Chapter 9

Simple Linear Regression

An analysis appropriate for a quantitative outcome and a single quantitative ex-
planatory variable.

9.1 The model behind linear regression

When we are examining the relationship between a quantitative outcome and a
single quantitative explanatory variable, simple linear regression is the most com-
monly considered analysis method. (The “simple” part tells us we are only con-
sidering a single explanatory variable.) In linear regression we usually have many
different values of the explanatory variable, and we usually assume that values
between the observed values of the explanatory variables are also possible values
of the explanatory variables. We postulate a linear relationship between the pop-
ulation mean of the outcome and the value of the explanatory variable. If we let
Y be some outcome, and x be some explanatory variable, then we can express the
structural model using the equation

E(Y |x) = β0 + β1 x

where E(), which is read “expected value of”, indicates a population mean; Y |x,
which is read “Y given x”, indicates that we are looking at the possible values of
Y when x is restricted to some single value; β0 , read “beta zero”, is the intercept
parameter; and β1 , read “beta one”. is the slope parameter. A common term for
any parameter or parameter estimate used in an equation for predicting Y from

213
214 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

x is coefficient. Often the “1” subscript in β1 is replaced by the name of the

explanatory variable or some abbreviation of it.
So the structural model says that for each value of x the population mean of Y
(over all of the subjects who have that particular value “x” for their explanatory
variable) can be calculated using the simple linear expression β0 + β1 x. Of course
we cannot make the calculation exactly, in practice, because the two parameters
are unknown “secrets of nature”. In practice, we make estimates of the parameters
and substitute the estimates into the equation.
In real life we know that although the equation makes a prediction of the true
mean of the outcome for any fixed value of the explanatory variable, it would be
unwise to use extrapolation to make predictions outside of the range of x values
that we have available for study. On the other hand it is reasonable to interpolate,
i.e., to make predictions for unobserved x values in between the observed x values.
The structural model is essentially the assumption of “linearity”, at least within
the range of the observed explanatory data.
It is important to realize that the “linear” in “linear regression” does not imply
that only linear relationships can be studied. Technically it only says that the
beta’s must not be in a transformed form. It is OK to transform x or Y , and that
allows many non-linear relationships to be represented on a new scale that makes
the relationship linear.

The structural model underlying a linear regression analysis is that

the explanatory and outcome variables are linearly related such that
the population mean of the outcome for any x value is β0 + β1 x.

The error model that we use is that for each particular x, if we have or could
collect many subjects with that x value, their distribution around the population
mean is Gaussian with a spread, say σ 2 , that is the same value for each value
of x (and corresponding population mean of y). Of course, the value of σ 2 is
an unknown parameter, and we can make an estimate of it from the data. The
error model described so far includes not only the assumptions of “Normality” and
“equal variance”, but also the assumption of “fixed-x”. The “fixed-x” assumption
is that the explanatory variable is measured without error. Sometimes this is
possible, e.g., if it is a count, such as the number of legs on an insect, but usually
there is some error in the measurement of the explanatory variable. In practice,
9.1. THE MODEL BEHIND LINEAR REGRESSION 215

we need to be sure that the size of the error in measuring x is small compared to
the variability of Y at any given x value. For more on this topic, see the section
on robustness, below.

The error model underlying a linear regression analysis includes the

assumptions of fixed-x, Normality, equal spread, and independent er-
rors.

In addition to the three error model assumptions just discussed, we also assume
“independent errors”. This assumption comes down to the idea that the error
(deviation of the true outcome value from the population mean of the outcome for a
given x value) for one observational unit (usually a subject) is not predictable from
knowledge of the error for another observational unit. For example, in predicting
time to complete a task from the dose of a drug suspected to affect that time,
knowing that the first subject took 3 seconds longer than the mean of all possible
subjects with the same dose should not tell us anything about how far the next
subject’s time should be above or below the mean for their dose. This assumption
can be trivially violated if we happen to have a set of identical twins in the study,
in which case it seems likely that if one twin has an outcome that is below the mean
for their assigned dose, then the other twin will also have an outcome that is below
the mean for their assigned dose (whether the doses are the same or different).
A more interesting cause of correlated errors is when subjects are trained in
groups, and the different trainers have important individual differences that affect
the trainees performance. Then knowing that a particular subject does better than
average gives us reason to believe that most of the other subjects in the same group
will probably perform better than average because the trainer was probably better
than average.
Another important example of non-independent errors is serial correlation
in which the errors of adjacent observations are similar. This includes adjacency
in both time and space. For example, if we are studying the effects of fertilizer on
plant growth, then similar soil, water, and lighting conditions would tend to make
the errors of adjacent plants more similar. In many task-oriented experiments, if
we allow each subject to observe the previous subject perform the task which is
measured as the outcome, this is likely to induce serial correlation. And worst of
all, if you use the same subject for every observation, just changing the explanatory
216 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

variable each time, serial correlation is extremely likely. Breaking the assumption
of independent errors does not indicate that no analysis is possible, only that linear
regression is an inappropriate analysis. Other methods such as time series methods
or mixed models are appropriate when errors are correlated.

The worst case of breaking the independent errors assumption in re-

gression is when the observations are repeated measurement on the
same experimental unit (subject).

Before going into the details of linear regression, it is worth thinking about the
variable types for the explanatory and outcome variables and the relationship of
ANOVA to linear regression. For both ANOVA and linear regression we assume
a Normal distribution of the outcome for each value of the explanatory variable.
(It is equivalent to say that all of the errors are Normally distributed.) Implic-
itly this indicates that the outcome should be a continuous quantitative variable.
Practically speaking, real measurements are rounded and therefore some of their
continuous nature is not available to us. If we round too much, the variable is
essentially discrete and, with too much rounding, can no longer be approximated
by the smooth Gaussian curve. Fortunately regression and ANOVA are both quite
robust to deviations from the Normality assumption, and it is OK to use discrete
or continuous outcomes that have at least a moderate number of different values,
e.g., 10 or more. It can even be reasonable in some circumstances to use regression
or ANOVA when the outcome is ordinal with a fairly small number of levels.
The explanatory variable in ANOVA is categorical and nominal. Imagine we
are studying the effects of a drug on some outcome and we first do an experiment
comparing control (no drug) vs. drug (at a particular concentration). Regression
and ANOVA would give equivalent conclusions about the effect of drug on the
outcome, but regression seems inappropriate. Two related reasons are that there
is no way to check the appropriateness of the linearity assumption, and that after
a regression analysis it is appropriate to interpolate between the x (dose) values,
and that is inappropriate here.
Now consider another experiment with 0, 50 and 100 mg of drug. Now ANOVA
and regression give different answers because ANOVA makes no assumptions about
the relationships of the three population means, but regression assumes a linear
relationship. If the truth is linearity, the regression will have a bit more power
9.1. THE MODEL BEHIND LINEAR REGRESSION 217

15
10
Y

5
0

0 2 4 6 8 10

Figure 9.1: Mnemonic for the simple regression model.

than ANOVA. If the truth is non-linearity, regression will make inappropriate

predictions, but at least regression will have a chance to detect the non-linearity.
ANOVA also loses some power because it incorrectly treats the doses as nominal
when they are at least ordinal. As the number of doses increases, it is more and
more appropriate to use regression instead of ANOVA, and we will be able to
better detect any non-linearity and correct for it, e.g., with a data transformation.
Figure 9.1 shows a way to think about and remember most of the regression
model assumptions. The four little Normal curves represent the Normally dis-
tributed outcomes (Y values) at each of four fixed x values. The fact that the
four Normal curves have the same spreads represents the equal variance assump-
tion. And the fact that the four means of the Normal curves fall along a straight
line represents the linearity assumption. Only the fifth assumption of independent
errors is not shown on this mnemonic plot.
218 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

9.2 Statistical hypotheses

For simple linear regression, the chief null hypothesis is H0 : β1 = 0, and the
corresponding alternative hypothesis is H1 : β1 6= 0. If this null hypothesis is true,
then, from E(Y ) = β0 + β1 x we can see that the population mean of Y is β0 for
every x value, which tells us that x has no effect on Y . The alternative is that
changes in x are associated with changes in Y (or changes in x cause changes in
Y in a randomized experiment).
Sometimes it is reasonable to choose a different null hypothesis for β1 . For ex-
ample, if x is some gold standard for a particular measurement, i.e., a best-quality
measurement often involving great expense, and y is some cheaper substitute, then
the obvious null hypothesis is β1 = 1 with alternative β1 6= 1. For example, if x is
percent body fat measured using the cumbersome whole body immersion method,
and Y is percent body fat measured using a formula based on a couple of skin fold
thickness measurements, then we expect either a slope of 1, indicating equivalence
of measurements (on average) or we expect a different slope indicating that the
skin fold method proportionally over- or under-estimates body fat.
Sometimes it also makes sense to construct a null hypothesis for β0 , usually
H0 : β0 = 0. This should only be done if each of the following is true. There are
data that span x = 0, or at least there are data points near x = 0. The statement
“the population mean of Y equals zero when x = 0” both makes scientific sense
and the difference between equaling zero and not equaling zero is scientifically
interesting. See the section on interpretation below for more information.

The usual regression null hypothesis is H0 : β1 = 0. Sometimes it is

also meaningful to test H0 : β0 = 0 or H0 : β1 = 1.

9.3 Simple linear regression example

As a (simulated) example, consider an experiment in which corn plants are grown in
pots of soil for 30 days after the addition of different amounts of nitrogen fertilizer.
The data are in corn.dat, which is a space delimited text file with column headers.
Corn plant final weight is in grams, and amount of nitrogen added per pot is in
9.3. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION EXAMPLE 219

●
●

600
●

● ●
●

500
●
Final Weight (gm)
●
●
400
●
●
●
300

●
●
●
●
●
200

●
●
100

●
●
●
●

0 20 40 60 80 100

Soil Nitrogen (mg/pot)

Figure 9.2: Scatterplot of corn data.

mg.
EDA, in the form of a scatterplot is shown in figure 9.2.
We want to use EDA to check that the assumptions are reasonable before
trying a regression analysis. We can see that the assumptions of linearity seems
plausible because we can imagine a straight line from bottom left to top right
going through the center of the points. Also the assumption of equal spread is
plausible because for any narrow range of nitrogen values (horizontally), the spread
of weight values (vertically) is fairly similar. These assumptions should only be
doubted at this stage if they are drastically broken. The assumption of Normality
is not something that human beings can test by looking at a scatterplot. But if
we noticed, for instance, that there were only two possible outcomes in the whole
experiment, we could reject the idea that the distribution of weights is Normal at
each nitrogen level.
The assumption of fixed-x cannot be seen in the data. Usually we just think
about the way the explanatory variable is measured and judge whether or not it
is measured precisely (with small spread). Here, it is not too hard to measure the
amount of nitrogen fertilizer added to each pot, so we accept the assumption of
220 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

fixed-x. In some cases, we can actually perform repeated measurements of x on

the same case to see the spread of x and then do the same thing for y at each of
a few values, then reject the fixed-x assumption if the ratio of x to y variance is
larger than, e.g., around 0.1.
The assumption of independent error is usually not visible in the data and
must be judged by the way the experiment was run. But if serial correlation is
suspected, there are tests such as the Durbin-Watson test that can be used to
detect such correlation.
Once we make an initial judgement that linear regression is not a stupid thing
to do for our data, based on plausibility of the model after examining our EDA, we
perform the linear regression analysis, then further verify the model assumptions
with residual checking.

9.4 Regression calculations

The basic regression analysis uses fairly simple formulas to get estimates of the
parameters β0 , β1 , and σ 2 . These estimates can be derived from either of two
basic approaches which lead to identical results. We will not discuss the more
complicated maximum likelihood approach here. The least squares approach is
fairly straightforward. It says that we should choose as the best-fit line, that line
which minimizes the sum of the squared residuals, where the residuals are the
vertical distances from individual points to the best-fit “regression” line.
The principle is shown in figure 9.3. The plot shows a simple example with
four data points. The diagonal line shown in black is close to, but not equal to the
“best-fit” line.
Any line can be characterized by its intercept and slope. The intercept is the
y value when x equals zero, which is 1.0 in the example. Be sure to look carefully
at the x-axis scale; if it does not start at zero, you might read off the intercept
incorrectly. The slope is the change in y for a one-unit change in x. Because the
line is straight, you can read this off anywhere. Also, an equivalent definition is the
change in y divided by the change in x for any segment of the line. In the figure,
a segment of the line is marked with a small right triangle. The vertical change is
2 units and the horizontal change is 1 unit, therefore the slope is 2/1=2. Using b0
for the intercept and b1 for the slope, the equation of the line is y = b0 + b1 x.
9.4. REGRESSION CALCULATIONS 221

25

●
20

21−19=2
● 10−9=1
Slope=2/1=2
15
Y

10

Residual=3.5−11=−7.5
5

b0=1.0
0

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 9.3: Least square principle.

222 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

By plugging different values for x into this equation we can find the corre-
sponding y values that are on the line drawn. For any given b0 and b1 we get a
potential best-fit line, and the vertical distances of the points from the line are
called the residuals. We can use the symbol ŷi , pronounced “y hat sub i”, where
“sub” means subscript, to indicate the fitted or predicted value of outcome y for
subject i. (Some people also use the yi0 “y-prime sub i”.) For subject i, who has
explanatory variable xi , the prediction is ŷi = b0 + b1 xi and the residual is yi − ŷi .
The least square principle says that the best-fit line is the one with the smallest
sum of squared residuals. It is interesting to note that the sum of the residuals
(not squared) is zero for the least-squares best-fit line.
In practice, we don’t really try every possible line. Instead we use calculus to
find the values of b0 and b1 that give the minimum sum of squared residuals. You
don’t need to memorize or use these equations, but here they are in case you are
interested. Pn
(xi − x̄)(yi − ȳ)
b1 = i=1
(xi − x̄)2
b0 = ȳ − b1 x̄

Also, the best estimate of σ 2 is

Pn
2 − ŷi )2
i=1 (yi
s = .
n−2
Whenever we ask a computer to perform simple linear regression, it uses these
equations to find the best fit line, then shows us the parameter estimates. Some-
times the symbols β̂0 and β̂1 are used instead of b0 and b1 . Even though these
symbols have Greek letters in them, the “hat” over the beta tells us that we are
dealing with statistics, not parameters.

Here are the derivations of the coefficient estimates. SSR indicates sum
of squared residuals, the quantity to minimize.
n
(yi − (β0 + β1 xi ))2
X
SSR = (9.1)
i=1
n  
yi2 − 2yi (β0 + β1 xi ) + β02 + 2β0 β1 xi + β12 x2i
X
= (9.2)
i=1
9.4. REGRESSION CALCULATIONS 223

n
∂SSR X
= (−2yi + 2β0 + 2β1 xi ) (9.3)
∂β0 i=1
n 
X 
0 = −yi + β̂0 + β̂1 xi (9.4)
i=1

0 = −nȳ + nβ̂0 + β̂1 nx̄ (9.5)

β̂0 = ȳ − β̂1 x̄ (9.6)
n 
∂SSR 
−2xi yi + 2β0 xi + 2β1 x2i
X
= (9.7)
∂β1 i=1
n n n
x2i
X X X
0 = − xi yi + β̂0 xi + β̂1 (9.8)
i=1 i=1 i=1
n n n
x2i
X X X
0 = − xi yi + (ȳ − β̂1 x̄) xi + β̂1 (9.9)
i=1 i=1 i=1
Pn
i=1 xi (yi − ȳ)
β̂1 = Pn (9.10)
i=1 xi (xi − x̄)

A little algebra shows that this formula for β̂1 is equivalent to the one
shown above because c ni=1 (zi − z̄) = c · 0 = 0 for any constant c and
P

variable z.
In multiple regression, the matrix formula for the coefficient estimates is
(X X)−1 X 0 y, where X is the matrix with all ones in the first column (for
0

the intercept) and the values of the explanatory variables in subsequent

columns.

Because the intercept and slope estimates are statistics, they have sampling
distributions, and these are determined by the true values of β0 , β1 , and σ 2 , as
well as the positions of the x values and the number of subjects at each x value.
If the model assumptions are correct, the sampling distributions of the intercept
and slope estimates both have means equal to the true values, β0 and β1 , and
are Normally distributed with variances that can be calculated according to fairly
simple formulas which involve the x values and σ 2 .
In practice, we have to estimate σ 2 with s2 . This has two consequences. First
we talk about the standard errors of the sampling distributions of each of the betas
224 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

instead of the standard deviations, because, by definition, SE’s are estimates of

s.d.’s of sampling distributions. Second, the sampling distribution of bj − βj (for
j=0 or 1) is now the t-distribution with n − 2 df (see section 3.9.5), where n is
the total number of subjects. (Loosely we say that we lose two degrees of freedom
because they are used up in the estimation of the two beta parameters.) Using the
null hypothesis of βj = 0 this reduces to the null sampling distribution bj ∼ tn−2 .
The computer will calculate the standard errors of the betas, the t-statistic
values, and the corresponding p-values (for the usual two-sided alternative hypoth-
esis). We then compare these p-values to our pre-chosen alpha (usually α = 0.05)
to make the decisions whether to retain or reject the null hypotheses.

The formulas for the standard errors come from the formula for the
variance covariance matrix of the joint sampling distributions of β̂0 and
β̂1 which is σ 2 (X 0 X)−1 , where X is the matrix with all ones in the first
column (for the intercept) and the values of the explanatory variable in
the second column. This formula also works in multiple regression where
there is a column for each explanatory variable. The standard errors of the
coefficients are obtained by substituting s2 for the unknown σ 2 and taking
the square roots of the diagonal elements.
For simple regression this reduces to
v
P 2
x
u
u
SE(b0 ) = st
(x2 ) − ( x)2
P P
n

and s
n
SE(b1 ) = s .
(x2 ) − ( x)2
P P
n

The basic regression output is shown in table 9.1 in a form similar to that
produced by SPSS, but somewhat abbreviated. Specifically, “standardized coeffi-
cients” are not included.
In this table we see the number 94.821 to the right of the “(Constant)” label
and under the labels “Unstandardized Coefficients” and “B”. This is called the
intercept estimate, estimated intercept coefficient, or estimated constant, and can
9.4. REGRESSION CALCULATIONS 225

Unstandardized
Coefficients 95% Confidence Interval for B
B Std. Error t Sig. Lower Bound Upper Bound
(Constant) 94.821 18.116 4.682 .000 47.251 122.391
Nitrogen added 5.269 .299 17.610 .000 4.684 5.889

Table 9.1: Regression results for the corn experiment.

be written as b0 , β̂0 or rarely B0 , but β0 is incorrect, because the parameter value

β0 is a fixed, unknown “secret of nature”. (Usually we should just say that b0
equals 94.8 because the original data and most experimental data has at most 3
significant figures.)
The number 5.269 is the slope estimate, estimated slope coefficient, slope es-
timate for nitrogen added, or coefficient estimate for nitrogen added, and can be
written as b1 , β̂1 or rarely B1 , but β1 is incorrect. Sometimes symbols such as
βnitrogen or βN for the parameter and bnitrogen or bN for the estimates will be used
as better, more meaningful names, especially when dealing with multiple explana-
tory variables in multiple (as opposed to simple) regression.
To the right of the intercept and slope coefficients you will find their standard
errors. As usual, standard errors are estimated standard deviations of the corre-
sponding sampling distributions. For example, the SE of 0.299 for BN gives an idea
of the scale of the variability of the estimate BN , which is 5.269 here but will vary
with a standard deviation of approximately 0.299 around the true, unknown value
of βN if we repeat the whole experiment many times. The two t-statistics are cal-
culated by all computer programs using the default null hypotheses of H0 : βj = 0
according to the general t-statistic formula

bj − hypothesized value of βj
tj = .
SE(bj )

Then the computer uses the null sampling distributions of the t-statistics, i.e.,
the t-distribution with n − 2 df, to compute the 2-sided p-values as the areas under
the null sampling distribution more extreme (farther from zero) than the coefficient
estimates for this experiment. SPSS reports this as “Sig.”, and as usual gives the
misleading output “.000” when the p-value is really “< 0.0005”.
226 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

In simple regression the p-value for the null hypothesis H0 : β1 = 0

comes from the t-test for b1 . If applicable, a similar test is made for
β0 .

SPSS also gives Standardized Coefficients (not shown here). These are the
coefficient estimates obtained when both the explanatory and outcome variables
are converted to so-called Z-scores by subtracting their means then dividing by
their standard deviations. Under these conditions the intercept estimate is zero,
so it is not shown. The main use of standardized coefficients is to allow compari-
son of the importance of different explanatory variables in multiple regression by
showing the comparative effects of changing the explanatory variables by one stan-
dard deviation instead of by one unit of measurement. I rarely use standardized
coefficients.
The output above also shows the “95% Confidence Interval for B” which is gen-
erated in SPSS by clicking “Confidence Intervals” under the “Statistics” button.
In the given example we can say “we are 95% confident that βN is between 4.68
and 5.89.” More exactly, we know that using the method of construction of coeffi-
cient estimates and confidence intervals detailed above, and if the assumptions of
regression are met, then each time we perform an experiment in this setting we will
get a different confidence interval (center and width), and out of many confidence
intervals 95% of them will contain βN and 5% of them will not.

The confidence interval for β1 gives a meaningful measure of the loca-

tion of the parameter and our uncertainty about that location, regard-
less of whether or not the null hypothesis is true. This also applies to
β0 .

9.5 Interpreting regression coefficients

It is very important that you learn to correctly and completely interpret the co-
efficient estimates. From E(Y |x) = β0 + β1 x we can see that b0 represents our
estimate of the mean outcome when x = 0. Before making an interpretation of b0 ,
9.5. INTERPRETING REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS 227

first check the range of x values covered by the experimental data. If there is no
x data near zero, then the intercept is still needed for calculating ŷ and residual
values, but it should not be interpreted because it is an extrapolated value.
If there are x values near zero, then to interpret the intercept you must express
it in terms of the actual meanings of the outcome and explanatory variables. For
the example of this chapter, we would say that b0 (94.8) is the estimated corn plant
weight (in grams) when no nitrogen is added to the pots (which is the meaning of
x = 0). This point estimate is of limited value, because it does not express the
degree of uncertainty associated with it. So often it is better to use the CI for b0 .
In this case we say that we are 95% confident that the mean weight for corn plants
with no added nitrogen is between 47 and 122 gm, which is quite a wide range. (It
would be quite misleading to report the mean no-nitrogen plant weight as 94.821
gm because it gives a false impression of high precision.)
After interpreting the estimate of b0 and it’s CI, you should consider whether
the null hypothesis, β0 = 0 makes scientific sense. For the corn example, the null
hypothesis is that the mean plant weight equals zero when no nitrogen is added.
Because it is unreasonable for plants to weigh nothing, we should stop here and not
interpret the p-value for the intercept. For another example, consider a regression
of weight gain in rats over a 6 week period as it relates to dose of an anabolic
steroid. Because we might be unsure whether the rats were initially at a stable
weight, it might make sense to test H0 : β0 = 0. If the null hypothesis is rejected
then we conclude that it is not true that the weight gain is zero when the dose is
zero (control group), so the initial weight was not a stable baseline weight.

Interpret the estimate, b0 , only if there are data near zero and setting
the explanatory variable to zero makes scientific sense. The meaning
of b0 is the estimate of the mean outcome when x = 0, and should
always be stated in terms of the actual variables of the study. The p-
value for the intercept should be interpreted (with respect to retaining
or rejecting H0 : β0 = 0) only if both the equality and the inequality of
the mean outcome to zero when the explanatory variable is zero are
scientifically plausible.

For interpretation of a slope coefficient, this section will assume that the setting
is a randomized experiment, and conclusions will be expressed in terms of causa-
228 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

tion. Be sure to substitute association if you are looking at an observational study.

The general meaning of a slope coefficient is the change in Y caused by a one-unit
increase in x. It is very important to know in what units x are measured, so that
the meaning of a one-unit increase can be clearly expressed. For the corn experi-
ment, the slope is the change in mean corn plant weight (in grams) caused by a one
mg increase in nitrogen added per pot. If a one-unit change is not substantively
meaningful, the effect of a larger change should be used in the interpretation. For
the corn example we could say the a 10 mg increase in nitrogen added causes a
52.7 gram increase in plant weight on average. We can also interpret the CI for
β1 in the corn experiment by saying that we are 95% confident that the change in
mean plant weight caused by a 10 mg increase in nitrogen is 46.8 to 58.9 gm.
Be sure to pay attention to the sign of b1 . If it is positive then b1 represents the
increase in outcome caused by each one-unit increase in the explanatory variable. If
b1 is negative, then each one-unit increase in the explanatory variable is associated
with a fall in outcome of magnitude equal to the absolute value of b1 .
A significant p-value indicates that we should reject the null hypothesis that
β1 = 0. We can express this as evidence that plant weight is affected by changes
in nitrogen added. If the null hypothesis is retained, we should express this as
having no good evidence that nitrogen added affects plant weight. Particularly in
the case of when we retain the null hypothesis, the interpretation of the CI for β1
is better than simply relying on the general meaning of retain.

The interpretation of b1 is the change (increase or decrease depending

on the sign) in the average outcome when the explanatory variable
increases by one unit. This should always be stated in terms of the
actual variables of the study. Retention of the null hypothesis H0 : β1 =
0 indicates no evidence that a change in x is associated with (or causes
for a randomized experiment) a change in y. Rejection indicates that
changes in x cause changes in y (assuming a randomized experiment).
9.6. RESIDUAL CHECKING 229

9.6 Residual checking

Every regression analysis should include a residual analysis as a further check on
the adequacy of the chosen regression model. Remember that there is a residual
value for each data point, and that it is computed as the (signed) difference yi − ŷi .
A positive residual indicates a data point higher than expected, and a negative
residual indicates a point lower than expected.

A residual is the deviation of an outcome from the predicated mean

value for all subjects with the same value for the explanatory variable.

A plot of all residuals on the y-axis vs. the predicted values on the x-axis, called
a residual vs. fit plot, is a good way to check the linearity and equal variance
assumptions. A quantile-normal plot of all of the residuals is a good way to check
the Normality assumption. As mentioned above, the fixed-x assumption cannot be
checked with residual analysis (or any other data analysis). Serial correlation can
be checked with special residual analyses, but is not visible on the two standard
residual plots. The other types of correlated errors are not detected by standard
residual analyses.
To analyze a residual vs. fit plot, such as any of the examples shown in figure
9.4, you should mentally divide it up into about 5 to 10 vertical stripes. Then each
stripe represents all of the residuals for a number of subjects who have a similar
predicted values. For simple regression, when there is only a single explanatory
variable, similar predicted values is equivalent to similar values of the explanatory
variable. But be careful, if the slope is negative, low x values are on the right.
(Note that sometimes the x-axis is set to be the values of the explanatory variable,
in which case each stripe directly represents subjects with similar x values.)
To check the linearity assumption, consider that for each x value, if the mean of
Y falls on a straight line, then the residuals have a mean of zero. If we incorrectly fit
a straight line to a curve, then some or most of the predicted means are incorrect,
and this causes the residuals for at least specific ranges of x (or the predicated Y )
to be non-zero on average. Specifically if the data follow a simple curve, we will
tend to have either a pattern of high then low then high residuals or the reverse.
So the technique used to detect non-linearity in a residual vs. fit plot is to find the
230 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

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Figure 9.4: Sample residual vs. fit plots for testing linearity.

(vertical) mean of the residuals for each vertical stripe, then actually or mentally
connect those means, either with straight line segments, or possibly with a smooth
curve. If the resultant connected segments or curve is close to a horizontal line
at 0 on the y-axis, then we have no reason to doubt the linearity assumption. If
there is a clear curve, most commonly a “smile” or “frown” shape, then we suspect
non-linearity.
Four examples are shown in figure 9.4. In each band the mean residual is
marked, and lines segments connect these. Plots A and B show no obvious pattern
away from a horizontal line other that the small amount of expected “noise”. Plots
C and D show clear deviations from normality, because the lines connecting the
mean residuals of the vertical bands show a clear frown (C) and smile (D) pattern,
rather than a flat line. Untransformed linear regression is inappropriate for the
9.6. RESIDUAL CHECKING 231

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Figure 9.5: Sample residual vs. fit plots for testing equal variance.

data that produced plots C and D. With practice you will get better at reading
these plots.
To detect unequal spread, we use the vertical bands in a different way. Ideally
the vertical spread of residual values is equal in each vertical band. This takes
practice to judge in light of the expected variability of individual points, especially
when there are few points per band. The main idea is to realize that the minimum
and maximum residual in any set of data is not very robust, and tends to vary a
lot from sample to sample. We need to estimate a more robust measure of spread
such as the IQR. This can be done by eyeballing the middle 50% of the data.
Eyeballing the middle 60 or 80% of the data is also a reasonable way to test the
equal variance assumption.
232 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

Figure 9.5 shows four residual vs. fit plots, each of which shows good linearity.
The red horizontal lines mark the central 60% of the residuals. Plots A and B show
no evidence of unequal variance; the red lines are a similar distance apart in each
band. In plot C you can see that the red lines increase in distance apart as you
move from left to right. This indicates unequal variance, with greater variance at
high predicted values (high x values if the slope is positive). Plot D show a pattern
with unequal variance in which the smallest variance is in the middle of the range
of predicted values, with larger variance at both ends. Again, this takes practice,
but you should at least recognize obvious patterns like those shown in plots C and
D. And you should avoid over-reading the slight variations seen in plots A and B.

The residual vs. fit plot can be used to detect non-linearity and/or
unequal variance.

The check of normality can be done with a quantile normal plot as seen in
figure 9.6. Plot A shows no problem with Normality of the residuals because the
points show a random scatter around the reference line (see section 4.3.4). Plot B
is also consistent with Normality, perhaps showing slight skew to the left. Plot C
shows definite skew to the right, because at both ends we see that several points
are higher than expected. Plot D shows a severe low outlier as well as heavy tails
(positive kurtosis) because the low values are too low and the high values are too
high.

A quantile normal plot of the residuals of a regression analysis can be

used to detect non-Normality.

9.7 Robustness of simple linear regression

No model perfectly represents the real world. It is worth learning how far we can
“bend” the assumptions without breaking the value of a regression analysis.
If the linearity assumption is violated more than a fairly small amount, the
regression loses its meaning. The most obvious way this happens is in the inter-
pretation of b1 . We interpret b1 as the change in the mean of Y for a one-unit
9.7. ROBUSTNESS OF SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION 233

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Figure 9.6: Sample QN plots of regression residuals.

234 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

increase in x. If the relationship between x and Y is curved, then the change in

Y for a one-unit increase in x varies at different parts of the curve, invalidating
the interpretation. Luckily it is fairly easy to detect non-linearity through EDA
(scatterplots) and/or residual analysis. If non-linearity is detected, you should try
to fix it by transforming the x and/or y variables. Common transformations are
log and square root. Alternatively it is common to add additional new explanatory
variables in the form of a square, cube, etc. of the original x variable one at a time
until the residual vs. fit plot shows linearity of the residuals. For data that can
only lie between 0 and 1, it is worth knowing (but not memorizing) that the square
root of the arcsine of y is often a good transformation.
You should not feel that transformations are “cheating”. The original way
the data is measured usually has some degree of arbitrariness. Also, common
measurements like pH for acidity, decibels for sound, and the Richter earthquake
scale are all log scales. Often transformed values are transformed back to the
original scale when results are reported (but the fact that the analysis was on a
transformed scale must also be reported).
Regression is reasonably robust to the equal variance assumption. Moderate
degrees of violation, e.g., the band with the widest variation is up to twice as wide
as the band with the smallest variation, tend to cause minimal problems. For more
severe violations, the p-values are incorrect in the sense that their null hypotheses
tend to be rejected more that 100α% of the time when the null hypothesis is true.
The confidence intervals (and the SE’s they are based on) are also incorrect. For
worrisome violations of the equal variance assumption, try transformations of the
y variable (because the assumption applies at each x value, transformation of x
will be ineffective).
Regression is quite robust to the Normality assumption. You only need to worry
about severe violations. For markedly skewed or kurtotic residual distributions,
we need to worry that the p-values and confidence intervals are incorrect. In that
case try transforming the y variable. Also, in the case of data with less than a
handful of different y values or with severe truncation of the data (values piling
up at the ends of a limited width scale), regression may be inappropriate due to
non-Normality.
The fixed-x assumption is actually quite important for regression. If the vari-
ability of the x measurement is of similar or larger magnitude to the variability of
the y measurement, then regression is inappropriate. Regression will tend to give
smaller than correct slopes under these conditions, and the null hypothesis on the
9.8. ADDITIONAL INTERPRETATION OF REGRESSION OUTPUT 235

slope will be retained far too often. Alternate techniques are required if the fixed-x
assumption is broken, including so-called Type 2 regression or “errors in variables
regression”.
The independent errors assumption is also critically important to regression.
A slight violation, such as a few twins in the study doesn’t matter, but other mild
to moderate violations destroy the validity of the p-value and confidence intervals.
In that case, use alternate techniques such as the paired t-test, repeated measures
analysis, mixed models, or time series analysis, all of which model correlated errors
rather than assume zero correlation.

Regression analysis is not very robust to violations of the linearity,

fixed-x, and independent errors assumptions. It is somewhat robust
to violation of equal variance, and moderately robust to violation of
the Normality assumption.

9.8 Additional interpretation of regression out-

put
Regression output usually includes a few additional components beyond the slope
and intercept estimates and their t and p-values.
Additional regression output is shown in table 9.2 which has what SPSS labels
“Residual Statistics” on top and what it labels “Model Summary” on the bottom.
The Residual Statistics summarize the predicted (fit) and residual values, as well
as “standardized” values of these. The standardized values are transformed to Z-
scores. You can use this table to detect possible outliers. If you know a lot about
the outcome variable, use the unstandardized residual information to see if the
minimum, maximum or standard deviation of the residuals is more extreme than
you expected. If you are less familiar, standardized residuals bigger than about 3
in absolute value suggest that those points may be outliers.
The “Standard Error of the Estimate”, s, is the best estimate of σ from our
model (on the standard deviation scale). So it represents how far data will fall
from the regression predictions on the scale of the outcome measurements. For the
corn analysis, only about 5% of the data falls more than 2(49)=98 gm away from
236 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation N

Predicted Value 84.8 611.7 348.2 183.8 24
Residual -63.2 112.7 0.0 49.0 24
Std. Predicted Value -1.43 1.43 0.00 1.00 24
Std. Residual -1.26 2.25 0.00 0.978 24
Adjusted Std. Error of
R R Square R Square the Estimate
0.966 0.934 0.931 50.061

Table 9.2: Additional regression results for the corn experiment.

the prediction line. Some programs report the mean squared error (MSE), which
is the estimate of σ 2 .
In simple regression, how close the simple correlation of x and y is to 1 or -1 is
a measure of the strength of the association. Because there are many correlations
in multiple regression (one for each x) we need a different way to measure the
overall strength of the regression. We use a quantitiy call the R2 value or multiple
correlation coefficient. Note that when applied to simple regression, R2 is equal
to the square of the simple correlation.
R2 can be interpreted as the fraction (or percent if multiplied by 100) of the
total variation in the outcome that is “accounted for” by regressing the outcome
on the explanatory variables.
A little math helps here. The total variation used in the case of R2 , is the sum
of squared deviations of each y value from the mean of y, (SStot ). Note that this
quantity ignores x. Since the mean of y is the best guess of the outcome for any
subject if the values of the explanatory variables are unknown, we can think of
total variation as measuring how well we can predict y without knowing x.
If we perform regression and then focus on the residuals, we can square and
then sum these residual to get SSres . The better x helps to predict y, the smaller
the residuals will be, and therefore, the smaller SSres will be. We can interpret
SSres as a measure of ”unexplained variablility”.
If we compute total minus residual variability (SStot − SSres ) we can call the
result “explained variability”. It represents the amount of variability in y that is
9.9. USING TRANSFORMATIONS 237

explained away by regressing on x. Then we can compute R2 as

explained variability SStot − SSres
R2 = = .
total variability SStot

So R2 is the portion of the total variation in Y that is explained away by using

the x information in a regression. R2 is always between 0 and 1. An R2 of 0
means that x provides no information about y. An R2 of 1 means that use of
x information allows perfect prediction of y with every point of the scatterplot
exactly on the regression line. Anything in between represents different levels of
closeness of the scattered points around the regression line.
So for the corn problem we can say the 93.4% of the total variation in plant
weight can be explained by regressing on the amount of nitrogen added. Unfortu-
nately, there is no clear general interpretation of the values of R2 . While R2 = 0.6
might indicate a great finding in social sciences, it might indicate a very poor
finding in a chemistry experiment.

R2 is a measure of the fraction of the total variation in the outcome

that can be explained by the explanatory variable. It runs from 0 to
1, with 1 indicating perfect prediction of y from x.

9.9 Using transformations

If you find a problem with the equal variance or Normality assumptions, you will
√
probably want to see if the problem goes away if you use log(y) or y 2 or y or 1/y
instead of y for the outcome. (It never matters whether you choose natural vs.
common log.) For non-linearity problems, you can try transformation of x, y, or
both. If regression on the transformed scale appears to meet the assumptions of
linear regression, then go with the transformations. In most cases, when reporting
your results, you will want to back transform point estimates and the ends of
confidence intervals for better interpretability. By “back transform” I mean do
the inverse of the transformation to return to the original scale. The inverse of
common log of y is 10y ; the inverse of natural log of y is ey ; the inverse of y 2 is
√ √
y; the inverse of y is y 2 ; and the inverse of 1/y is 1/y again. Do not transform
a p-value – the p-value remains unchanged.
238 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

Here are a couple of examples of transformation and how the interpretations of

the coefficients are modified. If the explanatory variable is dose of a drug and the
outcome is log of time to complete a task, and b0 = 2 and b1 = 1.5, then we can
say the best estimate of the log of the task time when no drug is given is 2 or that
the the best estimate of the time is 102 = 100 or e2 = 7.39 depending on which log
was used. We also say that for each 1 unit increase in drug, the log of task time
increases by 1.5 (additively). On the original scale this is a multiplicative increase
of 101.5 = 31.6 or e1.5 = 4.48. Assuming natural log, this says every time the dose
goes up by another 1 unit, the mean task time get multiplied by 4.48.
If the explanatory variable is common log of dose and the outcome is blood
sugar level, and b0 = 85 and b1 = 18 then we can say that when log(dose)=0,
blood sugar is 85. Using 100 = 1, this tells us that blood sugar is 85 when dose
equals 1. For every 1 unit increase in log dose, the glucose goes up by 18. But a
one unit increase in log dose is a ten fold increase in dose (e.g., dose from 10 to 100
is log dose from 1 to 2). So we can say that every time the dose increases 10-fold
the glucose goes up by 18.

Transformations of x or y to a different scale are very useful for fixing

broken assumptions.

9.10 How to perform simple linear regression in

SPSS
To perform simple linear regression in SPSS, select Analyze/Regression/Linear...
from the menu. You will see the “Linear Regression” dialog box as shown in figure
9.7. Put the outcome in the “Dependent” box and the explanatory variable in the
“Independent(s)” box. I recommend checking the “Confidence intervals” box for
“Regression Coefficients” under the “Statistics...” button. Also click the “Plots...”
button to get the “Linear Regression: Plots” dialog box shown in figure 9.8. From
here under “Scatter” put “*ZRESID” into the “Y” box and “*ZPRED” into the
“X” box to produce the residual vs. fit plot. Also check the “Normal probability
plot” box.
9.10. HOW TO PERFORM SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION IN SPSS 239

Figure 9.7: Linear regression dialog box.

Figure 9.8: Linear regression plots dialog box.

240 CHAPTER 9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

In a nutshell: Simple linear regression is used to explore the relation-

ship between a quantitative outcome and a quantitative explanatory
variable. The p-value for the slope, b1 , is a test of whether or not
changes in the explanatory variable really are associated with changes
in the outcome. The interpretation of the confidence interval for β1 is
usually the best way to convey what has been learned from a study.
Occasionally there is also interest in the intercept. No interpretations
should be given if the assumptions are violated, as determined by
thinking about the fixed-x and independent errors assumptions, and
checking the residual vs. fit and residual QN plots for the other three
assumptions.