Solved – Appropriate error bars for repeated-measurements designs

standard error

I conducted a t-test / ANOVA (both repeated measurements) and I want to represent the difference in the mean via a bar graph.

There are several different views about the appropriate error bars for repeated-measurements: personal preference (Field, 2009), Root Mean Square Error (Estes, 1997) or rather Statistical Significance Bars (Schunn, 1999).

What is the best solution?

Best Answer

A few quick thoughts:

  • The most important thing is that you state clearly what the error bar represents. Too often, it is left up to the reader to guess what the error bars might represent (e.g., confidence intervals or standard errors? between subjects or within subjects standard errors?).
  • I think Estes' paper provides some good advice.
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