This page contains a guide to doing Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with Analysis Lab. Analysis Lab was designed to allow the most common types of designs to be analyzed with a minimum of effort.

Sections on this page:

One Between-Subjects Variable
One Within-Subjects Variable
Two or More Between-Subject Variables
One or More Between-Subject Variables and one Within-Subject Variable
One or More Between-Subjects Variables and Two more More Within-Subjects Variables

One Between-Subjects Variable

This analysis is used when there are two or more independent groups of subjects and one score per subject.

  1. The data should be arranged so that there is one variable that indicates group membership and a second variable that contains the dependent variable. The variable indicating group membership must use consecutive integers (e.g., 1, 2, 3) as group indicators. The data below have two variables; G for group membership and Y for the dependent variable. There are three groups and four observations (subjects) per group.

    G Y
    1 5
    1 7
    1 8
    1 6
    2 3
    2 4
    2 5
    2 2
    3 11
    3 13
    3 12
    3 9

  2. Paste the data into analysis lab.
    1. Copy your data.
    2. Click the Enter/Edit data button.
    3. Paste the data using keyboard shortcuts (Control-V for Windows, CMD-V for Macs). Then click "Accept Data."


      Choose Y as the dependent variable and G as the grouping variable as shown. Then click the ANOVA button. Note that the description says what analysis will be done. "IV" stands for "Independent Variable" and DV stands for "Dependent Variable."




    4. The ANOVA summary table will be presented.


One Within-Subjects Variable

Use this design when you have one group of observations (subjects) with two or more scores per observation.

  1. Format your data so that each row contains all the data for one observation. Each score is a separate variable. For the following example, there are five observations with three scores per observation. The variable names are T1, T2, and T3.

    T1 T2 T3
    2 3 4
    3 5 4
    2 4 6
    1 3 3
    6 7 9


  2. Paste the data into analysis lab (see the instructions for One-Way Between-Subjects).
  3. Click the "Advanced" button next to the ANOVA" button.
  4. Select the dependent variables you want to analyze. and click the "Do Anova" button. Here the variables T1, and T2, and T3 are chosen.


  5. The Summary Table is presented. The effect "DV" stands for "Dependent Variable." It is a test of the within-subjects variable.




Two or More Between-Subject Variables

Use this design when you have more than one between-subject variable and only one score per subject. In the following example, the variables are A and B. The variable A has two levels and the variable B has three levels. There are 3 scores per "cell." A cell is a combination of one level of A and one level of B.

Note that Analysis Lab uses unweighted means analysis rather than the general linear model. This will give slightly different results from most other programs when there are unequal sample sizes and the degrees of freedom are greater than one.

  1. Format the data so that there is one variable indicating the level of each independent variable. The variable must use consecutive integer variables. There is also a dependent variable. In the example, the variable A indicates the level of the variable A, B indicates the level of the variable B, and Y is the dependent variable.

    A B Y
    1 1 3
    1 1 5
    1 1 4
    1 2 7
    1 2 6
    1 2 8
    1 3 4
    1 3 9
    1 3 6
    2 1 9
    2 1 9
    2 1 10
    2 2 13
    2 2 11
    2 2 14
    2 3 6
    2 3 7
    2 3 9


  2. Paste the data into analysis lab (see the instructions for One-Way Between-Subjects).
  3. Click the "Advanced" button next to the ANOVA" button.
  4. Choose the dependent variable and the independent variables. The independent variables are called "group variables." Then click the "Do Anova" button.


  5. The Summary table is shown below.


     


One or More Between-Subject Variables and one Within-Subject Variable

  1. Format the data so that a variable indicates each level of each between-subject variable. Include more than one dependent variable. For this example, there is one between-subjects variable (A) with two levels and one within-subjects variable (T) with four levels.

    A T1 T2 T3 T4
    1 5 4 3 6
    1 7 6 2 9
    1 6 5 7 5
    2 8 9 12 14
    2 6 7 9 11
    2 2 4 3 6

  2. Paste the data into analysis lab (see the instructions for One-Way Between-Subjects).
  3. Click the "Advanced" button next to the ANOVA" button.
  4. Choose the dependent variables and the independent variables. The independent variables are called "group variables." In this example there is one independent variable (A) and four dependent variables (T1, T2, T3, and T4). Then click the "Do Anova" button.




  5. The Summary table is shown. "DV" stands for dependent variable and is the effect of the within-subjects factor. A x DV is the interaction of the between-subjects variable and the within-subjects variable.


One or More Between-Subjects Variables and Two more More Within-Subjects Variables

  1. Format the data so that a variable indicates each level of each between-subject variable. Include more than one dependent variable. For this example, there are two between-subjects variable (Age and Gender) and two within-subjects variable (Day and Trial ). There are four groups of subjects (the combination of two levels of Age and two levels of Gender). Each subject is given two trials a day for two days. For convenience A is used as an abbreviation for age, G for Gender, D for Day, and T for Trial. The variable D1T1 is the score for Day 1 Trial 1, D1T2 for Day 1, Trial 2, etc.

    A B D1T1 D1T2 D2T1 D2T2
    1 1 5 7 4 8
    1 1 4 7 5 9
    1 1 5 5 8 9
    1 2 5 4 5 7
    1 2 4 8 11 12
    1 2 8 7 6 5
    2 1 12 13 12 15
    2 1 10 9 11 13
    2 1 8 8 7 15
    2 2 13 14 11 12
    2 2 7 5 8 7
    2 2 9 11 11 10

  2. Paste the data into analysis lab (see the instructions for One-Way Between-Subjects).
  3. Click the "Advanced" button next to the ANOVA" button.
  4. Choose the dependent variables and the independent variables. The independent variables are called "group variables." In this example there are two independent variable (A and B) and four dependent variables (D1T1, D1T2, D2T1, and D2T2). Then click the "Do Complex Anova" at the bottom of the window.



  5. Next you name the within-subject variables and specify the number of levels of each. Since there are two days and two trials per day, both of the values are two. Analysis Lab allows up to four. In this example there are two ( D and T). Also indicate that A and B are the between-subjects (group) variables.


  6. Next you will be asked to associate the variable names to the levels of the variables. The way the variables were named in this example makes this a trivial exercise. However, if you used other variable names, it would take a little though. Click the "Do ANOVA" button when finished.


  7. The Summary Table is presented.