The meanDiff function compares the means between two groups. It computes Cohen's d, the unbiased estimate of Cohen's d (Hedges' g), and performs a t-test. It also shows the achieved power, and, more usefully, the power to detect small, medium, and large effects.

meanDiff(x, y=NULL, paired = FALSE, r.prepost = NULL, var.equal = "test",
         conf.level = .95, plot = FALSE, digits = 2, envir = parent.frame())

Arguments

x

Dichotomous factor: variable 1; can also be a formula of the form y ~ x, where x must be a factor with two levels (i.e. dichotomous).

y

Numeric vector: variable 2; can be empty if x is a formula.

paired

Boolean; are x & y independent or dependent? Note that if x & y are dependent, they need to have the same length.

r.prepost

Correlation between the pre- and post-test in the case of a paired samples t-test. This is required to compute Cohen's d using the formula on page 29 of Borenstein et al. (2009). If NULL, the correlation is simply computed from the provided scores (but of course it will then be lower if these is an effect - this will lead to an underestimate of the within-groups variance, and therefore, of the standard error of Cohen's d, and therefore, to confidence intervals that are too narrow (too liberal). Also, of course, when using this data to compute the within-groups correlation, random variations will also impact that correlation, which means that confidence intervals may in practice deviate from the null hypothesis significance testing p-value in either direction (i.e. the p-value may indicate a significant association while the confidence interval contains 0, or the other way around). Therefore, if the test-retest correlation of the relevant measure is known, please provide this here to enable computation of accurate confidence intervals.

var.equal

String; only relevant if x & y are independent; can be "test" (default; test whether x & y have different variances), "no" (assume x & y have different variances; see the Warning below!), or "yes" (assume x & y have the same variance)

conf.level

Confidence of confidence intervals you want.

plot

Whether to print a dlvPlot.

digits

With what precision you want the results to print.

envir

The environment where to search for the variables (useful when calling meanDiff from a function where the vectors are defined in that functions environment).

Details

This function uses the formulae from Borenstein, Hedges, Higgins & Rothstein (2009) (pages 25-32).

Value

An object is returned with the following elements:

variables

Input variables

groups

Levels of the x variable, the dichotomous factor

ci.confidence

Confidence of confidence intervals

digits

Number of digits for output

x

Values of dependent variable in first group

y

Values of dependent variable in second group

type

Type of t-test (independent or dependent, equal variances or not)

n

Sample sizes of the two groups

mean

Means of the two groups

sd

Standard deviations of the two groups

objects

Objects used; the t-test and optionally the test for equal variances

variance

Variance of the difference score

meanDiff

Difference between the means

meanDiff.d

Cohen's d

meanDiff.d.var

Variance of Cohen's d

meanDiff.d.se

Standard error of Cohen's d

meanDiff.J

Correction for Cohen's d to get to the unbiased Hedges g

power

Achieved power with current effect size and sample size

power.small

Power to detect small effects with current sample size

power.medium

Power to detect medium effects with current sample size

power.largel

Power to detect large effects with current sample size

meanDiff.g

Hedges' g

meanDiff.g.var

Variance of Hedges' g

meanDiff.g.se

Standard error of Hedges' g

ci.usedZ

Z value used to compute confidence intervals

meanDiff.d.ci.lower

Lower bound of confidence interval around Cohen's d

meanDiff.d.ci.upper

Upper bound of confidence interval around Cohen's d

meanDiff.g.ci.lower

Lower bound of confidence interval around Hedges' g

meanDiff.g.ci.upper

Upper bound of confidence interval around Hedges' g

meanDiff.ci.lower

Lower bound of confidence interval around raw mean

meanDiff.ci.upper

Upper bound of confidence interval around raw mean

t

Student t value for Null Hypothesis Significance Testing

df

Degrees of freedom for t value

p

p-value corresponding to t value

References

Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P., & Rothstein, H. R. (2011). Introduction to meta-analysis. John Wiley & Sons.

Warning

Note that when different variances are assumed for the t-test (i.e. the null-hypothesis test), the values of Cohen's d are still based on the assumption that the variance is equal. In this case, the confidence interval might, for example, not contain zero even though the NHST has a non-significant p-value (the reverse can probably happen, too).

Examples

### Create simple dataset dat <- PlantGrowth[1:20,]; ### Remove third level from group factor dat$group <- factor(dat$group); ### Compute mean difference and show it meanDiff(dat$weight ~ dat$group);
#> Input variables: #> #> group (grouping variable) #> weight (dependent variable) #> Mean 1 (ctrl) = 5.03, sd = 0.58, n = 10 #> Mean 2 (trt1)= 4.66, sd = 0.79, n = 10 #> #> Independent samples t-test (tested for equal variances, p = .372, so equal variances) #> (pooled standard deviation used, 0.7) #> #> 95% confidence intervals: #> Absolute mean difference: [-0.28, 1.03] (Absolute mean difference: 0.37) #> Cohen's d for difference: [-0.36, 1.42] (Cohen's d point estimate: 0.53) #> Hedges g for difference: [-0.34, 1.36] (Hedges g point estimate: 0.51) #> #> Achieved power for d=0.53: 0.2038 (for small: 0.0708; medium: 0.1851; large: 0.3951) #> #> (secondary information (NHST): t[18] = 1.19, p = .249)
### Look at second treatment dat <- rbind(PlantGrowth[1:10,], PlantGrowth[21:30,]); ### Remove third level from group factor dat$group <- factor(dat$group); ### Compute mean difference and show it meanDiff(x=dat$group, y=dat$weight);
#> Input variables: #> #> group (grouping variable) #> weight (dependent variable) #> Mean 1 (ctrl) = 5.03, sd = 0.58, n = 10 #> Mean 2 (trt2)= 5.53, sd = 0.44, n = 10 #> #> Independent samples t-test (tested for equal variances, p = .424, so equal variances) #> (pooled standard deviation used, 0.52) #> #> 95% confidence intervals: #> Absolute mean difference: [-0.98, -0.01] (Absolute mean difference: -0.49) #> Cohen's d for difference: [-1.88, -0.03] (Cohen's d point estimate: -0.95) #> Hedges g for difference: [-1.8, -0.03] (Hedges g point estimate: -0.91) #> #> Achieved power for d=-0.95: 0.5238 (for small: 0.0708; medium: 0.1851; large: 0.3951) #> #> (secondary information (NHST): t[18] = -2.13, p = .047)