EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS

SBP3002 BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

DR. HASNI IDAYU SAIDI

hasniidayu@upm.edu.my
LEARNING OUTCOME
Student should be able to:
• Explain each of the experimental designs.
• Suggest suitable experimental design for research.
• Make justifications on the selection of experimental
design.

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DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT
• Simple comparative experiments
• The Completely Randomized Design (CRD)
• The Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD)
• The Latin Squares Design

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SIMPLE COMPARATIVE
EXPERIMENTS

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Simple Comparative Experiments
• Single factor with two treatments (or conditions, or
levels, or groups).

• To determine whether the two different groups

give equivalent results.

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Posttest Only Control Group
Design
Groups Observation
Treatment

𝑦𝑦11
Experimental 𝑦𝑦12
group ⋮
𝑦𝑦1𝑛𝑛1

Experimental Random
units assignment

𝑦𝑦21
Control 𝑦𝑦22
group ⋮
𝑦𝑦2𝑛𝑛2

Total sample, 𝑁𝑁 = 𝑛𝑛1 + 𝑛𝑛2 .

If sample size for each group is equal, then 𝑛𝑛1 = 𝑛𝑛2 = 𝑛𝑛.
Posttest Only Control Group
Design
• Assume/ensure that the experimental units are
homogenous.
• Thus, the control and experimental groups were
initially identical and that no change occurred in
the controls.

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 Pretest Posttest Control Group
Design
Pretest Posttest
Groups Observation Observation
Treatment
𝑦𝑦11 𝑦𝑦11
Experimental 𝑦𝑦12 𝑦𝑦12
group ⋮ ⋮
𝑦𝑦1𝑛𝑛1 𝑦𝑦1𝑛𝑛1
Randomly
assign units
to groups

𝑦𝑦21 𝑦𝑦21
Control 𝑦𝑦22 𝑦𝑦22
group ⋮ ⋮
𝑦𝑦2𝑛𝑛2 𝑦𝑦2𝑛𝑛2

Total sample, 𝑁𝑁 = 𝑛𝑛1 + 𝑛𝑛2 .

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If sample size for each group is equal, then 𝑛𝑛1 = 𝑛𝑛2 = 𝑛𝑛.
COMPLETELY
RANDOMIZED DESIGN
(CRD)

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Completely Randomized Design
(CRD)
• The runs of the experiments should be made in
random order.
• Randomly assigned a run to an experimental unit
i.e. each unit has the same chance of receiving any
treatment.
• Can be applied to most experiments.
• E.g. single factor in CRD, factorial in CRD.

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Single Factor in CRD
• Single factor with more than two treatments (or
conditions, or levels).

• To determine which treatment gives different

results.

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 Single Factor in CRD
Groups Observation
Treatment
Random
assignment 𝑦𝑦11
𝑦𝑦12
Treatment 1 ⋮
𝑦𝑦1𝑛𝑛1

𝑦𝑦21
Experimental 𝑦𝑦22
Treatment 2 ⋮
units (EU)
𝑦𝑦2𝑛𝑛2
⋮ ⋮ 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎1
𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎2
Treatment 𝑎𝑎 ⋮
𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑎
Total sample, 𝑁𝑁 = 𝑛𝑛1 + 𝑛𝑛2 + ⋯ + 𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑎 .
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If sample size for each group is equal, then 𝑛𝑛1 = 𝑛𝑛2 = ⋯ = 𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑎 = 𝑛𝑛.
Single Factor in CRD

Treatment

1 2 … 𝑎𝑎

𝑦𝑦11 𝑦𝑦21 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎1

𝑦𝑦12 𝑦𝑦22 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎2
…
⋮ ⋮ ⋮
𝑦𝑦1𝑛𝑛1 𝑦𝑦2𝑛𝑛2 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑎

Total sample, 𝑁𝑁 = 𝑛𝑛1 + 𝑛𝑛2 + ⋯ + 𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑎 .

If sample size for each group is equal, then 𝑛𝑛1 = 𝑛𝑛2 = ⋯ = 𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑎 = 𝑛𝑛. 13
The Effects Model
𝑦𝑦𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 = 𝜇𝜇 + 𝜏𝜏𝑖𝑖 + 𝑒𝑒𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖

𝑖𝑖 = 1, 2, … , 𝑎𝑎
𝑗𝑗 = 1, 2, … , 𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑖
where
𝜇𝜇 is the overall mean,
𝜏𝜏𝑖𝑖 is the treatment effect, and
𝑒𝑒𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 is the random error.

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Balanced vs Unbalanced Design
Advantages of balanced design:
1. The test statistic is relatively insensitive to small
departures from the assumption of equal
variances for the treatments.
2. The power of the test is maximized.

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RANDOMIZED
COMPLETE BLOCK
DESIGN (RCBD)

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Randomized Complete Block
Design (RCBD)
• “Complete”: each block contains all treatments.
• Block = nuisance factor that is known and
controllable.
• Blocks form a more homogeneous experimental
unit – improves accuracy of the comparisons
among treatments by eliminating the variability
among the blocks.
• Within a block, the order in which the treatments
are tested is randomly determined i.e. blocks
represent a restriction on randomization.
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Major criteria for blocking
1. Proximity: Animal litter – several treatments can be
accommodated by one litter.
2. Physical characteristic: Batches of raw materials – a
single batch large enough for one replication of all
treatments.
3. Time: Days – for when only one replication of
treatments can be processed in the lab in a single
day.
4. Management of tasks in experiment: Individual
technicians – each person is assigned to one replicate
of each treatment.

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Single Factor in RCBD
Block 1 Block 2 Block 𝑏𝑏

⋯
𝑦𝑦11 𝑦𝑦12 𝑦𝑦1𝑏𝑏
𝑦𝑦21 𝑦𝑦22 𝑦𝑦2𝑏𝑏
⋮ ⋮ ⋮
𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎

One observation per treatment in each block.

Total sample, 𝑁𝑁 = 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎. 19
Single Factor in RCBD

Block

Treatment 1 2 … 𝑏𝑏
1 𝑦𝑦11 𝑦𝑦12 … 𝑦𝑦1𝑏𝑏
2 𝑦𝑦21 𝑦𝑦22 … 𝑦𝑦2𝑏𝑏

𝑎𝑎 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎𝑎 … 𝑦𝑦𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎

One observation per treatment in each block.
Total sample, 𝑁𝑁 = 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎. 20
The Effects Model
𝑦𝑦𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 = 𝜇𝜇 + 𝜏𝜏𝑖𝑖 + 𝛽𝛽𝑗𝑗 + 𝑒𝑒𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖

𝑖𝑖 = 1, 2, … , 𝑎𝑎
𝑗𝑗 = 1, 2, … , 𝑏𝑏
where
𝜇𝜇 is the overall mean,
𝜏𝜏𝑖𝑖 is the treatment effect,
𝛽𝛽𝑗𝑗 is the block effect, and
𝑒𝑒𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 is the random error.

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Latin Square Design

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Latin Square Design
• Blocking in two directions i.e. two restrictions on
randomization.
• A 𝒑𝒑 × 𝒑𝒑 Latin square is a Latin square for
𝑝𝑝 treatments containing 𝑝𝑝 rows and 𝑝𝑝 columns.
• Each treatment is denoted by the Latin letter i.e.
𝐴𝐴, 𝐵𝐵, 𝐶𝐶, … .

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Example of a Latin square design
Operators
Batches of
Raw
1 2 3
Material
1 A B C
2 B C A
3 C A B

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Examples of Latin squares

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Standard Latin Squares

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The Effects Model
𝑦𝑦𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑘𝑘 = 𝜇𝜇 + 𝛼𝛼𝑖𝑖 + 𝜏𝜏𝑗𝑗 + 𝛽𝛽𝑘𝑘 + 𝑒𝑒𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑘𝑘

𝑖𝑖 = 1, 2, … , 𝑝𝑝
𝑗𝑗 = 1, 2, … , 𝑝𝑝
𝑘𝑘 = 1, 2, … , 𝑝𝑝
where
𝜇𝜇 is the overall mean,
𝛼𝛼𝑖𝑖 is the row effect,
𝜏𝜏𝑗𝑗 is the treatment effect,
𝛽𝛽𝑘𝑘 is the column effect, and
𝑒𝑒𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 is the random error.

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