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presentation subtitle.
Design of Field Experiments
Violeta Bartolome
Senior Associate Scientist-Biometrics
Crop Research Informatics Laboratory
International Rice Research Institute
Why is DOE important?
Design of experiment ensures that the
appropriate data will be obtained in a way that
permits an objective analysis leading to valid
inferences with respect to the stated problem inferences with respect to the stated problem
Basic Principles of DOE
Replication
o Repeating the treatments two or more times
o Provides a means to estimate the experimental error
o Increases the precision of the trial o Increases the precision of the trial
next
An experiment involving 4 water management in 3 replications is
to be conducted. Layout is shown below:
At harvest, the plot is divided into 3 parts to correspond to 3
8m



T4 T3 T1
9m
T2
replications as shown below:
Are these true replications?
9m
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T2 T4 T3 T1
back
Variety A Variety A
4 tons 4.1 tons
What is Experimental Error?
Not an error in the sense of being wrong
Defined as the differences among experimental units
treated alike
It can be minimized but never totally eliminated. It can be minimized but never totally eliminated.
There will always be some variations that cannot be
controlled
ERROR
Chance of detecting
treatment difference
Small
Effect of experimental error in
statistical tests
Small
LARGE
Small
LARGE
back
Basic Principles of DOE
Randomization
o Randomly assigning the treatments to the experimental
units
o Ensures a valid estimate of the experimental error
o Averages out the effects of uncontrollable variations o Averages out the effects of uncontrollable variations
o Ensures comparisons between genotypes are unbiased
Note: Randomization should be done for each replicate.
Basic Principles of DOE
Error Control - Ways to minimize or reduce
experimental error
o Increase number of replication
10
o Blocking
o Use of appropriate experimental design
o Rigorous control of measurement and field plot techniques
next
Blocking
assigning similar or uniform experimental units
into a block
Direction of source of variation is
known
Low
Block1
Block2
High
Block3
Block4
Block perpendicular to the source of variation
Direction of source of variation is
unknown
Block1 Block1 Block2 Block2
Block3 Block3 Block4 Block4
Use compact blocks
Avoid using long and narrow blocks
Direction of fertility gradient
Two known sources of variation in
perpendicular directions
Direction of
water
gradient
back
Basic principles of DOE
Replication
Randomization
Error Control
Two Types of Experiments
Single Factor Experiments - several levels of one
factor are being tested while keeping all other factors
at a constant level.
Example: Varietal trial - several varieties are tested
under uniform management and cultural practices. under uniform management and cultural practices.
Multi-factor or factorial experiments - test two or
more factors simultaneously.
Example: Testing five varieties under four
nitrogen rates.
Experimental designs applicable
to single-factor experiments
Complete Block Design (completely randomized,
randomized complete block and latin square
designs).
o generally used for experiments with a small
number of treatments.
characterized by blocks, each of which contains o characterized by blocks, each of which contains
the complete set of treatments.
Incomplete Block Designs (lattices, alpha-lattice, and
group balanced block designs).
o generally used for experiments with a large
number of treatments.
o characterized by blocks, each of which contains
only a fraction of the treatments to be tested.
Completely Randomized Design (CRD)
Appropriate only for experiments with no obvious
heterogeneity between experimental units.
Any difference among experimental units receiving
the same treatment is considered as experimental
error. error.
Treatments are assigned completely at random so
that each experimental unit has the same chance of
receiving each of the treatments.
T1 T4 T3 T5
T3 T2 T5 T1
T4 T2 T1 T3
In CRD, the treatments are assigned completely at random
T1 T5 T4 T2
T2 T5 T3 T4
Randomized Complete Block Design
(RCB)
When the experimental units are not homogeneous and it is
possible to group the experimental units into blocks such that
experimental units within each block are more homogeneous
than those between blocks.
The presence of blocks, each containing all the treatments, is The presence of blocks, each containing all the treatments, is
the primary distinguishing feature of the RCB design.
fertility gradient
T4
T1
T5 T2 T4
T3
T3 T5
Block I Block II Block III Block IV
T3
T2
T5
T1 T5 T3
T4 T4 T1
T2 T1 T2
CRD ERROR
Block
Variation
Advantage of RCB
CRD ERROR
RCBD ERROR
Experimental error is minimized by
removing block variation from the error.
Designs Applicable To Factorial
Experiments
Completely Randomized Design
Randomized Complete Block Design
Latin Square Design
Split Plot Family of Designs Split Plot Family of Designs
Strip Plot Family of Designs
An experiment involving 5 N-rates and 4 Varieties is to be conducted
in a RCB design in 3 replications. How do you make the layout?
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Block 1 Block 2 Block 3
Split-Plot Design
Has two plot sizes: the larger one is called mainplot and the
smaller one subplot.
Precision for the comparison of the subplot treatments is
expected to be higher than that for the mainplot treatments.
Smaller difference can be detected among subplot treatments
than among mainplot treatments.
Possible Reasons for Using Split-Plot
Management requirement: some treatments such as
water management is easier to manage in bigger
plot.
Insertion of an additional factor into an established Insertion of an additional factor into an established
experiment.
Need to increase precision on the effect of one factor
at the expense of another.

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Split plot: mainplot: N-rates, subplot: varieties

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Strip-Plot Design
Higher degree of precision is given to the
measurement of the interaction effect than main
effects.
Horizontal and vertical plots are perpendicular to Horizontal and vertical plots are perpendicular to
each other. There is no relationship between their
sizes.
Can accommodate two mechanical factors.



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Thank You!