT, THE RESPONSES ARE NOT THE SAME SINCE THERE IS VARIABILITY or NOISE IN THE SYSTEM

STATISTICAL METHODS EXTRACT THE SIGNAL FROM THE NOISE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION

One of the Statistician’s JOBS is to make sense from DATA in the presence of VARIABILITY or noise by using DATA

ANALYSIS TOOLS

DESIGN VS. ANALYSIS

The PURPOSE OF DATA COLLECTION is to GAIN INFORMATION OR KNOWLEDGE!!

Collecting Data does not guarantee that information is obtained.

INFORMATION ≠DATA

At best:

INFORMATION=DATA+ANALYSIS

If data are collected such that they contain NO information in the first place, then the analysis phase cannot find it!!!

The best way to insure that appropriate information is contained in the collected data is to DESIGN (plan) and Carefully Control the DATA COLLECTION PROCESS

The measured variables must relate to the stated OBJECTIVES of the study

If you have a good design and process for data collection, it is quite often straight forward to construct an analysis

that extracts all of the available information from the data

The ROLE of a STATISTICIAN is to work with the REAEARCH TEAM (or researcher) from the START of the study

A STATISTICIAN CAN HELP OBTAIN THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT INFORMATON FROM AVAILABLE RESOURCES

The MOST IMPORTANT TIME for the statistician to become involved with a research study is in the very BEGINNING

HOW???

HELP WITH THE DESIGN OF THE EXPERIMENT

DETERMINE SAMPLE SIZE NEEDED

DEVELOP PROCESS OF COLLECTING DATA

DISCUSS VARIABLES TO BE MEASURED AND HOW THEY RELATE TO THE OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

PROVIDE METHODS OF ANALYZING THE DATA

HELP TRANSLATE STATISTICAL CONCLUSIONS INTO SUBJECT MATTER CONCLUSIONS

THE CORE HELP FROM THE STATISTICIAN IS IN THE DESIGN OF THE EXPERIMENT

Help with selecting conditions that relate to the objectives of the study

Selecting the Experimental Units

Deciding when REPLICATIONS exist

Determining the ORDER in which the experiment is to be carried out

THE DESIGN OF THE EXPERIMENT IS CRITICAL

COMPONENTS OF DESIGNED EXPERIMENTS

TREATMENT STRUCTURE:

Factors or Populations or Treatments related to the objectives of the experiment:

Brands of Product, Types of Uses of Product

DESIGN STRUCTURE OR EXPERIMENTAL UNITS:

Factors used in blocking the experimental units as well as characteristics of exp. Units

Washing Machine, Person Using Machine, Products evaluated in Session by Taste Panelist

Complete Designed Experiment

Treatment Structure

Design Structure

RANDOMIZE – randomization plan to assign Treatment of TS to

Experimental Units in DS

RANDOMIZATION IS THE INSURANCE POLICY AGAINST INTRODUCING BIAS INTO THE STUDY

Selecting an appropriate Treatment Structure, necessary Design Structure, and required Randomization Process provides the

Statistician the information needed to construct an appropriate model

APPROPRIATE MODEL = BEST ANALYSIS

Key to the Design of the Experiment is the Concept of REPLICATION

REPLICATON: The independent observation of a treatment

An Experimental Unit Provides a Replication of the level of a Factor if the level is randomly assigned the the Experimental Unit and observed independently of the other Experimental Units

Must make sure that Sub-samples are not considered to be Replications

The Variability among Experimental Units treated independently alike provides the estimate of the variance (or Standard Error) to be used as the measuring stick for comparing the levels of treatments randomly assigned to those Experimental Units

Between Sub-sample variance is generally much less than between Replication variance

It is critical that the Replications are appropriately Identified

Treatment Structure, Design Structure (with experimental units and replication) and Randomization describe the total Design

The Statistician will provide the STATISTICAL interpretation of the results from the analyses – STATISTICAL ANALYSES

CONCLUSIONS

The Statistician will help the Researcher TRANSLATE the statistical analyses conclusions into subject matter conclusions

Discuss how the statistical analyses provide results that relate to the STATED OBJECTIVES of the study. The expected results should be written along with the objectives. Results that are not expected should be looked at carefully

Air COnditioning Example:

4 brands or models -- one machine each

3 types of laundry – Whites, Wash/wear, Denim

3 persons to operate the Machines

For each person:

Randomly assign the order of Brands

For each Brand, randomly assign the order of Types

Brand D Brand B Brand A Brand C

Random Order of Brands for Person 1

White

White

White White

W/W

W/W

W/W

W/W

Denim

Denim

Denim

Denim

Machine Random Order of Types within each Machine

Re-Randomize for each Person

Machines are Experimental Unit for Brands and Variance is computed by Person*Brand

Persons are Blocks of Machines

Compare BRANDS by using the variability among Machines Treated Alike

The Machines within a Person are Blocks for Types – Three Loads per Machine

The Loads within a machine are the Experimental Units for Type and Brand*Type

Variability among Loads treated alike provides the measuring stick for comparing the levels of Type and Brand*Type

This Design Involves Persons as Blocks and Two Sizes of Experimental Unit

Machine and Load

If you ignore that this design involves TWO sizes of Experimental Units and there are Two Error Terms, the resulting error term is a combination of these two error terms

The combined error term is Too Large for making comparisons involving Type and Brand*Type – won’t find things that are there

The Combined error term is Too Small for Making comparisons involving Brand – will declare things to be different when they are not

Statistical Conclusions can be very misleading

STATISTICIAN’S JOB – to figure out how the study is being ran and help identify the type of

design that is being used which includes determining if more than one size of

experimental unit is involved

This is accomplished BEST when the Statistician is involved at the Beginning of the Study

SALSA TASTING EXPERIMENT

NINE TYPES OR BRANDS OF SALSA

A PERSON CAN TASTE ONLY THREE SALSAS DURING THE SESSION

TWELVE PERSONS WILL BE USED IN THE STUDY

ASSIGNMENT OF PRODUCTS TO PERSONS – with order

Person Person

Order 1 2 3 Order 1 2 3

1 C A B 7 F D E

2 H I G 8 A G D

3 E B H 9 C I F

4 G B F 10 D H C

5 I E A 11 F A H

6 C G E 12 B D I

Each Product is Tasted 4 times – there are Four Replications of each product

Since each person tastes only Three of the products, how do we compare the products?

The Analysis obtains predicted values for each Product for each Person

Want to compare the Products as if each Person had tasted all of the Products

The Product Means of these Predicted Values are the “ADJUSTED MEANS” for each Product

Called LEAST SQUARES MEANS by SAS®

The LSMEANS are the Predicted Means as if Each of the Persons has Tasted and evaluated all of the products

Some times characteristics of experimental units are measured – to be used as possible covariates

Study the effect of three types of Drugs on a persons heart rate

Randomly Assign 12 persons to each of the Drugs -- person is experimental unit

Dose the person with the assigned drug and measure the heart rate after 15 minutes

Persons do not have identical heart rates before being given the respective drug

Measure the initial heart rate – heart rate before giving the drug

We want to compare the Drugs as if all experimental units (persons) had the same initial heart rate

Analysis of Covariance uses a regression model to obtain predicted after drug heart rate values as if all persons had initial heart rates of, say, 74 beats per minute

The Drug Means of these predicted heart rates are used to compare the Drugs – These means of Predicted Values are called LSMEANS

LSMEANS are adjusted means and occur in several venues

1. Obtain treatments’ means when not all treatments are observed the same number of times by each person

2. Obtain treatments’ means when the experimental units do not have identical values of the covariates

Another Role of the Statistician is to provide appropriate models for the analysis of the data from a given study in order to take into account the Design Structure and covariates to provide estimates of the treatment effects as if all experimental units had observed all treatments or all experimental units had the same value of the covariate -- provide appropriate LSMEANS

Involving the Statistician in the Beginning of the Study will

1. improve the chance of conducting a successful experiment

2. Speed up the turn around of the analyses since was involved with the design

3. Reduce the costs associated with the experiment -- making sure the sample size is adequate to provide the needed detectable differences