This is Session Five of our free on-demand online course based around the book An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R, and it assumes that you have a copy of this workbook in front of you so you can follow the instructions for each exercise provided in it. To find out where to purchase this book, click here. If you would prefer to complete a more detailed distance-learning or in-person version of the course that includes a certificate of attendance and completion and is led by one of the authors of An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R, click here to find out when the next one is scheduled.
The information on this page will take you through the exercises in Chapter Seven of the above book. These exercises cover how to make graphs from your data in R. You can find the introduction and the links to other sessions in this course here.
Using Correlations and Regressions to Analyse Biological Data in R
Overview: In this session, you will learn how use correlations and regressions to determine whether there are relationships between different variables in a data set. Duration: This session will take approximately three hours to complete.
Part One – Introductory Video
This video provides a summary of the introductory information for this chapter which you will find on pages 190 and 191 of An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R. If you cannot see the video in the space below, click here to open a pop-out video viewer for it. Running Time: 2 minutes 25 seconds.
Part Two – Getting Started
This video outlines what you need to do to get ready to start the exercises in this chapter. The instructions for doing this can be found on pages 191 to 193 of An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R.If you cannot see the video in the space below, click here to open a pop-out video viewer for it. Running Time: 1 minute 0 seconds.
The link to download the compressed file containing the data for this course can be found here.
Part Three – Exercise 5.1: How to Test for a Correlation Between Two Variables
This video introduces Exercise 5.1, including what a correlation is, what tests you can use to test for the existence of correlations, and the structure that your data need to have in order to be able to do this in R. This information can also be found on pages 193 and 195 of An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R. If you cannot see the video in the space below, click here to open a pop-out video viewer for it. Running Time: 5 minutes 5 seconds.
Once you have watched this video, you can work through the instructions for this exercise which you will find on pages 195 to 206 of An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R. These will provide you with all the information you need to successfully complete it.
Part Four – Exercise 5.2: How to Test for a Relationship between Two Variables using Linear Regression
This video introduces Exercise 5.2, including what the difference is between correlations and regressions, and the structure that your data need to have in order to be able to conduct a regression analysis in R. This information can also be found on pages 207 and 208 of An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R.If you cannot see the video in the space below, click here to open a pop-out video viewer for it. Running Time: 2 minutes 54 seconds.
Once you have watched this video, you can work through the instructions for this exercise which you will find on pages 208 to 216 of An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R. These will provide you with all the information you need to successfully complete it.
End of Session Five
Once you have worked through the two exercises in this session, you have reached the end of our on-demand online course based around the exercises in An Introduction to Basic Statistics for Biologists using R. If you have completed all the sessions in this course, you should now have all the skills you require to import, process and analyse your own data using R. At this point, you should read Appendix one and Appendix Two of the above book, which will help you apply these new skills to your own data sets, allowing you to explore any research questions you wish to explore with them.
If you wish to return to the home page for this course, click here.