On May 20, 2013, at 10:35 PM, meng wrote:

> Hi all:
> If the explainary variables are ordinal,the result of regression is different 
> from
> "unordered variables".But I can't understand the result of regression from 
> "ordered
> variable".
> 
> The data is warpbreaks,which belongs to R.
> 
> If I use the "unordered variable"(tension):Levels: L M H
> The result is easy to understand:
>    Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)   
> (Intercept)    36.39       2.80  12.995  < 2e-16 ***
> tensionM      -10.00       3.96  -2.525 0.014717 * 
> tensionH      -14.72       3.96  -3.718 0.000501 ***
> 
> If I use the "ordered variable"(tension):Levels: L < M < H
> I don't know how to explain the result:
>           Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)   
> (Intercept)   28.148      1.617  17.410  < 2e-16 ***
> tension.L    -10.410      2.800  -3.718 0.000501 ***
> tension.Q      2.155      2.800   0.769 0.445182   
> 
> What's "tension.L" and "tension.Q" stands for?And how to explain the result 
> then?

Ordered factors are handled by the R regression mechanism with orthogonal 
polynomial contrasts: ".L" for linear and ".Q" for quadratic. If the term had 4 
levels there would also have been a ".C" (cubic) term. Treatment contrasts are 
used for unordered factors. Generally one would want to do predictions for 
explanations of the results. Trying to explain the individual coefficient 
values from polynomial contrasts is similar to and just as unproductive as 
trying to explain the individual coefficients involving interaction terms.

-- 

David Winsemius
Alameda, CA, USA

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