Dunnet's Test:

Definition

In some experiments one of the treatment is control (e.g. a placebo in clinical trials). The analyst
may be interested in comparing each of the remaining ‘a -1’ treatments with the control.
Dunnett (1964) presented a test to make such comparisons. This test is a modification of usual t-
test.

Procedure

Suppose treatment is the control, then

• Hypothesis

H 0 : i   a  0
H1 : i   a  0

for all

i  1, 2,..., a  1
• Test statistics

For each hypothesis we compute the observed differences from the sample means and control
treatment mean, i.e.

Di  | yi.  ya. |
• Critical region

1 1
Di  d MS E   
 ni na 

Where the value

d  d (a  1, df E )

comes from Dunnett’s table constructed for different α values.

• Critical region

For a balanced design

when ni = na the critical region becomes

2 MS E
Di  d
n

where MSE is the mean squares of error.

Example:

Tensile strength experiment

An engineer is interested in determining if varying the cotton content in a synthetic fiber affects
the tensile strength.

Total: yi . Average: yi.

%age of Observed tensile strength
cotton 1 2 3 4 5
15 7 7 15 11 9 49 9.8
20 12 17 12 18 18 77 15.4
25 14 18 18 19 19 88 17.6
30 19 25 22 19 23 108 21.6
35 7 10 11 15 11 54 10.8
y.. =376 y.. =15.06

ANOVA

Response: Tensile strength.

ANOVA
TenslStrength
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 475.760 4 118.940 14.757 .000
Within Groups 161.200 20 8.060
Total 636.960 24

Decision: Null hypothesis of equal average all cotton percentages is rejected as p-value is quite
low.

Illustration

In this example we have

a  5, a  1  4, df E  20

ni  na  5 and   0.05.
We find the table value

As

d  d 0.05 (4, 20)

 2.65

The critical value is computed as

2MS E 2(8.06)
d  2.65
n 5
 4.76

Thus, any treatment whose mean differs from the control mean by more than 4.76 would be
concluded significantly different from the control.

Difference of treatment means and the control mean:

1 vs 5 : y1.  y5.  9.8  10.8  1.0

2 vs 5 : y2.  y5.  15.4  10.8  4.6
3 vs 5 : y3.  y5.  17.6  10.8  6.8*
4 vs 5 : y4.  y5.  21.6  10.8 10.8*
Treatment 3 and treatment 4 are significantly different from control.