Experimental Designs II Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Experimental Designs II - Statistics Project ExampleBlocking however has a image of disadvantages to a research initiative. It is not appropriate for large number of participants as large sizes reduces the designs efficiency. Another disadvantage of blocking is in its inflexibleness with respect to homogeneity as it is not appropriate for populations or samples with extremely diverse features. Interactions between block and treatment effects also contribute to experimental error, discrediting reliability of the design (Hawai, n.d., p. 1).A factor refers to an independent variable that is manipulated in the research process and can be subjected to different treatments to generate a class of factor levels. Using factors benefits an experiment by providing a basis for comparison of different treatments as each factor or factor level is subjected to a different treatment (Stat, n.d.).Mains effect refers to the variation of essence across factor levels within a given factor. It consi ders a factor level mean and compares it with means of other factor levels to determine existence of significant difference. Interaction effect however considers variation of a factor level mean across levels of some other factor in a multi-factored design to determine existence of significant combined effects among factors in a design (Stockburger, n.d.).Covariate refers to a control setup in an experiment and reduces noise by predicting outcomes of the dependent variables. This helps in identifying outliers for appropriate measures (Druckman, Greeen, Kuklinski and Lupia, 2011).Tradeoffs define compromises that must be made in an experiment. Experimental tradeoffs are for theoretical account realized in validity. Ensuring both internal and external validity is a tradeoff that must be made with respect to sample size and try technique because strict focus on achieving one type of validity undermines the other. Practicality is another experimental trade off that considers researc h methods that call for adjustments to ensure