On Thu, 24 Feb 2005, array chip wrote:

I am just a little confused of mian effect in the
analysis of variance (ANOVA) when you include or do
not include an interaction term. Let's assume a simple
case of 2-way ANOVA with 2 factors A and B, each with
2 levels. If it shows that main effect for A is
significant when the interaction between A and B is
NOT included, and the main effect for A is NOT
significant when the interaction is included, what
simply does this difference mean? I understand that
main effect for A generally means averaging over
levels of B,

Not in the presence of an interaction, with R's default coding.

is this explanation for the situation
when interaction is included or is not included or is
irrelavant?

And if my interest is in the main effect of A, in the
above senario, should I include the interaction (thus
lose the significance) or not include the interaction
(thus keep my significance)?

In R's default coding you are being told:

1) That the effect of A in the base level of B is not significant
2) There is a significant difference between the effect of A at the
two levels of B.

So, probably, A has no effect at the base level of B and an effect at the other level. You may or may not be interested in the effect of A averaged over the two levels of B.


Note that R's default coding is unusual, and using Helmert contrasts will give results which are easier to interpret from conventional accounts.

--
Brian D. Ripley,                  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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