Hi, Does anybody have a good tip of how to treat bimodal data to perform statistical analyses? My data set ranges from -1 to 1 (any values are posssible in between) and most data are either close to -1 or close to 1. They are the results of a two choice experiment where individuals could choose more than once in either direction and scores were calculated. Simone Simone Immler University of Sheffield Dep. Animal & Plant Sciences Alfred Denny Building Western Bank Sheffield S10 2TN, UK --------------------------------- [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
Hi Simone, It depends on what you want from the data ... A bimodal distribution can typically be modelled with a mixture distribution, where the assumption is that each of the modes corresponds to an underlying process generating those data. hth, ingmar> Hi, > > Does anybody have a good tip of how to treat bimodal data to perform > statistical analyses? My data set ranges from -1 to 1 (any values are > posssible in between) and most data are either close to -1 or close to 1. They > are the results of a two choice experiment where individuals could choose more > than once in either direction and scores were calculated. > > Simone > > > > Simone Immler > University of Sheffield > Dep. Animal & Plant Sciences > Alfred Denny Building > Western Bank > Sheffield S10 2TN, UK > > > --------------------------------- > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >
On 02-Dec-05 Simone Immler wrote:> Hi, > Does anybody have a good tip of how to treat bimodal data to > perform statistical analyses? My data set ranges from -1 to 1 > (any values are posssible in between) and most data are either > close to -1 or close to 1. They are the results of a two choice > experiment where individuals could choose more than once in > either direction and scores were calculated. > SimoneFrankly, I suspect you will do better to analyse at the level of the original choices, rather than the final "scores", for two reasons: 1. It will probably be easier, more straightforward, and more tractable to set up a statistical model for the binary choices; Distributions which (as I infer from your description) are highly "U-shaped" are tricky to model, and do not lend themselves to the conventional types of analysis at all well. 2. Because "scores were calculated" you have probably lost useful information. One issue that may be informative (which you do not specify) is whether the number of choices made varies from subject to subject and, if so, how many choices did each subject make. Hoping this helps, and please come back with more detail if it might help to make progress. Best wishes, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 02-Dec-05 Time: 13:35:55 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
Your problem sounds like it could be modeled with logistic regression whereby the propensity for one result or another is "linked" to the factors that control it. Logistic regressions are a special case of generalized linear models. Look at ?glm Charles Annis, P.E. Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com phone: 561-352-9699 eFax: 614-455-3265 http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com -----Original Message----- From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Simone Immler Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 7:43 AM To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch Subject: [R] bimodal data Hi, Does anybody have a good tip of how to treat bimodal data to perform statistical analyses? My data set ranges from -1 to 1 (any values are posssible in between) and most data are either close to -1 or close to 1. They are the results of a two choice experiment where individuals could choose more than once in either direction and scores were calculated. Simone Simone Immler University of Sheffield Dep. Animal & Plant Sciences Alfred Denny Building Western Bank Sheffield S10 2TN, UK --------------------------------- [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html