A Simple Repeated Measures ANOVA

(or a One Way Within Subjects ANOVA)

Introduction

When we have three times measured each subject on the same measure (variables A, B
C), we can ask if these variables have the same mean. One possibility is to conduct three
t-tests for related groups: A with B, A with C and B with C. A problem with this approach is
that the type I error (finding an effect when there is in reality no effect) increases. A solution
for that could be to use a Bonferroni-correction. In stead of using 5% as significance level,
we would use 5/3%=1,67% as significance level. Another problem might be that we have
three tests in stead of one, so a conclusion might be less simple.

To solve these problems, we can perform a repeated measures ANOVA also called a
within-subjects ANOVA.

In stead of measuring three times with the same measure another possibility is to use
three different items (or tests) at the same time. If these items or tests measure more or
less the same, the resulting variables will be correlated. Again we can ask if these three
items or tests have the same mean in the population.

Our data

subject A B C
1 1 2 3
2 2 4 6
3 5 3 7
4 4 5 6
5 3 6 3

Using SPSS

1.Copy and paste the data into SPSS.

2. Click VARIABLE VIEW and enter A, B and C in the NAME column.
3. Analyze, General Lineair Model, Repeated Measures.
4. Within-Subject Factor Name: TIME.
5. Number of Levels: 3.
6. Click ADD.
7. Click DEFINE.
8. Move A, B and C to the Within-Subjects Window.
9. Click OPTIONS and Descriptive Statistics
10. Click OK.

Repeated Measures ANOVA -- Mik van Es -- May 2010 -- version 3 1

Output of SPSS

Within-Subjects Factors
Measure:MEASURE_1

Dependent
time Variable

1 A

2 B

3 C

Descriptive Statistics

Mean Std. Deviation N

A 3,0000 1,58114 5

B 4,0000 1,58114 5

C 5,0000 1,87083 5

Multivariate Testsb
Effect Value F Hypothesis df Error df Sig.
time Pillai's Trace ,769 5,000a 2,000 3,000 ,111
Wilks' Lambda ,231 5,000 a
2,000 3,000 ,111
Hotelling's Trace 3,333 5,000 a
2,000 3,000 ,111
Roy's Largest Root 3,333 5,000a 2,000 3,000 ,111
a. Exact statistic
b. Design: Intercept
Within Subjects Design: time

Mauchly's Test of Sphericityb

Measure:MEASURE_1

Within
Subjects Approx. Chi-
Effect Mauchly's W Square df Sig. Epsilona

Greenhouse-
Geisser Huynh-Feldt Lower-bound

time ,563 1,726 2 ,422 ,696 ,950 ,500

Tests the null hypothesis that the error covariance matrix of the orthonormalized transformed dependent variables is
proportional to an identity matrix.
a. May be used to adjust the degrees of freedom for the averaged tests of significance. Corrected tests are displayed in the
Tests of Within-Subjects Effects table.
b. Design: Intercept
Within Subjects Design: time

Repeated Measures ANOVA -- Mik van Es -- May 2010 -- version 3 2

 Tests of Within-Subjects Effects
Measure:MEASURE_1

Type III Sum of

Source Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

time Sphericity Assumed 10,000 2 5,000 2,500 ,143

Greenhouse-Geisser 10,000 1,391 7,188 2,500 ,170

Huynh-Feldt 10,000 1,900 5,263 2,500 ,147

Lower-bound 10,000 1,000 10,000 2,500 ,189

Error(time) Sphericity Assumed 16,000 8 2,000

Greenhouse-Geisser 16,000 5,565 2,875

Huynh-Feldt 16,000 7,600 2,105

Lower-bound 16,000 4,000 4,000

Tests of Within-Subjects Contrasts

Measure:MEASURE_1

Type III Sum of

Source time Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

time Linear 10,000 1 10,000 10,000 ,034

Quadratic 3,560E-15 1 3,560E-15 ,000 1,000

Error(time) Linear 4,000 4 1,000

Quadratic 12,000 4 3,000

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Measure:MEASURE_1
Transformed Variable:Average

Type III Sum of

Source Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Intercept 240,000 1 240,000 53,333 ,002

Error 18,000 4 4,500

Repeated Measures ANOVA -- Mik van Es -- May 2010 -- version 3 3

Interpreting the output

In all we get 7 tables which we don't need all. The first table shows which variables we
used to define the factor Time.

The second table shows the means and standard deviations of the three variables. We
can see that the mean increases from A to C.

The third table gives the results of a multivariate test for the three variables. We didn't ask
for this, so we can ignore it.

The fourth table give Mauchly's Test of Sphericity. An assumption of a repeated measures
ANOVA is that the differences between the variables have the same variance. (You can
compare this with the assumption of a t-test related that the differences are distributed
normally.) Mauchly's test should give a significance of more than .05 to assume sphericity.
In our example it is .422 so we can assume sphericity.

The fifth table gives the repeated measures ANOVA. Because we might assume sphericity
we can use the upper line. Otherwise we would use the Greenhouse-Geisser or the Huyn-
Feldt line. SPSS gives a 'significance' or p-value of .143. This is more than 5%, so we can
conclude that the three variables have the same mean. A better conclusion in this case
might be that our data are not sufficient to infer that the means are different.

We didn't ask for the sixth table, so we can ignore it.

The last table gives a test for the between subjects factor. In our example we tried to keep
things simple so we did not have a between subjects factor, so we can ignore this table
too. When a between subjects factor is present however, one should realise that the
repeated measures analysis delivers two different test results: one for the differences
between the repeated measures and one for the differences between the groups.

Reporting the result

'A one way within-subjects ANOVA was computed to test if the three variables A, B and C
had the same mean. The test delivered no significant difference (F(2,8)=2.5, p=.14)
between the variables. I conclude therefore that there is no reason to assume that the
three variables differ in mean.'

After the F between the brackets are the degrees of freedom. We can find these values in
the table 'Tests of Within-Subjects Effects' in the column 'df' for Time and Error. I have
rounded the value of F and p a little.

Repeated Measures ANOVA -- Mik van Es -- May 2010 -- version 3 4