A 2-D "bin plot" counts the number of observations in each cell in a regular 2-D grid. The 2-D bin plot is essentially a 2-D version of a histogram: it provides an estimate for the density of a 2-D distribution. As I discuss in the article, "The essential guide to
Binary matrices are used for many purposes. I have previously written about how to use binary matrices to visualize missing values in a data matrix. They are also used to indicate the co-occurrence of two events. In ecology, binary matrices are used to indicate which species of an animal are
This is a second article about analyzing longitudinal data, which features measurements that are repeatedly taken on subjects at several points in time. The previous article discusses a response-profile analysis, which uses an ANOVA method to determine differences between the means of an experimental group and a placebo group. The
Longitudinal data are used in many health-related studies in which individuals are measured at multiple points in time to monitor changes in a response variable, such as weight, cholesterol, or blood pressure. There are many excellent articles and books that describe the advantages of a mixed model for analyzing longitudinal
In a linear regression model, the predicted values are on the same scale as the response variable. You can plot the observed and predicted responses to visualize how well the model agrees with the data, However, for generalized linear models, there is a potential source of confusion. Recall that a
Biplots are two-dimensional plots that help to visualize relationships in high dimensional data. A previous article discusses how to interpret biplots for continuous variables. The biplot projects observations and variables onto the span of the first two principal components. The observations are plotted as markers; the variables are plotted as
In grade school, students learn how to round numbers to the nearest integer. In later years, students learn variations, such as rounding up and rounding down by using the greatest integer function and least integer function, respectively. My sister, who is an engineer, learned a rounding method that rounds half-integers
Principal component analysis (PCA) is an important tool for understanding relationships in continuous multivariate data. When the first two principal components (PCs) explain a significant portion of the variance in the data, you can visualize the data by projecting the observations onto the span of the first two PCs. In
Understanding multivariate statistics requires mastery of high-dimensional geometry and concepts in linear algebra such as matrix factorizations, basis vectors, and linear subspaces. Graphs can help to summarize what a multivariate analysis is telling us about the data. This article looks at four graphs that are often part of a principal
Computing rates and proportions is a common task in data analysis. When you are computing several proportions, it is helpful to visualize how the rates vary among subgroups of the population. Examples of proportions that depend on subgroups include: Mortality rates for various types of cancers Incarceration rates by race
