Warning: I'm not an authority on stats! Treat this page as a basic introduction to t-tests, ANOVAs, and two-way ANOVAs.
However, when I took a quantitative music education research class, I found myself thinking that many of the common text-book explanations of statistical tests would benefit from some interactivity (and some more music-related scenarios for music education researchers). So, I decided to create this webpage to do just that. I hope it helps!
t-test
Introduction
There are two kinds of t-tests: independent-samples t-tests and paired-samples t-tests. This page covers independent samples t-tests. The independent-samples t-test is also referred to as an independent-measures t-test, between-subjects t-test, unpaired t-test, and Student's t-test.
Definition
The independent-samples t-test is an inferential statistical test that is used to determine if a difference exists between the means of two independent groups on a single continuous dependent variable.
T-test variable game!
Suppose you have a friend who teaches an class and a class at a local high school. Your friend wants to see which group, the orchestra or the wind ensemble, is better at sight-reading. So, the teacher designed and administered a to all the students in both ensembles. Your friend knows to use a t-test to analyze the data, but is having trouble figuring out what the dependent and independent variables are. Help your friend figure out the variables by clicking and dragging the words above to the appropriate box below.
ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)
AKA: between-subjects ANOVA or one-factor ANOVA.
Definition
If you want to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the means of two or more independent groups, you can use a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).
ANOVA variable game!
Imagine that you have a friend that teaches three ensembles at a high school: an , a , and a . In order to figure out which group sight-reads better, your friend administers a and wants to find out if there is a statistically significant difference between the three ensembles. Help your friend figure what the independent and dependent variables are by dragging them to the appropriate box below.
Two-way ANOVA
Definition from laerd.com
The two-way ANOVA is used to determine whether there is an interaction effect between two independent variables on a continuous dependent variable (i.e., if a two-way interaction effect exists).
Two-way ANOVA variable game:
This time, suppose your friend teaches a total of six ensembles split up between two schools (three at each school): an orchestra at both schools, a wind ensemble at both schools, and a jazz band at both schools. The first school is called "School A" and the second school is called "School B." The teacher wants to see if there's an interaction effect between the ensemble type and the school on sight-reading scores. So, at the end of the year the teacher administers a sight-reading test to all the students to determine which group as a whole did better, the orchestra, the wind ensemble, or the jazz band. Help your friend correctly categorize all the variables by draging them to the correct box below.
