ANOVA EXAMPLE OF CALCULATING SOURCES OF VARIANCE

Table 6.2: Time (in seconds) taken to learn three different lists of words for the group of human participants in a between-subjects design.

HUMANS
LIST A 30 40 35 45 38 42 36 25 Mean = 36.375 LIST B 54 58 45 60 52 56 65 52 Mean = 55.25 LIST C 68 75 80 75 85 90 75 88 Mean = 79.50

Grand Mean = 57.04

There are two sources of variance of interest here. 1. How do the scores in one group vary from those in the other groups? We can look at how the mean of each column deviates from the grand mean. This provides us with a measure of the variance due to the factor. 2. How do the scores vary within each group? We can look at how each score within a column deviates from the mean for that condition. This provides us with a measure of noise. Together these two sources of variance must add up to the total variance (the variance between each single score and the grand mean). That is: Var(Total) = Var(Between Groups) + Var(Within Groups) The steps involved in calculating both sources of variance are outlined next. Although you will probably never use a calculator to work out the F-ratio, you may find it helpful to look at the box and familiarise yourself with the procedure.
STEP A We first calculate the Sum of Squares (Within groups): this is the sum of all the squared differences between each individual data point and the mean for that group. SS(within groups) = (3036.375)2 + (4036.375)2 + (3536.375)2 + (4536.375)2 + (3836.375)2 + (4236.375)2 + (3636.375)2 + (2536.375)2 +(5455.25)2 + (58 55.25)2 + (4555.25)2 + (6055.25)2 + (5255.25)2 + (5655.25)2 + (6555.25)2 + (5255.25)2 +(6879.5)2 + (7579.5)2 + (8079.5)2 + (7579.5)2 + (8579.5)2 + (9079.5)2 + (7579.5)2 + (8879.5)2 SS(within groups) = 953.375 Then we calculate the Sum of Squares (Between Groups): this is the sum of all the squared differences between the means for each condition and the grand mean, multiplied by the number of observations per group. SS(between groups) = [(36.37557.04)2 +(55.2557.04) 2 +(79.557.04) 2 ]*8 = 7477.583 Then we calculate the Sum of Squares (Total): this is the sum of the squared differences between each individual data point and the grand mean.

Alternatively (more easily) this can be calculated by summing the SS(between groups) and the SS(within groups). SS(total) = 7477.583 + 953.375 = 8430.958 (If you want to check this you can calculate it the long way: (3057.04) 2 + (40 57.04) 2 + etc. until + (8857.04) 2 = 8430.958).

STEP B We need to figure out the degrees of freedom for each Sum of Squares. For the Sum of Squares (Within Groups): There are 3 groups and 8 participants per group. We lose one df for each group mean. Thus the df (within) is 243 = 21. You could express this, when you have n observations in each of the k groups as: df (within) = k(n1). For the Sum of Squares (Between Groups): There are three groups but we lose one df, so the df (between) is 31 = 2. You could express this as: df (between) = k1. For Sum of Squares (Total): The total df is based on 24 scores, we lose one df, so the df (total) is 241 = 23. You could express this as: df (total) = nk1. STEP C Now we can calculate the Mean Square by dividing each Sum of Squares by its df. This provides us with a measure of the average deviation of individual values from their respective mean. Mean Square (Within groups) (The average variation within the groups) MS(within groups) = 953.375/21 = 45.399 Mean Square (Between groups) (The average variation between groups) MS(Between groups) = 7477.583/2 = 3736.792

STEP D We now have the two Mean Squares for the F-ratio: F = 3736.792/45.399 = 82.354

Having calculated F in this way, your next step is to look in a Table of F to determine the approximate probability of this value occurring by chance.