We've got a workbook to do with SPSS and I understand how to do the tests in SPSS, but I don't know what to do with this data set in order to know what test to do. To me, this has 2 different IV's - the zoo it is in, and whether it had high or low visitor density. One of which is independent, one is paired samples. We have to calculate the descriptive statistics - which ones? We tried the mean, but do we find the mean for the set as a whole, or for each zoo/density. We haven't been taught properly and I have a decent understanding but this is going above me. I will try and attach the actual question and data set.
Scenario 1 –
To investigate if resting behaviour of Lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) was affected by crowd density, researchers observed gorillas in 5 zoological institutions across Europe. For each enclosure, resting behaviour was recorded in randomised 30-minutes sessions under two conditions: high number of visitors and low number of visitors. For each condition, the observations were repeated 3 times. The data collected in these sessions is summarised below:
Table 1. Time (minutes) spent resting in relation to visitor numbers in 5 zoological institutions.
Transfer the above data into excel and perform the following:
a. Import the data into SPSS
b. Determine the independent and dependent variable in the above scenario. You may also be quizzed on what type of data these variables are, and whether the samples are independent.
c. Calculate descriptive statistics . You may be asked to provide one or more descriptive values in the quiz.
d. Determine whether the data is normally distributed or not. You may have to provide p-values, degrees of freedom or test statistics and be asked to interpret the outcome of this test in relation to the null- and alternative hypotheses.
e. According to your interpretation of the normality test you performed, determine which statistical test would be appropriate to run on the visitor density data set.
f. Run the test you have chosen and save the output. You may have to provide p-values or test statistics and be asked to interpret the outcome of this test in relation to the null- and alternative hypotheses.
g. Create a graph that is appropriate for the test you have chosen and save the graph in your output.
h. Consider how you would interpret these results and their wider implications.
Hello Lauren,
It is clear that this is an assignment, I will help you with some tips. :)
First, the dataset makes sense perfectly. In this study, you have three variables (referred to the table in scenario 1), the zoo (nominal-5 categories); the visitor density (nominal, two categories); the gorillas resting time (scale or continuous). You should create these three variables in excel and combine them appropriately for each measurement you have in the table, you may need to code the categories in the nominal variables with numbers to work in SPSS easier. The structure of the dataset is very important for your tasks and is not the same as given in the raw data table.
After you transfer the data in SPSS, you code the nominal variables at the label option. Then you can explore your data by visitor density, and zoo, or both. Note that the data for visitor density are paired because you have the same gorillas tested in both conditions. This is not true for zoo data where different gorillas are tested.
In the exploration window - plots you ask for normality plots with tests. You refer to the output to see if your data for each density category is normally distributed. If the data is normally distributed, you go for parametric tests, if not you will go for non-parametric tests. You decide which ones are appropriate taking into account the number of groups and that you have dependent groups or independent groups to compare.
You can calculate the mean, median, min, max, standard deviation as basic descriptive statistics, and built boxplots, error bar graphs.
That's all I can say to help with an assignment. You should figure out the rest yourself. :)
Good luck!
Eliana Ibrahimi Thank you for this! I struggled to understand it because of the fact that the zoos were paired, but then multiple zoos were used, and it was either high or low density. But this makes more sense now, thank you for explaining!
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematical Sciences
- Statistics
- Statistical Software
- SPSS