In my study each participant had to select 3 "cues" from a larger set before making a final decision (likert scale). This was done over multiple trials.
1. I am interested to uncover participants show a "pattern" in the items they selected over the trials. (i.e. consistently chose the same 3 items).
2. I also want to be able to compare between participants, to see if participants that show different patterns made different final decisions. For example, do participants that always chose cues 1,2,3 give a different final answer from participants that always chose 2,4,6.
If this is to difficult to do, I would at least like to know if i can statistically measure if there is a difference in the final decision based on having a consistent pattern, to randomly "picking any 3 items".
Thanks in advance.
Hi, Mircea,
Regression analysis can help you to find the relationship between cues and final decision.
Thanks,
Shuchi
Selecting the appropriate statistical analysis and sample size is a very common problem.
First, I have to define the level of measurement of each variable to be included in the analysis. Variables will be categorical or nominal, ordinal or rank-ordered, interval, or ratio-level. This needs to be done for both independent and dependent variables. A nominal level variable is a variable where the categories just have names, such as male/female, race, Democrat/Republican/Independent, or whether participants are in the control or experimental group.
Ratio-level data are similar to interval level data, except that the data have a zero point in it, like age, time, or amounts.
For relationship questions with interval, ordinal-level, or ratio-level variables, the correct statistical analysis is typically Spearman or Pearson correlations. The point-biserial correlation is the statistical analysis to use when examining the relationships between a dichotomous, categorical variable and an interval or ratio-level variable.
Second, to select the correct statistical analysis, have to clarify what I want to find out. The research question or hypothesis is typically phrased in terms of finding differences, relationships, or predicting. “Difference-type” questions have interval or ratio-level Y variables, and categorical-level X variables, phrased as, “Are there difference on the variable Y by variable X?” or, "Are there differences on variables Y1, Y2, and Y3 by variables X1 and X2?" The appropriate statistical analyses for these questions are ANOVA and MANOVA, respectively.
I was wondering if a clustering apporach might be useful. But I do not know how to code the data so that I can save "ranking of choice for the 3 elements", as well as the trials per participant.
What I mean is, Participant 1 chose these 3 cues in this specific order over x number of trials; is there a pattern here or was the selection random?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematics
- Statistics