Comparison of normal probability plots and dot plots in judging the significance of effects in two level factorial designs

Abstract

In this article, we present a study carried out to compare the effectiveness of the normal probability plot (NPP) and a simple dot plot in assessing the significance of the effects in experimental designs with factors at two levels (2 ^k−p designs). Several groups of students who had just completed a course that covered factorial designs were asked to identify the significant effects in a total of 32 situations, 16 of which were represented using NPPs and the other 16 using dot plots. Although the 32 scenarios were said to be different, there were really only 16 different situations, each of which was represented using the two methods to be compared. A simple graphical analysis shows no evidence that there is a difference between the two procedures. However, in designs with 16 runs there are some cases where NPP seems to give slightly better results.

Keywords:

• normal probability plot
• significance of effects
• factorial design
• teaching statistics
• experimental design

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the referee for his careful reading and very useful comments and suggestions that have lead to a very improved version of the article.