Psychological Science Experimental Methods

Computer Lab 10

Non-Parametric Analyses

Semester One, 2024

Today’s learning objectives
• Understand when and why to use non-parametric statistical tests

• Conduct non-parametric tests for different research designs

• Mann-Whitney U

• Wilcoxon Matched-Pair Signed-Rank Test

• Kruskal-Wallis Test
A 2-group experiment
• Two groups

• Silence.

• Static

• Randomly allocated to groups

• Given a list of 50 words to study for 10 minutes

• Noise-cancelling headphones either play nothing

(Silence) or white noise (Static).

• After studying the list is removed and participants

attempt to recall as many words as they can.

Four versions of study data
• Open up the ‘Independent Samples’ Data file.

• We are going to look at four versions of data:

• RecallPara - A ‘parametric’ dataset, meeting all assumptions

of an independent samples t-test.

• RecallOutliers – A dataset that has extreme outliers, maybe

a bigger problem than violated normality.

• RecallHetero – A dataset that violates the assumption of

homogeneity of variances.

• RecallRank – Same as ‘RecallOutliers’ but transformed from

scale to ordinal data.

• The last 3 datasets are ‘non-parametric’ because they violate

assumptions of the test in severe ways or by design (ordinal data).

Activity One: Exploring the datasets
 Check the distributions of the different versions of the DV

• Graphs à Legacy dialogs à Boxplot

Our Boxplots
Activity Two: Comparing Parametric and Non-Parametric Tests
Running and interpreting tests
• We are going to work through the first part of your

handout together.

• We have done Task 1 (comparing distributions).

• Lets move on to Task 2… running the non-parametric

equivalent to the independent samples t-test: the

Mann-Whitney U test.

• Have a go at Tasks 7 and 8 yourself but note they both

will require different datasets;

• Task 7 = “Related samples” SPSS file

• Task 8 = “More than 2 groups” SPSS file

Activity Three: Tasks 7 and 8
Task 7: Week 6’s Mental Rotation Task
• Two conditions (groups)

• Letters presented normally

• Letters presented after 90° rotation

• Participants exposed to both conditions

• But randomly presented with either condition at any

one time

• 50 trials for each condition (25 normal, 25 mirrored)

• Time taken to correctly identity if the letter was mirrored or

not was recorded

• Average times for each condition are presented in

our dataset
Task 8: Week 7’s Recall Experiment
• Between-subjects design
• Three groups:
• Silence.
• Letters.
• Numbers.
• Task was to accurately recall the sequence of numbers that
were presented on a screen (and in the correct order).

• 14 trials per participant (each trial was the same between

conditions – except for the exposure to the IV)
• E.g., Trial 3: 0, 4, 8, 1, 7

• The number of sequences that were accurately recalled was

therefore assessed as the dependent variable.
Activity Three: Reporting Results
 Reporting of Mann-Whitney U

• The median number of words recalled was for the Silence group was 19.0 (IQR =

3.25), while the Static group had a median recall of 13.5 words (IQR = 4.5). A

Mann-Whitney test revealed that the advantage for the Silence group was

statistically significant, U (N = 20) = 12.00, z = -2.88, p = .003, r = - .64.

• Could drop the negative in front of r here

 Reporting of Wilcoxon

• The median time taken to classify a normal letter rotated 0 degrees was 578.00

(IQR = 106.55), while it increased to 710.00 (IQR = 110.50) for normal letters

rotated 90 degrees. A Wilcoxon matched-pair, signed-rank test revealed the

increase in time for the more rotated letter was both large and statistically

significant, T = 480.00, z = 4.55, p < .001, r = . 82.

 Reporting of Kruskal-Wallis

• A Kruskal-Wallis test revealed a statistically significant effect of audio conditions on digit

recall, H(2, N = 150) = 56.10, p < .001.

• Pairwise comparisons revealed that the numbers audio group recalled significantly fewer words

than the letters audio group (r = .49, p < .001), and silence group (r = .74, p < .001) groups.

The letters audio group also recalled significantly fewer words than the silence group (r = .25,

p = .014).

• To report the descriptive statistics (medians and IQRs) I would recommend a table.
 How do you calculate r?
𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 (𝑧)
𝑟=
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔

Mann-Whitney U Wilcoxon Signed Rank Kruskall-Wallis

Location of z

Sample size Total N = 20 There are no comparisons between We are conducting multiple pairwise comparisons
details groups so total N = 31 here so there could be multiple different “total N”
values. In this case each group had exactly 50
participants, so total N is 100 for every pairwise
comparison.

r value −2.880 4.547 !.#$%

= .49
(.!)(
= .25
*.+%*
= .74
= −.64 = .82 &'' &'' &''
20 31
Summary
Today’s learning objectives
• Can you now…

• Understand when and why to use non-parametric statistical tests

• Conduct non-parametric tests for different research designs

• Mann-Whitney U

• Wilcoxon Matched-Pair Signed-Rank Test

• Kruskal-Wallis Test
Thank you
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