Manuel d'Utilisation Simstat - Copie

SIMSTAT
for Windows
User's Guide
Designed and written by Normand Péladeau

Provalis Research
DISCLAIMER
This software and the disk on which it is contained are licensed to you, for your own use. This
is copyrighted software owned by Normand Péladeau. By purchasing this software, you are not
obtaining title to the software or any copyright rights. You may not sublicense, rent, lease,
convey, modify, translate, convert to another programming language, decompile, or disassemble
the software for any purpose. You may make as many copies of this software as you need for
backup purposes. You may use this software on more than one computer, provided there is no
chance it will be used simultaneously on more than one computer. If you need to use the software
on more than one computer simultaneously, please contact us for information about site licenses.
WARRANTY
The SIMSTAT product is licensed "as is" without any warranty of merchantability or fitness for
a particular purpose, performance, or otherwise. All warranties are expressly disclaimed. By
using the SIMSTAT product, you agree that neither Normand Péladeau nor anyone else who has
been involved in the creation, production, or delivery of this software shall be liable to you or any
third party for any use of (or inability to use) or performance of this product or for any indirect,
consequential, or incidental damages whatsoever, whether based on contract, tort, or otherwise
even if we are notified of such possibility in advance. (Some states do not allow the exclusion or
limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the foregoing limitation may not apply to
you). In no event shall Normand Péladeau's liability for any damages ever exceed the price paid
for the license to use the software, regardless of the form of claim. This agreement shall be
governed by the laws of the province of Quebec (Canada) and shall inure to the benefit of
Normand Péladeau and any successors, administrators, heirs, and assigns. Any action or
proceeding brought by either party against the other arising out of or related to this agreement
shall be brought only in a PROVINCIAL or FEDERAL COURT of competent jurisdiction located
in Montréal, Québec. The parties hereby consent to in personam jurisdiction of said courts.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1996 Normand Péladeau. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or distributed without the prior written permission of Normand Péladeau, 2414
Bennett Street, Montreal, QC, CANADA, H1V 3S4.
Trademarks
IBM-PC and PC-DOS are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Excel is a product of Microsoft Corporation
SPSS/PC+ and SPSS for Windows are a registered trademark of SPSS Inc.
dBase and Paradox are registered trademarks of Borland International.
Quattro Pro is a registered trademark of Corel Corporation
Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation.
Other product names mentioned in this manual may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Marc Aras, Jean Bélanger, Jacques P. Beaugrand, DeWitt Kay, Warren L. Kovach, Mark
Thomas Lindemann, Ian D. Livingstone, Rashid Nassar, Ben Riga, Roel van Schaik, George Schwartz,
Mark Von Tress, Todd Woodward, and several others for their invaluable support, comment, feedback,
and advice during the development of this program.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Using this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Manual conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1- Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The SIMSTAT package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Installing SIMSTAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Making a backup copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Starting the program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Startup options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The working environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Changing the active window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Working with pull-down menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Working with dialog boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Status bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Getting help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 - Tutorial: Performing statistical analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Step 1 - Opening a data file for analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Step 2 - Assigning variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Step 3 - Performing frequency analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Step 4 - Viewing the results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Step 5 - Selecting a subset of cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Step 6 - Performing regression analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Step 7 - Keeping hard-copies of results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Step 8 - Exiting SIMSTAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 - Data file operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Opening an existing data file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
SIMSTAT for Windows data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Navigating in the Data Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Creating a new data file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Defining variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Entering and Editing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Filtering records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Sorting records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Importing data from other applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Exporting data to other applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Merging data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Limiting access to data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Archival backup of data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Creating and using variable sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4 - Data transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Examining data distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Computing values ................................................. 50
Performing conditional transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Quick transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Recoding values of a variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Transforming a variable into ranks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Dummy recoding of nominal variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Numeric recoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5 - Working with the notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Navigating in the notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Using the notebook index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Output management using Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Rounding numerical values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6 - Statistical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Assigning variables for statistical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Binomial test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Bootstrap analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Full analysis bootstrap analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Breakdown analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Correlations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Crosstabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Descriptives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Factor analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Frequencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Friedman Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Inter-raters analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Item Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Kolmogorov-Smirnov 1 Sample Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Kolmogorov-Smirnov 2 Samples Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Kruskal-Wallis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Listing cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Logistic regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Mann-Whitney U test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
McNemar test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Median test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Moses test of extreme reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Multiple regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Multiple responses analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Nonparametric matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
One sample chi-square test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Oneway ANOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Regression analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Reliability analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Runs test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Sensitivity analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Sign test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Single-case design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Time-series analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
T-test analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Wilcoxon test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
7 - Working with charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Creating specific charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Navigating in the chart window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Customizing charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Editing titles and axis labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Editing axis scaling and grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Controlling the legend display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Displaying data point values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Modifying specific chart options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Setting global options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Zooming in and out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Exporting charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8 - Using scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Introduction to the scripting feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Using normal and encrypted script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Opening an existing script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Navigating in the script window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Using the RECORD SCRIPT Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Running a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Saving script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
9- Script language reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Syntax Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Using memory and data file variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Expression Operators and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
One line descriptions of commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Commands description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
10 - Customizing the tools menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
11 - Setting the program preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
APPENDIX A - xBase syntax and functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
APPENDIX B - References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
APPENDIX C - Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
APPENDIX D - Technical support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

INTRODUCTION - 1
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to SIMSTAT for Windows. This program is designed to provide an easy to use, yet
powerful statistical package for scientific, business and engineering applications as well as for
teaching purposes. It provides unique features that facilitate data analysis as well as other tasks
such as data preparation, output management, and data presentation.
SIMSTAT provides a wide range of statistics including summary statistics, crosstabulation, inter-
rater agreement statistics, frequency and breakdown analysis, n-way analysis of variance and
covariance, paired and independent t-tests, linear, nonlinear, and multiple regression analysis,
time-series analysis, and many nonparametric analyses. Also, SIMSTAT provides powerful
bootstrap simulation analyses. These simulations are based on resampling procedures and can
be used to provide nonparametric estimates of sampling distributions, to assess the stability of
multivariate solutions or to perform nonparametric power analysis.
The program also includes a powerful script language that allows automation of statistical
analyses and creation of interactive tutorials, demonstration programs with multimedia features,
and even computer assisted testing or interviewing programs.
Using this manual

This user's manual provides all the information you'll need to install and use SIMSTAT. The
manual assumes that you are familiar with the basics of operating an IBM PC (or compatible)
under Windows 3.1 or later. If you are unfamiliar with mouse actions such as double-clicking
and drag and drop operations, or if you’re not familiar with windows management, consult your
Windows user's manual. This manual is not intended to teach statistics, and assumes that you
have sufficient knowledge of statistics to choose the analysis appropriate for your needs. The
manual is divided into the following sections:
Introduction - The first part provides detailed instructions on how to install SIMSTAT
on your computer and gives a variety of information about the program.
Getting started - The Getting Started chapter provides basic information about the
program's operation.
Tutorial - This chapter includes a short tutorial that will steer you through an easy-to-
follow example. The tutorial is designed to quickly familiarize you with the basic
operation of the program. If you are already familiar with the operation of SIMSTAT,
you may skip the tutorial section.
Data file operation - This section introduces you to various tasks that may be performed
on data files such as how to open an existing data file, create a new one, import a file
from another application, filter records, or sort them on one or several variables. This
section also presents instructions on how to perform basic data entry and data editing
as well as a description of several security features including file archiving and file
access protection.
Data transformations - This chapter presents features to perform transformation of
existing variables or to create new variables from computation on existing ones.
2 - SIMSTAT for WINDOWS
Working with the notebook - The notebook window provides an efficient way to browse
and manage outputs. This section provides basic instructions for navigating the
notebook, editing its contents, and using tabs and the index to manage the outputs.
Statistical Analysis - This chapter provides a description of every statistical analysis
appearing under the STATISTICS menu. To allow you to quickly find the information
you need, the statistical commands are presented in alphabetical order.
Working with charts - This section describes of the steps involved in the creation,
modification, printing and saving of charts.
Using scripts - This section introduces you to various tasks that may be performed with
script files such as how to open a existing script file, how to execute it, or how to use the
recoding feature to easily create script.
Script language reference - This section outlines the syntax conventions of the various
commands and options, and provides an alphabetical listing of all script commands.
Customizing the TOOLS menu - This section provides instructions on how to add
programs to, delete programs from, or edit programs using the TOOLS menu.
Setting the program preferences - This section provides a description of all global
options affecting the program’s working environment, file handling, and printing.
Appendices - The last part of this manual contains 4 appendices that deal with the
following topics:
Appendix A - Description of xBase syntax rules used in the FILTER, SORTING
and COMPUTE commands and of each xBase function.
Appendix B - Various suggestions for further reading on statistics.
Appendix C - Program limitations.
Appendix D - Obtaining technical support.
Manual conventions
The following conventions are used throughout the manual:
• MONOSPACE is used to indicate what is to be typed on the keyboard.
• bold text is used to highlight keywords, and identify text displayed by the program.
• Words between the less than ( < ) and the greater than ( > ) characters indicate a key to
be pressed. For example, <Enter> mean you have to press the Enter key.
• A dash (-) between key names means you have to press two keys simultaneously. For
example, <Ctrl-x> means that you have to press the <Ctrl> key and hold it down while
you press the x key.
GETTING STARTED - 3
1- GETTING STARTED
In this chapter, we'll get you started using SIMSTAT by showing how to install the program and
how to perform some basic operations. This chapter also includes a short tutorial that will guide
you through an easy-to-follow example of an analysis. This tutorial will allow you to quickly
become familiar with the steps required to perform statistical analyses. If you are already
familiar with the operation of SIMSTAT, you may skip this section.
The SIMSTAT package

Your SIMSTAT package includes the following:
& the SIMSTAT user’s manual
& two 3 ½ inch program disks
& the Provalis Research license agreement and registration card (send this in to become a
registered owner and receive technical support and information about upgrades and related
products).
System requirements
SIMSTAT requires a computer running Windows 3.1 or later, 4MB or more of available RAM,
and 3.5 MB of hard disk space. A mouse is optional, but highly recommended.
The program does not need a numeric coprocessor but will use it if available. However, a
coprocessor is strongly recommended for analysis of large samples or for extensive bootstrap
resampling analysis.
Installing SIMSTAT
This manual assumes that your hard disk is drive C: and that the installation disk is on drive A:.
You can change the drive and/or directory by making the appropriate substitutions in these
instructions.
To install the program on your hard disk:

& Insert Program Disk #1 in the proper diskette drive.
& If Windows is not currently running, start Windows by typing WIN and press <Enter>.
& From the Program Manager, choose RUN from the FILE menu.
& Type A:SETUP in the command line box and choose OK.
& Follow the prompts on screen to complete the installation.
Making a backup copy

Be sure to make a backup copy of the distribution disks, in case you lose or damage the originals.
Keep the original disks in a safe place, away from direct heat, dust, and magnetic sources.
Basic program information

Starting the program
To run SIMSTAT for Windows, start Windows if necessary. If you run Windows 3.1, display
the program manager icon, double-click the SIMSTAT for Windows group icon to open it, and
double-click the SIMSTAT program icon.
If you run Windows ‘95, click on the START button, then point to Programs, point to the
SIMSTAT for Windows item and then the SIMSTAT for Windows program icon.
Startup options
You can edit the program properties dialog box to add a script filename to the SIMSTAT’s
parameter list. When you do this, SIMSTAT will automatically execute the script when it starts
up. By creating shortcuts (or icons) of the program with different script file names as parameter,
it becomes possible to execute those scripts from the desktop with a single mouse click.
The working environment

When you call up SIMSTAT, the first screen you see is the introductory splash screen with
product-version information. This screen disappears and brings you to the working environment
(see below), which is divided into four parts:
GETTING STARTED - 5
1) The main menu bar at the top of the screen gives access to nine pull-down menus from
which commands can be evoked.
2) The tool bar provides quick mouse access to frequently used commands.
3) The status panel, located at the bottom of the screen, displays various information about
the program's operation.
4) The central part of the screen is the working space.
SIMSTAT's working space contains four windows:

Data window - The data window is a spreadsheet like data editor where data values can
be entered, browsed, and edited. Each column contains data for one variable, and each
row contains the responses for a single case. You can have only one Data window open
at a time. The associated Data pull-down menu offers a wide range of procedures to
select a subsample of cases, sort cases, transform existing variables, or to create new
variables from transformation of existing variables.
Notebook window - The Notebook window displays the statistical output for all analyses
performed during a session. The notebook metaphor provides an efficient way to
browse and manage output. The text output of each analysis is displayed on a separate
page. You can turn pages either with the mouse (by clicking on the page-flip icons at
the bottom of the notebook), or by using the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keyboard keys. Tabs
may also be added to create sections in the notebook, allowing you to store different
types of output in different sections of the notebook. An index of all analyses included
in the notebook is also available. This index can be used to quickly locate and go to a
specific page, move pages within the notebook, or delete some pages. While each page
can be annotated or edited, it is also possible to add empty pages for recording ideas or
remarks, sketching an analysis plan, or interpreting results.
Chart window - The Chart window displays all high-resolution charts created during a
session. The associated CHART menu can be used to modify almost any chart feature,
such as the axes, the labels, or the legends. You may also reorder the charts, save those
charts on disk, print them, or export them either to disk or to the clipboard in Windows
Metafile, Windows bitmap, or tab-separated values formats.
Script Window - The script window is used to enter and edit SIMSTAT commands.
These commands can either be read from a script file on disk, typed in by the user, or
automatically generated by the program. When used with the RECORD feature, the
script can also be used as a log window to keep track of the analyses performed during
a session. These commands may then be executed again, providing an efficient way to
automate statistical analyses. Additional commands also allow one to create
demonstration programs, computer-assisted teaching lessons, and even computer-
assisted data-entry programs.
Changing the active window

To change the active window, you can use one of three techniques:
& Click on a visible part of another window.
& Choose another window from the WINDOWS menu.
& Click on the proper icon on the toolbar (see below).
Working with pull-down menus

To select a menu item:
& Point to the menu name and click the left mouse button, or press the <Alt> key and the
underlined letter in the menu name.
& Point to the command you want to execute and click the left mouse button again, or press
the underlined letter in the command you want.
Once in a main menu, select a sub-menu command by typing the underlined letter of the
command name. You can also use the <Up> and <Dn> arrow keys to highlight the command
you want and press <Enter> to select your choice. Use the <Right> or <Left> arrow keys to
move from one pull-down menu to another.
Press <Esc> or click anywhere outside the pull-down menu to close it.
When a menu item is dimmed, the command is currently unavailable. For example, when no
data file has been opened, several commands of the EDIT, DATA, and STATISTICS menu are
dimmed.
Some menu items also display a keyboard key or key combination to the right of the command
name. When such a keyboard shortcut exists, you can bypass the menu system and choose those
commands by pressing their associated keyboard shortcuts.
Working with dialog boxes

Some SIMSTAT commands in submenus are followed by an ellipsis (three dots), which indicates
that a dialog box appears when you choose this command. Dialog boxes allow you to specify
various options used to adjust the program's operation, to customize the analysis output, or to
specify conditions to be fulfilled by an analysis.
GETTING STARTED - 7
Click on any item to position the cursor on it. You may also use the following keyboard keys to
navigate through dialog boxes:
Key Effect
<Tab> Moves to the next item

<Shift-Tab> Moves to the previous item
To move directly to an item, press the <Alt> key and the underlined letter in the associated text.
The action needed to edit the values of the various options depends on the type of input field.
Options panels can contain several types of input field:
Edit box - The Edit box is a rectangular box in which you type a value using the keyboard.
They are used to enter a string of characters, a number, a filename, etc.. When you are
positioned on such a field, a blinking text-cursor appears. The following table lists the
keys that can be used while editing a data entry field.
Key Effect
<Right arrow> Moves the cursor one character to the right.

<Left arrow> Moves the cursor one character to the left.
<Ctrl-left> Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
<Ctrl-right> Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
<Del> Deletes the character to the right of the cursor.
<Backspace> Deletes the character to the left of the cursor.
<Home> Moves the cursor to the beginning of the line.
<End> Moves the cursor to end of the line.
<Ins> Pressing this key toggles between the insert and overwrite modes. In
insert mode, characters are inserted at the cursor position, pushing
text to the right of the cursor even further right. When in overwrite
mode, characters at the cursor position are overwritten.
<Esc> Aborts the editing process and restores the previous value.
List boxes - A list box allows you to select a string from a list of valid possibilities. A list
box can contain a vertical scroll bar. To make a selection, scroll, if necessary, then click
the item you want.
Drop-down list boxes - A drop-down list box is similar to a list box, but its items are
hidden from view. To select an item from the list, click on the downward pointing
arrow on the right side of the box, scroll, if necessary, then click the item you want.
Check boxes - A check box is a small square box with a text description to its right.
Check boxes operate independently of one another. You can turn an option ON or OFF
by clicking in the box. If an option with a check box is turned on, an “X” appears in
the box.
Radio buttons - A radio button is a small round button. Radio buttons are used in groups
to present mutually exclusive options. Click the button to turn the option on; to turn it
off, select a different radio button. If a radio button option is active, it contains a dark
circle.
Spin buttons - Sometimes an edit box will be presented with spin buttons to its right.
This indicates that a numeric value is expected. You can type this numeric value using
the keyboard or use the spin buttons to quickly increment or decrement the value shown
in the edit box.
Multiple-page dialog boxes

Some dialog boxes may contains a fairly large number of options. In order to facilitate the
location and setting of those numerous options, multiple-page dialog boxes have been used
to functionally group those options on different pages. For example, many statistical
analyses contain a separate page for all options related to the production of high resolution
charts while the numerical analyses options are located on another page. You can access a
particular page in the dialog box by clicking on its associated tab located at the bottom of the
dialog box.
After the values have been edited to suit your needs, you have to click on the OK button (in some
dialog boxes this button is named APPLY) to accept those values and proceed. If you want to
leave the dialog box, restore the previous values, and suspend the current operation, just click on
the CANCEL button. A HELP button is often displayed to give you access to the context-
sensitive help file. Some dialog boxes also provide additional command buttons, which give you
access to special functions.
GETTING STARTED - 9
Toolbar
The main toolbar is displayed across the top of the application window, below the menu bar. The
toolbar provides quick mouse access to many commands used in SIMSTAT.
To hide or display the toolbar, you can use the Preferences menu command and set the Show
Toolbar check box accordingly.
When the mouse cursor rests over a toolbar button for more than one second, a small help hint
appears, displaying a short description of this button. To turn these help hints on or off, use the
Show Tool Hints option in the Preferences dialog box.
The following list describes the various icons used by SIMSTAT.
Click To
The following eight buttons may be present no matter which window is currently active.
However, their action differs, depending on which window is active.
Create a new file. You may use this button to clear the content of the currently active
window.
Open an existing file of the same type as the active window. SIMSTAT displays the
Open dialog box, in which you can locate and open the desired file.
Save the active window document with its current name. If you have not named the
document, SIMSTAT displays the Save As dialog box.
Print one or more pages or charts of the active window.
Cut the selected text (Notebook or Script window) or selected cell (Data window)
Copy the selected text (Notebook or Script window) or selected cell (Data window)
Paste text or a value from the clipboard.
Erase the selected text (Notebook or Script window), selected cell (Data window) or
chart. When viewing the notebook index, pressing this button erases the currently
selected page.
Notebook window buttons
Add a tab to the Notebook.
Add a blank page to the Notebook.
Select variables to be included in subsequent statistical analysis.
Chart window buttons
Copy a bitmap image of the current chart to the clipboard.
Turn on/off the 3D option for the current chart.
Display the 3D rotation dialog box.
Zoom in the currently displayed graph.
Script window buttons
Run the entire script.
Run the selected commands.
Run the script from the current line.

GETTING STARTED - 11
At the right end of the toolbar, you will see four buttons representing SIMSTAT’s four different
windows.
Click on one of these icons switch to another SIMSTAT window.
Status bar
The status bar, at the bottom of the screen, displays information about the current session
including the number of selected variables, and the amount of free Windows resources and
memory. It also displays useful information about the current output page (date and time of
creation, data file name) or about the current chart (data and time of creation). The left-most
panel contains a gauge that is sometime used to indicate the progression of a task.
Getting help
No matter where you are in SIMSTAT, you can get more information about the task you're
working on by pressing <F1>. This function key accesses SIMSTAT's context-sensitive help.
You may also click on the HELP button from any dialog box to obtain help on the various
options available in the dialog box.
Alternatively, you may use the various commands in the HELP menu to display a table of
contents of available help topics or search for a specific topic.
From the help window, you can copy, paste, annotate, and print help text using commands in the
FILE and EDIT menu.
TUTORIAL - 13
2 - TUTORIAL: PERFORMING STATISTICAL ANALYSES

The following section provides a tutorial for beginning users of SIMSTAT. It contains
step-by-step instructions for computing descriptive statistics and performing a regression analysis
on a sample data file. The data is from a fictitious study about the influence of various factors
on children's aggressive behavior during school recreational activities. This tutorial uses data
stored in the dBASE file SAMPLE.DBF that comes with your program disk.
Step 1 - Opening a data file for analysis

The first step to performing a statistical analysis is to open a data file that you want to analyze.
After calling up SIMSTAT, select the DATA | OPEN command from the FILE menu. This
command pulls down an Open File dialog box that lists all valid files and subdirectories.
Double click on the SAMPLE.DBF file to open it.

If the file is not on the current drive or in the default directory you may use the following
methods to locate the data file:
& If the file is on a different disk, click on the down arrow of the Drives list box to display
available drives and select the disk where the file is located.
& If the file is in a different directory, double-click on the directory names in the Directory list
box (also called Folder) list box to move through the directory tree.
Step 2 - Assigning variables

The next step is to choose the variable(s) on which you will perform the analysis. Select the
CHOOSE X-Y command from the STATISTICS menu to display the Variables Selection dialog
box.
This dialog box contains, among other things, 3 different list boxes. The one located to the left
of the dialog box contains a list of all variables in the data file. The selection of variables for
upcoming analysis is carried out by moving the proper variable’s name(s) from this list to the
independent or dependent list box. When doing descriptive analyses on separate variables, it
does not matter whether a variable is assigned as dependent or independent. For the current
example, we will thus move the variables to the independent variable list box. To achieve this:
& Highlight the AGE variable (age of the child) in the variable box by clicking once on it.
& Click on the button just beside the independent list box to move the highlighted
variable name to this list box.
& Using the same procedure, move the variable SIBLING to the independent list box.
NOTE: If you select the wrong variable, you can remove the variable from the Independent list
box by clicking on the variable name. When a name in the independent list box becomes
highlighted, the arrow of the button beside this box changes direction, indicating that pressing
this button will put the variable back in the variable list box.
& Click on the OK button to close the dialog box and activate the variable selection. If you
want to cancel the operation and restore the previous variable assignments, click on the
CANCEL button.
TUTORIAL - 15
Step 3 - Performing frequency analyses

To perform a frequency analysis on the variables we have just chosen select DESCRIPTIVE |
FREQUENCIES from the STATISTICS menu. The following dialog box appears on screen.
Using this dialog box, we will instruct the program to print, for every selected variable, a
frequency table sorted in ascending order of value, detailed descriptive statistics and a histogram.
To achieve this:
& Activate the Frequency Table check box (a check will appear in it).
& Set the Sort By option to Value and the Type option to Ascending.
& Activate the Descriptive Statistics check box.
& Deactivate the Confidence Interval and Percentiles Table check box.
The dialog box looks similar to the one shown above.
All graphing options are located in the second page of the dialog box. To activate this page, click
on the Charts tab at the bottom of the dialog box. To produce a histogram, make sure that the
histogram check box is the only one containing a check mark. If other options are enabled, click
on those check boxes to deactivate them.
After setting the proper options, you must activate them and tell SIMSTAT to perform the
analysis by selecting the OK button. SIMSTAT computes the requested statistics and appends
the numerical results to the Notebook window, while the histograms are automatically added to
the Chart window.
Step 4 - Viewing the results

To view the numerical output of the analysis just performed, make the notebook window active
by either clicking on a visible part of this window, selecting it from the WINDOWS menu, or
clicking on the notebook icon at the right end of the toolbar.
The notebook displays the last page which contains the frequency table and descriptive statistics
of SIBLING. Use the arrow keys (i.e. <Up> , <Dn>, <Left> and <Right>) to navigate through
this page. If you prefer, you may also set the program to display horizontal and vertical scroll
bars and use those scroll bars to browse through the active page (see Setting Program
Preferences section, page 235).
You may also use the <PgUp> or <PgDn> keys to move one screen at a time. If you press the
<PgUp> key while the cursor is already on the top of the page, the program will bring you to the
previous page, while pressing the <PgDn> key when the cursor is located at the bottom of a page
will move you to the next page (if any).
To move from one page to another, you may also click with the mouse on the page corner icons
located at the bottom of the notebook.
/ Rather than moving from one button to the other in order to move forward and backward in
the notebook pages, you can click on the same button using the right button of the mouse to
perform the reverse action.
To view the histograms produced during the same analysis, activate the chart window. The chart
window displays the last chart produced.
To display the previous chart in the window press the <Ctrl-P> combination key or click on the
icon.
To display the next chart in the window, press the <Ctrl-N> combination key or click on the
icon.
To select a specific chart from a list of all charts, click on the button to display a list box and
select the chart from the list.
When an image is displayed in the Chart windows, it is possible to customize its axis scaling or
labels, change the colors and fonts, and modify several other features of the chart. All these
customization options can be accessed from the CHART menu. It is also possible to save these
charts on disk, export them either to files or to the clipboard, or print them. (For more
information on the various chart options available, see the section entitled Working with Charts
on page 153).
TUTORIAL - 17
Step 5 - Selecting a subset of cases

For our second analysis, we will perform two regression analyses where AGGRESS (number of
aggressive behaviors) will be used as the dependent variable while AGE and HOURSTV will be
treated as two separated independent variables (or predictors). For the purpose of this
demonstration, we will restrict the analysis to male subjects.
To select this subgroup, choose the FILTER command from the DATA menu. This command
displays a dialog box like the one below.
The Filter edit box allows you to specify a condition that must be met in order to include the case
in the analysis. The sex of the child has been stored in a numeric variable named SEX using 1
to designate boys and 2 for girls. To select the boys for the next analysis, type the following
condition:
SEX = 1
You may also use the filter building buttons located at the top of this dialog box to specify this
condition. To build this filtering condition using these buttons:
& Click on the SEX variable in the list box located to the left of the dialog box
& Click on the ‘=’ relational operator button to add an equal sign to the equation.
& Click on the ‘1' button of the numeric keypad to insert this value after the equal sign.
To exit this dialog box and activate the filtering condition, click on the APPLY button.
Step 6 - Performing regression analyses

Choose the REGRESSION | REGRESSION command from the STATISTICS menu. The
following dialog box appears:
The first step necessary to perform our regression analysis is to change the currently selected
variables. In the previous analysis, the variables were selected prior to the display of the analysis
dialog box. For this example, we will alter the variable assignment while editing the regression
analysis option. To achieve this, click on the CHOOSE button to activate the Variables
selection dialog box. Using the previous instructions, assign the AGE and HOURSTV variables
to the Independent list box and move the AGGRESS variable to the Dependent list box. Click
OK to confirm this variable selection and return to the analysis dialog box.
Then, using the proper keys or mouse actions:
& Set the Type of Analysis option to Linear.
& Set the numeric field beside Confidence Interval to 90 in order to obtain a 90% confidence
interval on beta weights.
& Select a 2-tailed test by clicking on the proper radio button.
To obtain a scatterplot that will allow you to visualize the relationship between the dependent and
independent variables, set the SCATTERPLOT option to Graphic.
TUTORIAL - 19
Disable the remaining options so that the dialog box looks similar to the one displayed above.
When you click on the OK button, SIMSTAT calculates two separate linear regression equations
with AGGRESS as the dependent variable and AGE and HOURSTV as predictors.
You may browse through the results of this analysis if you so desire.
Step 7 - Keeping hard-copies of results

Once analyses are performed, you will often want to keep copies of the numerical results and
charts produced during a session.
To save the results on disk:

& Choose the NOTEBOOK | SAVE command from the FILE menu. A file save dialog box
will appear. By default, SIMSTAT use the .SNB extension for notebook files. If no
extension is given, the program automatically adds this extension to the end of the file name.
& Enter the name of the file under which you wish to save the notebook and press <Enter> or
click on the OK button to save the file.
& Choose the CHART | SAVE command from the FILE menu to save all charts in the Chart
window in a file name. The default extension for chart files is .CHX. If no extension is
given, the program automatically adds this extension to the end of the file name.
To print the numerical results or the charts:

& Activate the Notebook window to print numerical results, or the Chart window to print
charts.
& Select the PRINT command from the FILE menu or click on the printer button on the tool
bar.
& Set the desired options and click on the OK button to start printing.
Note: By default, SIMSTAT is configured to start printing each notebook page at the top of a new
page and to print 2 charts per page. To change these options, select the PREFERENCES
command from the FILE menu (see section Setting Program Preferences at page 235).
Step 8 - Exiting SIMSTAT

To exit from SIMSTAT, choose the EXIT command from the FILE menu. If, during a session,
the contents of any window have been modified, and have not been saved, then dialog boxes will
appear, asking you if you would like to save those changes to disk. Choose Yes to save the
changes to the documents and exit SIMSTAT or choose No to continue to exit without saving the
documents.
3 - DATA FILE OPERATIONS

The data window is a spreadsheet style data editor where values can be entered, browsed and
edited. Each column contains data for one variable and each row contains the responses for a
single case. You can have only one Data window open at a time. The associated DATA
pull-down menu offers a wide range of procedures to select a subsample of cases, sort these cases,
transform existing variables, or create new variables resulting from mathematical operations
performed on existing variables.
This section introduces you to various tasks that may be performed on data files such as how to:
& Open an existing data file.
& Create a new data file.
& Set the variable appearance and definition (display width, missing values, value labels, etc.).
& Enter and edit values in the data grid.
& Filter records.
& Sort the data grid on one or several variables.
& Import from and export to other applications.
& Save and restore archived copies.
& Restrict the default access to the data file.
Information on data transformation techniques will be introduced in the next chapter.

DATA FILE OPERATIONS - 21
Opening an existing data file
To open an existing data file, select the DATA | OPEN command from the FILE menu. This
opens an open file dialog box as shown below.
When this dialog box is evoked, the program points to the default data directory and displays in
the File Name list box all available data files in this directory. To open a file, double click on its
name or select it and then click on the OK button.
If the name of the data file you want to open is not displayed, type the filename in the File Name
box (including drive and path if necessary) and select the OK button.
You may also use the following components to locate the data file:
& If the file is on a different disk, click on the down arrow of the Drives list box to display
available drives and select the disk where the file is located.
& If the file is in a different directory, double-click on the directory names in the Directory (or
Folder) to move through the directory tree.
If the file name is displayed in the File Name list box, double-click on it to open the file, or select
it and click on the OK button.
If you want to open a data file used previously, click on the down arrow button at the right side
of the File Name edit box and select the filename.
SIMSTAT for Windows data files
SIMSTAT for Windows uses the industry standard xBase file format as its own format. Thus,
the program can read DBF files created by almost any program that can create these files.
SIMSTAT supports dBase files containing up to 1022 fields provided that the maximum record
length is less than 64k. SIMSTAT will also create several associated files in order to store
important information about the data file. The following list describes the various file extensions
that are used:
Extension Description
*.STR Files with an .STR extension contain all variable information defined by the user
such as variable labels, missing values and display format (display width, number
of decimal places, alignment). This file also contains information about access
restrictions set by the user.
*.VLBFiles with this extension contain all value labels defined by the user.
*.SET Set files contain information about defined sets of variables.
*.IDX Files with an .IDX extension are automatically created by SIMSTAT to keep
track of the filtering and sorting conditions set by the user.
*.FPT Files with an .FPT extension are used to store texts entered in memo fields.
/ When moving data files to a new location, you must also move these related files and place
them in the same directory as the DBF data file. To facilitate this task, you may use the
ARCHIVES | BACKUP and ARCHIVES | RESTORE commands which will allow you to
store all the necessary files in a single archive file and will automatically restore those files
in the location of your choice.
Navigating in the Data Window
To move the caret to a specific cell, you can click on that cell with the mouse. You can also use
the following keys to navigate in the spreadsheet:
<Up> Move one cell up.
<Down> or <Enter> Move one cell down. When you reach the last line and hit the
down arrow key, a new case is created.
<Right> or <Tab> Move one cell to the right. When you reach the end of a row,
these keys bring you to the first column of the next row. If you
reach the last cell and hit one of these keys, a new row is
created.
<Left> or <Shift-Tab> Move one cell to the left. If the cursor is on the first column,
pressing either of these keys brings you to the last column of the
previous row.
<PgUp> Move one screen up.
<PgDn> Move one screen down.
<Home> Move to the first variable (column).
<End> Move to the last variable (column).
<Ctrl-Home> Move to the first record.
<Ctrl-End> Move to the last record.
<Ctrl-G> Search for a variable name.
You can also move to a specific value or string within a selected column or anywhere in the
spreadsheet by evoking the FIND command in the EDIT menu.
Creating a new data file
To create a new data file, select the DATA | NEW command from the FILE menu. When this
command is evoked, a dialog box similar to this one appears:
The first step you need to take in order to create a new data file is to define the structure of the
file. The File Structure dialog box is a grid entry field type where each row represents a variable
in the new data file. This dialog box lets you define various attributes of the new variables such
as their name, whether they will contain numeric, alphanumeric values, or dates and their
physical width. You can also enter, for each variable, an alphanumeric description up to 60
characters.
Name - The first column of the spreadsheet allows you to enter a name for each variable.
Each variable name must be unique (within that data file). Valid variable names begin
with a letter and may contain letters, numbers or underscore characters. Punctuation
marks, blank spaces, and other special characters are not permitted. The maximum
variable name length is 10 characters.
Type - Each variable in the data file must have a type. To specify a variable type, move the
cursor to the second column and enter the letter corresponding to the proper data type.
SIMSTAT for Windows supports the following types:
Key Type Description

C Character Character variables can contain up to 254 alphanumeric
characters.
N Numeric Numeric variables can contain floating point numbers.
D Date The date type occupies 8 spaces and holds a year, month and
day.
L Logical The logical type uses a single space to store a boolean value
that can be either true or false (or Yes or No).
M Memo The memo type can contain up to 32K of text.
/ While SIMSTAT for Windows can perform some analyses such as frequency or
crosstabulation on character variables, it is often preferable to use numeric
variables, especially when the number of different values of this variable is limited.
For example, rather than storing the sex of the respondent as a character variable
and using ‘male’ and ‘female’ or ‘F’ and ‘M’, it is advisable to assign numeric
values to this information (for example 1 for male and 2 for female). To facilitate
the interpretation of these numeric values, SIMSTAT provides a way of associating
an alphanumeric description of up to 60 characters with each numeric value of a
variable (see page 28).
Length - The variable length specifies the maximum number of characters that can be
stored in the variable. Variable lengths for date and logical field are automatically set
to 8 and 1 respectively. The maximum length for a character variable is 254, while the
maximum length for a numeric variable is 19.
Decimal - The decimal column lets you define the number of decimal places for numeric
variables. Note that the length of a numeric variable with decimals includes the decimal
point, a leading zero, and an optional minus sign. The minimum length for a numeric
variable that contains one decimal position is therefore 3 (unsigned) or 4 (signed). The
maximum number of decimal places permitted by SIMSTAT is 17.
Description - The description column allows the entry of a variable label up to 60
characters long that can be used to describe in more detail the content of the variable.
You may leave this column blank if you wish, since it is always possible to later add or
edit those labels by using the DEFINE VARIABLE command.
Use the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys to move around the variable list and the <Left> and
<Right> arrow keys or the <Tab> and <Shift-Tab> keys to position yourself on the field that
you want to modify.
To insert a new variable:

& Position the cursor on the last row and press on the <Down> arrow key.
To modify the position of a variable in the list:

& Click on the left border of the row you want to move.
& While holding down the mouse button, drag the row toward its new location.
& Release the mouse button to drop the variable at its new location.
When you have finished defining the structure information, click on the OK button. You will
be asked to specify the name of the data file you want to create. If a file with a similar name
already exists, you will be asked to confirm the overwriting of this file.
Defining variables
In addition to the specification of the physical structure of the variable, it is also possible to
specify a variable`s display format (width and number of decimal places), missing values and
value labels. To define these attributes use the following steps:
& Position the cursor on the variable you want to define.
& Choose the DEFINE VARIABLE command from the FILE menu or click on the button
on the upper left corner of the data grid. This displays the Variable Definition dialog box as
shown below:
Navigating through variables
The and icons located at the bottom of the dialog box can be used to move to the
previous or the next variable in the data file.
To locate a specific variable, click on the Find button. A dialog box appears that allows you to
select a variable name from a list of all variables in the data file. To quickly locate a variable
name, you can also type its first letters until the variable name appears in the list box.
Read only - When checked, this option prevents a variable from being modified. This
option is useful to prevent accidental or unauthorized changes to the values of a
variable. (To prevent the modification of an entire data file, use the DATA |
SECURITY command from the FILE menu or open the file as Read Only).
Rename button - You can use this button to change the name of the current variable.
When you click this button, you will be asked for a new variable name. This name must
not exist in the current data file and should follow the basic rules for valid variable
names.
Alignment - The alignment option lets you specify whether the values of this variable
should be displayed on the grid aligned to the left, at the center, or flushed to the right
of the column. By default, numeric values and dates are flushed to the right of the
column while strings are aligned to the left.
Display width - The display width option lets you adjust the display width of the current
variable. This option is used exclusively to control how the variable is displayed in the
data grid and does not affect the physical size of the variable or its internal precision.
While it may be possible to set this option to zero or one character, the actual minimum
display width is equal to the number of characters in the variable name. For example,
the minimum display width of a variable named AGE will be 3.
Decimals - When the variable is numeric, the decimals option is used to specify how many
decimal places to display in the data grid. This option is used exclusively to control how
numeric values are displayed in the data grid and does not affect the internal precision
of the variable.
Missing values - In SIMSTAT, any blank cell is treated as a missing value (also called
a “system missing value”). However, you may also want to specify the reason for the
missing value. For example, in a survey, some respondents may not respond to a
specific question because it does not apply to them. They may also refuse to answer, or
may have simply forgotten to answer this question. For each numeric variable, it is
possible to define up to 3 numeric values that will be treated as missing. When
performing statistical analyses or data transformations, all cases containing a blank field
or any one of these numeric values will be ignored.
By default, these numeric values are treated as discrete values. However, It is possible
to exclude a range of values by treating the second and third missing values as lower or
upper limits. For example, if you have a variable containing the ages of respondents,
you may choose to exclude all subjects under 18 years by setting the second missing
value to 17 (or 17.99 if the variable is measured on a continuous scale with up to 2
decimal places) and selecting the less than or equal radio button. You may also
exclude cases equal or above a specific value by specifying the upper limit in the third
missing value and setting its radio button to more than or equal.
Variable label - This option lets you enter an alphanumeric description of the variable of
up to 60 characters. SIMSTAT will use this label when displaying statistical results or
charts.
Value labels - The value labels feature allows you to assign to each value of a numeric
variable a string of up to 60 characters. To define new value labels for the current
variable, click on the Edit button next to the value label option. The following dialog
box will appear:
TO ADD A NEW LABEL:

& Enter a numeric value in the Value edit box.
& Enter the description associated with this numeric value in the Label edit box.
& Press <Enter> or click on the Add button to accept this definition.
TO DELETE AN EXISTING VALUE LABEL:

& In the value label list box, select the label you want to erase. The caption of the ADD button
will change to DELETE.
& Click on the DELETE button
TO MODIFY AN EXISTING LABEL:

& Enter the numeric value you want to modify in the Value edit box
& Enter the new label in the Description edit box.
& Press <Enter> or click on the Add button.
SIMSTAT will ask you to confirm the replacement of the existing value label. Click on the
Yes button to replace the existing value label.
USING AN EXISTING VALUE LABELS DEFINITION

Often, several variables share the same value labels. For example, some questionnaires may
use a common ordinal scale for several questions. Rather than retyping the same value
labels over and over again, SIMSTAT enables the user to establish a link between a variable
without value labels and an existing one which already contains labels.
To establish such a link, click on the down arrow button of the Linked to list box and select
from the list of variables the one containing the value labels you want to use. These labels
will appear in the value labels list box.
Once a link has been established, every modification made to value labels list will affect the
labels associated with the original variable as well as all other variables currently linked to
/
this variable.
You may also use this feature to copy value labels from one variable to another. To
do this, follow the previous instructions to link the current variable to the one from
which you want to copy labels. The labels should appear in the value labels list.
Then, remove this link by setting the linked to option to none.
Entering and Editing Data
Data can be entered and edited directly within SIMSTAT with the use of a data sheet. Here are
some quick descriptions of the steps needed to perform specific data editing tasks:
To enter or edit a value:

& Type in the value.
& Press <Tab> to move one cell to the right.
& Press <Enter> to move one cell down.
To erase a value:
& Position the cursor on the cell you want to erase and press the <Del> or the
<Backspace> key.
To add a row:
& Move to the last row, then press the <Dn> arrow key.
To delete a record:
& Position the cursor on the record (or row) you want to delete.
& Choose DELETE RECORD from the DATA menu.
NOTE: You should be aware that the record is not physically removed from the file but
is simply tagged as deleted and hidden to the user. To permanently remove the deleted
records, use the DATA | PACK FILE command from the FILE menu.
To add new variables:

& Choose the ADD VARIABLES command from the DATA menu. A dialog box will
appear that is similar to the one used to create variables for a new data file.
& Specify the name of the new variables and set the variable types, sizes and descriptions
as described previously on page 24.
& Click on the OK button to create these new variables and add them at the end of the
current data set.
To delete existing variables:

& Choose the DELETE VARIABLES command from the DATA menu. The following
dialog box will appear.
& Highlight the names of the variables you want to delete and click on the button to
move them to the Variables To Delete list box.
& To delete successive variables, click on the first variable, drag the mouse cursor down
the list to highlight multiple variables, and then click on the button.
& Click on the OK button to proceed to the deletion of all variables listed in the Variables
To Delete list box.
Filtering records
The FILTER RECORDS command temporarily selects cases according to some logical condition.
You can use this command to restrict your analysis to a subsample of cases or to temporarily
exclude some subjects. You may also use this feature to perform data transformations on a
subsample of cases. The filtering condition may consist of a simple expression, or include many
expressions related by logical operators (i.e. AND, OR, NOT).
The condition expression should be a valid xBase expression evaluated as true or false and may
not exceed 240 characters. To obtain more instructions on expression operators, evaluation rules
and supported xBase functions see Appendix A.
When selecting the FILTER RECORDS command, a filter builder dialog box is displayed (see
below). You can directly type the filtering expression in the Filter edit box using the proper
syntax, or use any elements displayed on the upper part of the Filter Records dialog box to build
a valid expression.
To restore previously used filtering conditions, click on the down arrow button located to the
right of the Filter edit box.
Once a filtering condition has been entered you can apply the filter and leave this dialog box by
clicking on the APPLY button. If the filter expression is invalid, a message is displayed and
the exit is not performed.
To temporarily deactivate the current filter expression, click on the IGNORE button. The filter
string will be kept in memory and may be reactivated by choosing the FILTER RECORDS
command again.
To exit from the dialog box and restore the previous active filtering condition, click on the
CANCEL button.
Building a valid filtering expression

The upper part of the Filter dialog box contains various elements to help you build a valid
filtering expression:
Variable name list box - Double-clicking a variable name from the list box located to the
left of the dialog box inserts that name in the edit box at the current caret position.
Function list box - A list of valid xBase expression is displayed to the right of the dialog
box. Double-clicking on a xBase function in the list box, inserts that function at the
current caret position. When a function requires one or several arguments, the argument
section remains highlighted. To replace the highlighted text with a value, an expression
or a variable name, simply type the proper text on the keyboard or select a variable
name or function.
Numeric, boolean and relational operators buttons - Clicking on any relational or
boolean operation or on any numeric button inserts the corresponding symbol in the edit
box at the current caret position.
Usually, when part of the filtering expression is highlighted, pressing any keyboard key, or
clicking on any variable name or numeric button will replace the highlighted text with the
character or expression associated with this key or button. However, when choosing a
function requiring a parameter enclosed between parentheses, the highlighted text will not
be deleted but will be used instead as the new parameter of this function.
Examples of a simple filtering expression

Here is an example of a simple filtering condition:
GROUP = 1
This expression tells SIMSTAT to select only those records which have a value for GROUP
that is equal to 1.
Using boolean operators in the filtering condition

The .AND. and .OR. switches are logical operators that allow the evaluation of 2 or more
logical expressions.
.AND. - The .AND. operator instructs SIMSTAT to include only the cases for which both
expressions are true. For example,
GROUP = 2 .AND. INCOME > 28,000
will cause the program to select only those cases from GROUP number 2 that have an
INCOME greater than $28,000.
.OR. - The .OR. operator instructs SIMSTAT to evaluate both logical expressions and to
include cases for which either expression is true. For example,
GROUP = 2 .OR. INCOME > 28,000
will cause the program to select cases from GROUP 2 and cases from other groups only
if they have an INCOME greater than $28,000.
.NOT. - The .NOT. boolean operator can be used to negate a condition or exclude records
meeting a specified criteria. For example,
.NOT. GROUP = 1
will cause SIMSTAT to exclude all records for which GROUP equal 1.
Multiple level expressions

Multiple parentheses levels can be used to control the order in which expressions are
evaluated, as in the following example:
(GROUP = 2 .AND. INCOME > 28,000) .OR. (SEX = 1 .AND. EDUC = 5)
Sorting records
SIMSTAT provides two different ways to arrange the records (or cases) of a data file in numeric
or alphabetic order.
Simple sort
The easiest and quickest way to sort the records on the values of a single variable is to double-
click on the variable’s name displayed on the top row of the grid. The first time you double-click
on a variable’s name, the records are immediately sorted in ascending order on this variable.
Double-clicking a second time on the same column title sorts the records in descending order.
Complex sort
It is also possible to sort the records of a file using several variables. To achieve this, select the
SORT RECORDS command from the DATA menu. When activated, this command brings a
dialog box similar to the one used for filtering records. This dialog box allows you to create a
custom sorting expression by selecting information and elements displayed on the form. This
expression can include almost any supported xBase function.
The sort builder dialog box contains the following elements:
Variable name list box - Double-clicking on a variable name from the list box located
on the left of the dialog box inserts that name in the edit box at the current caret
position.
Function list box - A list of valid xBase expressions is displayed to the right of the dialog
box. Double-clicking on an xBase function from the box inserts that function at the
current caret position. When a function requires one or more arguments, the argument
or a variable name, simply type the proper text on the keyboard, or select a variable
name or function.
Relational operations and numeric buttons - Selecting any relational operation or
numeric button inserts the corresponding symbol in the edit box.
Usually, when part of the sorting expression is highlighted, pressing any keyboard key or
clicking on any variable name or numeric button will replace the highlighted text with the
character or expression associated with this key or button. However, when choosing a
function requiring a parameter enclosed between parentheses, the highlighted text will not
be deleted but will be used instead as the new parameter of this function.
Once a valid sorting expression has been entered, you may use the Sort Order option to specify
whether the records should be sorted in ascending or descending order.
To execute the sorting and leave the dialog box, click on the APPLY button. If the sorting
expression is invalid, a message is displayed and the dialog box remains displayed.
To temporarily deactivate the current sorting expression, click on the IGNORE button. The
sorting string is kept in memory and may be reactivated by choosing the SORTING RECORDS
command again.
Press the CANCEL button to abort the current sorting operation, leave the dialog box and restore
the previous sorting order.
Examples:
When the following sorting expression is used,
BIRTHDAY
and the Ascending radio button is activated, the records are sorted in ascending order by the
variable birthday.
In the following sorting expression:

SEX*100+DESCEND(AGE)
where the variable SEX is a numeric variable (0 = male and 1 = female), SIMSTAT sorts
the records with male subjects at the top of the data grid, ordered from the oldest to the
youngest, and all females at the bottom of the grid in the same order.
Importing data from other applications
SIMSTAT allows you to import data files from other statistical programs, spreadsheet and
database applications, as well as from plain ASCII data files (comma or tab delimited text). The
program can read data stored in the following formats:
SIMSTAT for DOS (v1.0 - v3.5)
SPSS/PC+
SPSS for Windows
PARADOX (v3.0 - v5.0)
LOTUS 123 (v1.0 - v5.0)
SYMPHONY (v1.0 - v1.1)
EXCEL (v2.1 - v5.0)
QUATTRO PRO (v1.0 - v6.0)
COMMA SEPARATED VALUES (Windows and DOS)
TAB SEPARATED VALUES (Windows and DOS)
To import data from any of these applications:

& Choose the DATA | IMPORT command from the FILE menu.
& Select the file format using the List File of Type drop down list.
& Select the file you want to import and click OK.
You will find below detailed information about specific file formats such as their formatting
requirements (if any), the supported features and limitations.
SIMSTAT for DOS files

SIMSTAT imports files from its DOS version with .SIM extensions. The program will import
variable and value labels as well as user missing values associated with each variable.
SPSS/PC+ and SPSS for WINDOWS files

SIMSTAT reads compressed and uncompressed SPSS/PC+ system files with .SYS extensions.
The program also supports variable and value labels as well as user missing values associated
with each variable. SPSS/PC+ files are saved in uncompressed format.
SIMSTAT can also read compressed and uncompressed SPSS for Windows data files (.SAV
extension) containing less than 1022 variables. The program will import variable and value
labels as well as user missing values associated with each variable.
ASCII data files

SIMSTAT will read up to 500 numeric and alphanumeric variables from a plain ASCII file (text
file). The file must have the following format:
& Every line must end with a carriage-return.
& The first line must include the variable names, separated by spaces, tabs and/or commas.
& Variable names may have a length of not more than 10 characters. Longer strings are
truncated at 10 characters.
& The remaining lines must include the numeric scores separated by spaces, tabs and/or
commas.
& Each line must contain scores for one case and variables must be in the same order for all
cases.
& All invalid scores and all blanks encountered between commas or tabs are treated as missing
values. A single dot can also be use to represent a missing value.
& Comments can be inserted anywhere in the file by putting an asterisk (‘*’) at the beginning
of the line.
& Blank lines can also be inserted anywhere in the file.
Spreadsheet data files

SIMSTAT reads spreadsheet files produced by LOTUS 1-2-3 (v1.1 to v5.0), SYMPHONY
(v1.0 and v1.1), EXCEL (v2.2 to v5.0), and QUATTRO PRO (v1.0 to v6.0). When a
spreadsheet data file is selected, the program displays a dialog box where you can specify,
in the case of multiple page spreadsheets, the page where data are located, and the range
of cells to be read. You must specify a valid range name or provide upper-left and
lower-right cells, separated by two periods (such as A1..H20). If you set the Range Name
list box to ALL, the program attempts to read the whole file.
The selected range must be formatted such that the columns of the spreadsheet represent
variables while the rows represent cases or records. Also, the first row should preferably
contain the variable names while the remaining rows hold the data, one case per row.
Cells in the first row of the selected range are treated as field names. SIMSTAT will
automatically determine the most appropriate format based on the data it finds in the
worksheet columns. If no variable name is encountered, SIMSTAT will automatically
provide one for each column in the defined range.
When reading the data for analysis, all blank cells or cells that do not correspond to the
variable type (e.g., alphanumeric entries under a numeric variable, or a numeric value under
a string variable) are treated as a missing values.
Exporting data to other applications
SIMSTAT allows you to export data to other applications, including:

SIMSTAT for DOS
SPSS/PC+
DBASE
PARADOX (v3.0 - v5.0)
LOTUS 123 (v1.0 - v5.0)
SYMPHONY (v1.0 - v1.1)
EXCEL (v2.1 - v5.0)
QUATTRO PRO (v1.0 - v6.0)
COMMA SEPARATED VALUES (Windows and DOS)
TAB SEPARATED VALUES (Windows and DOS)
When exporting a data file, SIMSTAT will use the current filtering condition to determine which
records will be exported. The active sorting order will also be used to control the record sequence
in the new file format.
To export data to any of these applications:
& Set the filtering and sorting conditions of the active data file to display the records as they
should be exported.
& Choose the DATA | EXPORT command from the FILE menu.
& Select the file format you want to create using the Save As File Type drop down list.
& Type a valid filename with the proper file extension.
& If necessary, use the Directories and Drives boxes to specify the storage location of your
choice.
& Click on the OK button.
You will find below a list of available file formats along with information about the export
function limitations.
SIMSTAT for DOS (v1.0 - v3.5) & SPSS/PC+

& A maximum of 500 variables can be exported.
& Only the first user missing value is kept.
& If an alphanumeric field is longer than 8 characters, then all values will be truncated to 8
characters.
ASCII data files

& A maximum of 500 variables will be exported.
& Variable descriptions, missing values definition, and value labels are not supported.
All spreadsheet formats

& A maximum of 255 variables will be exported.
& When exporting to a file format supporting multiple pages, the data are saved to the first
page.
& Variable descriptions, missing values definition, and value labels are not supported.
Creating a file with subsets of cases

The export feature can also be used to create a new data file with an identical structure as the
current data file but with only a subset of cases.
To create such a file:
& Set the filtering and sorting conditions of the active data file to display the records as they
should be saved in the new data file.
& Choose the DATA | EXPORT command from the FILE menu.
& Set the Save As File Type drop down list to DBASE
& Type a valid filename including the .DBF file extension.
& If necessary, use the Directories and Drives boxes to specify the storage location of your
choice.
& Click on the OK button.
Merging data files
There are circumstances when two or more data files need to be merged together. For example,
you may need to append data from additional subjects or from another time period to the end of
an existing data file or you may need to add new information on existing individuals by adding
new variables. Simstat provides two merging methods to either add new records or new variables
to an existing data file.
To add new records to an existing data file

& Open the data file to which you would like to append records.
& Choose the DATA | APPEND | RECORDS command from the FILE menu.
& Select the data file to be merged with the current file, and click OK.
All variables with matching names and types are appended to the current data file. If variable
length differs, data in the merged database is either truncated or padded with spaces.
Deleted records in the merged file are not appended to the current database.
To add new variables to an existing data file

& Open the data file to which you would like to append new varaibles.
& Choose the DATA | APPEND | VARIABLES command from the FILE menu.
& Select the data file to be merged with the current file, and click OK.
& Choose among the list of variables shared by both data files, those that should be used to
perform the record matching and click OK.
If no record of the secondary file matches the key values in the current file, missing values are
assigned to the new variables. If several records in the secondary file match the key values, values
are extracted from the first matching record.
Variables with identical names are ignored. To replace the values of one of those variables with
the ones in the second data file, simply delete this variable from the current data file prior to the
APPEND | VARIABLES operation.
Limiting access to data files
Access privileges are useful for controlling access to sensitive data in a file, whether or not the
file is shared on a network. For example, you may want to prevent modification of data files by
other users, or simply prevent accidental modification by yourself.
SIMSTAT allows restrictions to be placed on the type of activities that can be performed on a
data file. Full access to the data file can be regained by providing a single password.
To define the default limited access to a data file

& Open the file you want to restrict access to.
& Choose the DATA | SECURITY command from the FILE menu. The following Security
dialog box will appear:
When first accessed, all options are checked, indicating that no restriction to the data file has
been defined.
& Disable the privileges you want to associate with the password. For example, if you disable
the Delete Existing Variables and Delete Existing Records options, it will be possible for any
user to edit data, create new variables, or modify the variable definitions (missing values,
labels, display widths, etc.). However, they will not be able to delete any existing record or
variable in the data file.
& Type the password that will give full access to the data file and click on the OK button to
exit the dialog box.
NOTE: You can limit default access for users without the need to provide a password by leaving
the Full Access Password edit box empty. By doing this, the access will be limited every time
the data file is opened, but it will still be possible for anyone to modify this access privilege by
altering the options in this Security dialog box.
To gain full access to a data file with restricted access.

& Choose the DATA | SECURITY command from the FILE menu and enter the proper
password to display the Security dialog box.
& Enable the options you need and click on the OK button to exit the dialog box.
CAUTION: All options modified when regaining full access become the new default access
values. You should take care to reset these values before closing the data file if you want to
maintain this default limited access to the data file.
Archival backup of data files
During a research project, data files are frequently modified (cleaning, recoding, mathematical
transformation, etc.). At some point you may need to return to a previous version of an existing
data file to recover lost variables or cases that have been transformed or deleted, or just to make
routine verifications. In order to do this, several successive backup copies of this data file should
be created and kept. Another reason to make backup copies of data files is to prevent the
accidental loss of an entire data file caused by a hardware failure or software malfunction.
SIMSTAT provides a simple archiving procedure that allows one to quickly create backup copies.
This procedure stores a copy of the currently active data file and all its related files (structure
definition, value labels, variable sets, etc.) in a single compressed file. SIMSTAT uses the
industry standard Zip format as its own archive file format allowing you manage those archive
files outside of SIMSTAT using any application than can manipulate these files. Also, the high
level of compression achieved on typical SIMSTAT data files (usually more than 90-95%) allows
you to create backup copies of large data files on a single diskette, or keep several copies of your
data file on your hard drive without sacrificing precious disk space.
Another benefit of this archiving feature is to facilitate the transfer of your data file and all its
related files to another computer by creating a single file that includes all related files, and can
easily fit on a single diskette.
To make an archived copy of the current data file

& Select the DATA | ARCHIVE | BACKUP command sequence from the FILE menu. A Save
File dialog box will be displayed.
& Set the drive and directory setting to the location where you want to store the compressed
file.
& Enter a valid file name and click OK
To restore a file from an archived copy

& Select the DATA | ARCHIVE | RESTORE command sequence from the FILE menu. An
Open File dialog box will appear displaying all ZIP files.
& Select the proper ZIP file and click on the OK button. A second dialog box will appear to
let you specify the location where data should be restored. The default location is the same
directory as the archive file.
& If needed, change the drive and directory setting and click on the OK button to proceed with
the extraction.
Creating and using variable sets

When working with large data files involving several hundred variables, it may become difficult
to locate the variables of interest. The SETS OF VARIABLES command facilitates this task by
allowing you to define several groups of variables in the data file and later restrict the variables
displayed in dialog boxes involving selection of variables to those associated with a specific set.
To define a set of variables

& Select the SETS OF VARIABLES command from the DATA menu. The following dialog
box will appear.
& Click on the ADD button and enter the new set name. You can enter a string of up to 20
characters to describe this new set.
& Move all the variables that will make up the new set to the list box on the right of the screen.
& Click on the OK button to exit from the dialog box or click on the ADD button again to
create another set.
To modify a set definition
& From the Current Set drop down list box, select the set you want to modify.
& Add or remove the variables from the set.
To rename a set of variables

& From the Current Set drop down list box, select the set you want to rename.
& Click the RENAME button and enter the new set name.
& Click on the OK button to confirm the new name.
To delete a set
& From the Current Set drop down list box, select the set you want to delete.
& Click on the DELETE button and enter the new set name.
4 - DATA TRANSFORMATION
Often you may need to create new variables to represent global scores based on several responses
given by a subject or to create composite indices based on several indicators. Preliminary analysis
of existing variables may also reveal either coding errors, or an inadequate data distribution for
the kind of analysis you want to perform. SIMSTAT provides several powerful commands to
transform values of existing variables or create new variables by performing mathematical
operations on existing ones. This chapter presents data transformation features currently
available in SIMSTAT.
TheTransformation submenu contains various commands to perform transformation of existing
variables or to create new variables from computation on existing ones.
Compute Provides transformations using various functions on one or more

variables.
Quick transform Performs immediate transformation of the current variable using
various functions.
Recode Changes the values of numeric variables, or collapses values of a
continuous variable into categories.
Rank Replaces the values of the current variable with their rank.
Dummy coding Automatically creates as many dummy variables as needed to
represent the values of a nominal variable.
Numeric coding Automatically creates a numeric variable to express the values of a
string variable.
DATA TRANSFORMATION - 49
Examining data distributions
SIMSTAT provides a special feature that allows you to inspect the distribution of a variable and
assess the effect of common transformations on the data distribution. To use this feature, position
the data grid cursor on the numeric or date variable you want to examine and select the
VARIABLE STATISTICS command from the DATA menu. A dialog box will appear
displaying various statistics including mean, median, standard error of the mean, variance,
standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, minimum and maximum values, etc., as well as 3 graphs
(i.e. a box-plot, a histogram and a normal probability plot).
By default, the distribution statistics and the graphs displayed depict the untransformed values
of the variable. A list box allows one to temporarily transform those values using common
transformation formula and examine the resulting distribution.
Navigation keys at the lower right side of the window allow you to quickly move from one
variable to another.
To perform a transformation on your data, see section COMPUTING VALUES or QUICK
TRANSFORM below.
Computing values
The COMPUTE command allows the transformation of existing variables or the creation of
numeric variables by performing numeric transformations on existing variables. This command
offers more than 50 operations and functions including numerical operators, trigonometric
transformations (cos, sin, log, etc.), statistical functions (mean, minimum, maximum across
variables or cases, etc.), date, and random number operations. Conditional transformations can
also be performed using an IF-THEN-ELSE logical structure.
To perform a numeric transformation, select the TRANSFORM VARIABLE | COMPUTE
command from the DATA menu. When this command is evoked the following dialog box
appears:
Store in - This edit box allows you to specify the target variable where the computation
results will be stored. If the target variable already exists, the program will ask you if
you want to replace its values with those produced by the transformation. If the variable
does not exist, the program will ask you to confirm the creation of this new variable.
If you answer yes to this question, the new variable will be appended to the left end of
the data sheet. (see “Setting Program Preferences” on page 235 for information on how
to disable these confirmation dialogs). When a new numeric variable is created, the
program needs to know in advance its physical size and precision. The current default
size and number of decimal places used to store the result of a transformation is
indicated in the upper right corner of the Transformation group box. To modify these
values, click on the precision dialog box and enter the new default size and number of
decimal places.
Conditional transformation - This check box allows you to choose between a simple
computing formula or a conditional transformation. When this option is disabled, a
single edit box (i.e., Formula) is shown and the transformation is performed on all
currently selected records. Enabling this option allows you to perform a conditional
transformation using an IF-THEN-ELSE logical structure. The single edit box is
replaced by 3 edit boxes allowing you to specify a logical condition and two
transformation formulas. (see “conditional transformation” below).
Formula - This field contains the computing formula used to compute the value of the
target variable. This formula can contain existing variable names, numeric constants,
arithmetic operators or any supported numeric, trigonometric or statistical functions.
You can type the numeric transformation in the Formula edit box directly, using the
proper syntax, or use any element displayed on the upper part of the Variable
Transformation dialog box to build a valid expression. To restore previously used
numeric transformations, click on the down arrow button located at the right of the
Formula edit box.
Once a valid target variable and a numeric expression have been entered you can leave this dialog
box and perform the transformation by clicking on the OK button. If the transformation
expression is invalid, a message is displayed and the dialog box remains displayed.
To exit from the dialog box without performing a transformation, click on the CANCEL button.
Building a valid transformation expression

The upper part of the dialog box contains various elements to help you build a valid numeric
expression:
Variable name list box - Double-clicking a variable name from the list box located to the
left of the dialog box inserts that name in the edit box at the current caret position.
Function list box - A list of valid numeric functions is displayed to the right of the dialog
box. Double-clicking on a function name in the list box inserts that function at the
current caret position. When a function requires one or several arguments, the argument
or a variable name, simply type in the proper text or select a variable name or function.
Numeric, arithmetic, boolean and relational operators buttons - Clicking on any
relational or boolean operation or on any numeric button inserts the corresponding
symbol in the edit box.
Usually, when part of an expression is highlighted, pressing any keyboard key, or clicking
on any variable name or numeric button will replace the highlighted text with the character
or expression associated with this key or button. However, when choosing a function
requiring a parameter enclosed between parentheses, the highlighted text will not be deleted
but will instead be used as the new parameter of this function.
You will find below a list of valid symbols and functions along with a short description of each,
as well as some additional syntax information.
Arithmetic Operators
You can use any of the following symbols in a transformation formula.
+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
^ Exponentiation
When a transformation expression is evaluated, exponentation is performed first, followed

by division and multiplication and finally addition and substraction. Multiple parentheses
levels can be used to control the order in which expressions are evaluated as in the following
examples:
2 * 3 + 4 * 2 returns 48
2 * (3 + 4) * 2 returns 28
((2 * 3) + 4) * 2 returns 20
Constants
PI 3.1415926535897932385
Numeric and Trigonometric Functions
Syntax FUNCTION (value, variable or expression)

ABS() Absolute
ACOS() Arccosine
ASIN() Arcsine
ATAN() Arctangent
CSC() Cosecant
COS() Cosine
EXP() Exponential
FACT() Factorial
LN() Natural logarithm
LOG() Base-10 logarithm
MOD10() Modulus
RND() Round
SEC() Secant
SQRT() Square root
SQR() Square
SIN() Sine
TAN() Tangent
TRUNC() Truncate
Statistical Functions (across variables)

The following statistical functions are computed on several variables for each record individually.
For example, if you enter:
MEAN(Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5)
or MEAN(Q1..Q5)
SIMSTAT will compute the mean of values stored in the five specified variables of the current
record (missing values are excluded). To obtain a statistic on all selected records see the next
section “Statistical Functions (across records)”.
Syntax FUNCTION (Var [Var Var..Var])

MEAN() Mean
COUNT() Count (missing value excluded)
SUM() Sum
STDEV() Standard deviation
VAR() Variance
MIN() Minimum
MAX() Maximum
WSUM() Weighted sum (adjusted for missing value)
Statistical Functions (across records)
The following statistical functions are computed on a single variable for all currently selected
records. For example, if you enter:
VMEAN(AGE)
SIMSTAT will compute the mean of the values stored in the AGE variable for all selected
records (missing values are excluded). To compute a statistic on several variables for each record
individually, see the previous section “Statistical Functions (across variables)”.
Syntax FUNCTION (Variable)

VMEAN() Mean
VCOUNT() Count
VSUM() Sum
VSTDEV() Standard deviation
VVAR() Variance
VMIN() Minimum
VMAX() Maximum
ZSCORE() Normalized score
LAG() Lag
Random Number Functions

NORMAL(X) Normal pseudo-random number with mean of 0 and standard deviation of
X
UNIFORM (X) Uniform pseudo-random number between 0 and X
Date Functions
Most date functions can be computed on either date or numeric variables. Numeric variables are
automatically transformed into a date corresponding to the number of days since 1/1/0001. The
TODAY function does not have any argument, while the YRMODA function takes 3 arguments
separated by commas. Each arguments can be either a numeric variable, a constant, or an
expression. All other functions require a single argument that can consist of a date, a numeric
variable, a constant or an expression.
YRMODA() Argument: (yy,mm,dd). Converts 3 values, variables or expressions into a

numeric value expressing the number of days since 1/1/1900.
YEAR() Returns the year of a date.
MONTH() Returns the month of a date.
DAY() Returns the day of a date.
WEEKDAY() Returns a numeric value representing the day of the week (from 1 to 7)
TODAY() Returns the current date
Missing Value Constant

When the target variable already exists and a transformation expression is left blank, the value
of the target variable remains unchanged. To erase the previous value and leave the variable
blank, use the SYSMIS keyword.
SYSMIS System missing value
Performing conditional transformations
Conditional transformations allow you to apply a numeric transformation to a subset of records

meeting a specific criteria. When the CONDITIONAL TRANSFORMATION check box is
enabled, the single FORMULA edit box is replaced with the following 3 edit box:
IF - The IF edit box contains a logical expression up to 250 characters long specifying
criteria for records on which to apply a specific transformation. This expression must
be evaluated as true or false. It can be a simple logical expression including the
following 3 components: a variable name, a relational operator, and a variable name or
a numeric constant. It can also be a complex expression composed of many simple
expressions related with logical operators (AND, OR, NOT). Parentheses can be used
to specify the order in which expressions are evaluated. For example:
((GROUP = 1) .AND. (AGE > 30)) .OR. (GROUP = 2)
This expression can also include any xBase function, provided that the final result of
the expressions can be evaluated as true or false (For more information on valid xBase
expressions, see appendix A.
Then / Else - The THEN and ELSE edit boxes contain the transformation expressions you
want the program to apply. See the previous section “Building a valid transformation
expression” for information on syntax rules and available functions. If the logical
expression entered in the IF edit box is evaluated as true, the transformation expression
in the THEN edit box is computed; if not, the expression in the ELSE field is used. If
an edit box contains no transformation expression, the existing value remains
unchanged. For example, the following setting:
STORE IN: HEIGHT

IF: SEX = ‘Female’
THEN: HEIGHT * 1.3
ELSE:
Will replace, for each record where the character variable SEX is equal to “Female”, the
current value stored in variable HEIGHT with this same value multiplied by 1.3; all
other records remain unchanged.
Quick transformations
The QUICK TRANSFORM command allows immediate transformation of the current variable
using various functions.
Z Score ZSCORE(X) or (X - VMEAN(X)) / VSTDEV(X)

Remove mean X - VMEAN(X)
Reverse VMAX(X) - X + 1
Add constant... X + constant
Square root SQRT(X)
Natural logarithm LN(X)
Inverse 1/X
For the square root, natural logarithm and inverse transformations, if the variable contains values
less than 1, SIMSTAT asks whether to add a constant in order to bring this minimum to 1.
Recoding values of a variable
The RECODE command provides an easy way to make multiple changes to the values of numeric
variables, or to collapse values of a continuous variable into categories. To activate this
command:
& Position the data sheet cursor on the variable you want to recode
& Select the TRANSFORM VARIABLE | RECODE command from the FILE menu.
The following dialog box will appear:
Store in - This edit box allows you to specify the target variable where the computation
results will be stored. By default, the value is set to the name of the variable containing
the values that will be used for recoding. To store the result in another variable, change
this text box to the new target variable name. If you keep the original variable name or
specify an existing variable name, the program will ask you if you want to replace its
values with those produced by the transformation. If the variable does not exist, the
program will ask you to confirm the creation of this new variable.
Expression - The recode expression can consist of several transformations enclosed in
parentheses, each including one or more values (or a value range), an equal sign, and
the new value. For example:
(1 = 2) (2 = 1) (3 4 5 = 3) (6..10 = 4) (ELSE = SYSMIS)
Each value on the left of the equal sign is recoded into the value on the right. The
recoding proceeds from left to right and stops after a transformation occurs. The
SYSMIS and MISSING keywords can be used to represent missing values, while the
ELSE keyword represents all non specified values.
Once a valid target variable and a recoding numeric expression have been entered you can leave
this dialog box and perform the recoding by clicking on the OK button. If the recoding
expression is invalid, a message is displayed and the exit is not performed.
To exit from the dialog box without performing the recoding, click on the CANCEL button.
Transforming a variable into ranks
The RANK command replaces the values of a variable by their rank. If ties occur, the mean rank
of tied values is used. Missing values are excluded.
To transform a variable into ranks:
& Position the data sheet cursor on the variable you wish to transform into ranks.
& Select the TRANSFORM VARIABLE | RANK command from the DATA menu.
& Enter the new variable name under which the rank should be stored and click OK to proceed
to the transformation.
Dummy recoding of nominal variables
The DUMMY RECODING command automatically creates as many dummy variables as needed
to represent the values of a nominal variable. To create such dummy variables, position the
cursor on the nominal variable you wish to recode and select the TRANSFORM VARIABLE |
DUMMY RECODING command from the DATA menu. The following dialog box will appear:
Variable prefix - The variable prefix option allows you to enter a prefix that will be used
to generate dummy variable names. The maximum length of this prefix is 7 characters.
Numeric values going from 1 up to the number of variables required will be appended
to this prefix.
Type of recoding - This option provides a choice between two different methods for
recoding nominal variables.
Dummy - The dummy (or binary) coding involves the creation of dichotomous vectors
to represent membership in the categories of nominal variables such that subjects in a
given category are assigned 1, while non members are given a score of 0. The number
of dummy variables needed to contain all the information of a nominal variable equals
the number of different values in this variable minus one. While most analyses
involving dummy variables require you to enter only those g-1 dichotomous variables,
you may need to perform separate analysis for each category. When the dummy coding
type is chosen, a check box appears allowing you to create this last dichotomous
variable. For example, if you recode a variable containing 3 different values, setting
this check box will create 3 dummy variables, one for each group. If this option is
disabled, the procedure will create only 2 variables.
Effect coding - Effect coding is similar to dummy coding, except that the last group
is assigned -1s in all vectors instead of 0s.
When you click on the OK button, the program reads all active records and asks you to confirm
the computation of the required number of dichotomous variables. If variables with similar
names exist in the database, the confirmation dialog box will display the number of existing
variables that would be overwritten as well as the number of variables that need to be created by
this command. Click on the YES button to confirm the creation and overwriting of variables.
Click on NO to abort the procedure.
To exit from the dialog box without performing the recoding, click on the CANCEL button.
Numeric recoding
Most statistical analyses require variables that can be expressed as numeric values (such as
numeric, date, and logical data type). The NUMERIC CODING command automatically creates
a numeric variable to express the values of a string variable. To create this numeric variable,
position the cursor on the string variable and select the TRANSFORM VARIABLE | NUMERIC
RECODING command sequence from the DATA menu.
When this command is evoked, a dialog box appears asking you the name of the new numeric
variable. If you specify a non existing variable, the program will ask you to confirm the creation
of this new numeric variable. If you click on the YES button, this variable will be created and
will contain integer values representing each unique alphanumeric value found in the original
string variable. Value labels corresponding to each numeric value will be automatically created
and stored with the variable.
If the name of an existing variable is provided, you will need to confirm the overwriting of values
in this variable. When the variable name supplied is the same as the original string variable, the
program assumes that you want to transform the current string variable into a numeric variable
and will erase the original variable and add a new numeric variable of the same name. This new
variable will be located at the left end of the data worksheet.
5 - W ORKING WITH THE NOTEBOOK

The Notebook window displays the statistical output for all analyses performed during a session.
The notebook metaphor provides an efficient way to browse and manage outputs. The text output
of each analysis is displayed on a separate page. You can turn pages with the mouse by clicking
on the page corner icons at the bottom of the notebook, or by using the <PgUp> and <PgDn>
keyboard keys. Tabs may also be added to create sections in the notebook, allowing you to store
different types of analyses in different sections of the notebook. An index of all analyses included
in the notebook is also provided. This index can be used to quickly locate and go to a specific
page, move pages within the notebook, or delete some pages. While each page can be annotated
or edited, it is also possible to add empty pages for recording ideas or remarks, sketching an
analysis plan, or writing down interpretation of results.
The following section provides basic instruction to:

& navigate in the notebook and edit its contents.
& use tabs and the index to manage output.
& add or remove notebook pages.
& round numeric values.
WORKING WITH THE NOTEBOOK - 61
Navigating in the notebook
To move the caret to a specific location, you can click with the mouse on that location. You can
also use the following keys to navigate in the notebook:
<Up> Move one line up.

<Down> Move one line down.
<PgUp> Move up one screen. If the cursor is on the last line of the
page, pressing this key moves to the next page.
<PgDn> Move down one screen. If the cursor is on the first line
of the page, pressing this key moves to the previous page.
<Home> Move to the beginning of the line.
<End> Move to the end of the line.
<Ctrl-Home> Move to the first line.
<Ctrl-End> Move to the last line.
<Ctrl-Right> Move to the beginning of the next word.
<Ctrl-Left> Move to the beginning of the previous word.
<Ctrl-Enter> Insert a page break
It is possible to locate a specific string on the current page or in the entire notebook by choosing the FIND
command in the EDIT menu or by pressing <Ctrl-F>.
You can also use the page flip icons located at the bottom of the notebook to move within the notebook
pages.
Left click on the icon to move to the next page or click on the right button to move to the previous
page.
Left click on the icon to move to the previous page. Pressing with the right button moves you to the
previous page.
To add an empty page

Empty pages can be added in the notebook. Those pages may be used to sketch an analysis plan,
write down some comments or interpretations of analysis results, or simply put some reminders
of things to do. To add an empty page to your notebook:
& Make the notebook the active window.
& Select the page after which you want the empty page to appear.
& Select the PAGES | NEW command from the EDIT menu or click on the button.
If the current page is the first page of a section, a dialog box will appear giving you a choice to
enter the new page before or after the current page.
To erase existing pages

& Select the PAGES | DELETE command from the EDIT menu.
& Specify the range of pages you want to delete and select OK to proceed.
Note: You may also use the notebook index to delete single pages or to erase an entire section.
Using the notebook index
SIMSTAT automatically creates an index of all analysis output stored in the notebook. This
index is useful to get an overall view of the notebook content and to quickly locate and move to
a specific page. It also allows you to restructure the contents of the notebook. To view the
notebook index, click on the Index tab at the bottom of the notebook.
Expanding and collapsing sections

& Choose a section in the outline.
& Press <Enter> or double click on the section name or its folder icon.
To locate and display a specific page

& Browse through the index until you find the page you want to display.
& Double-click on the page name or icon.
To move a page within the notebook

& Position the mouse cursor over the page you want to move.
& Press and hold down the mouse button.
& Drag the page over the page just before its new location and release the mouse button.
To erase a page
& Select the page you want to erase.
& Select the DELETE command from the EDIT menu or click on the button.
WORKING WITH THE NOTEBOOK - 63
Output management using Tabs
A typical research project or analysis task can result in hundreds, or even thousands of pages of
statistical output. Using tabs can facilitate the management of your output by allowing the
creation of sections in the notebook. For example, you may choose to create sections for different
types of analyses (descriptive analysis of data, reliability analysis of instruments, regression
analysis to test your hypothesis, etc.), or for analysis performed on different subsamples or at
different time periods, etc.
To create a new tab

& Make sure the Notebook window is the active window.
& Select the TABS | ADD command from the EDIT menu or click on the icon.
& Enter the new tab name and its page location.
& Press <Enter> or click on the OK button to create the new tab.
Once your tabs are created, you can quickly move to a specific section by clicking on its tab at
the bottom of the notebook. When activated, a section become the default output location. This
means that the output of all analyses performed while this section is active will be appended to
the end of this section.
To delete an existing tab (but not its contents)

& Click on the tab you want to delete or select any page in its section.
& Select the TABS | DELETE command from the EDIT menu.
To delete an entire section

& Click on the Index section to display the notebook index.
& Select the tab of the section you want to delete.
& Select the ERASE command from the EDIT menu or click on the icon.
To modify a tab name or change its location

& Click on the tab you want to modify or select any page in its section.
& Select the TABS | EDIT command from the EDIT menu.
& Modify the tab name or its page number and click OK to confirm the changes.
Suggestion
It is advisable to keep a copy of the data used with each analysis output. To achieve this, you can
create a special DATA section and use the LIST command to create listings of all data sets used
in your analysis. It may also be a good idea to keep a log of the analysis commands and options
used with your statistical results. To achieve this, simply use the RECORD SCRIPT feature to
automatically generate those commands and copy the content of the script window to an empty
notebook page.
Rounding numerical values
SIMSTAT provides a feature that allows you to reduce the number of decimal places of numeric
values within a selected area or in the active page of the Notebook. To round the values, perform
the following steps:
& If necessary, select the portion of text containing the numeric values you want to round.
& Select the ROUND command from the EDIT menu. The following dialog box will appear:
& Specify the number of decimal places to which you want to round numbers.
& Set the radio button to Current Page or Selected Text depending on whether you want to
round values for the entire page or only in the selected portion of it.
& Select the OK button to exit the dialog box.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS - 65
6 - STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
This reference chapter provides a description of the Variable Selection dialog box followed by
a description of every statistical analysis that appears in the STATISTICS menu. To allow you
to quickly find the information you need, the statistical commands are presented in alphabetical
order. The sole exceptions to this rule are the BOOTSTRAP resampling procedures that are
described under the BOOTSTRAP heading.
Assigning variables for statistical analysis
Use CHOOSE X-Y from the STATISTICS menu to select the variables to be used in subsequent
analyses. You can also press the <F3> function key or click on the button to access this
function.
When this command is selected, the program displays a dialog box.
The list box located at the left shows the available variables. The drop down list at the top of this
box allows you to display only specific types of variables (such as numeric, string, date, etc.) or
the variables belonging to a user defined set of variables. The Independent and Dependent list
boxes located on the right of the dialog contain the variables that will be treated as independent
and dependent. By default, the variable names are displayed in the same order as they appear
in the data file. You may also use the Sorted check box to display the variable names in
alphabetical order.
To assign variables as dependent or independent

Select the variables in the Variable list box and move them into the Independent or
Dependent box by clicking on the button next to the proper list box.
While most statistical analyses in SIMSTAT require you to distinguish between dependent
and independent variables, some analyses do not require such a distinction. This is the case
for several commands involving a single variable per analysis such as LIST, DESCRIPTIVE,
FREQUENCY, TIME-SERIES, BINOMIAL, CHI-SQUARE TEST, and RUNS TEST.
With those commands, variable assignments to the dependent or independent list boxes are
simply ignored and the procedure is applied successively to all the independent variables
followed by all the variables assigned to the dependent list box.
The RELIABILITY, the ITEM ANALYSIS and all multivariate analyses available from the
OTHER submenu (i.e. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, etc.) also do not make a distinction
between dependent and independent variables, and will include all variables in both lists in
a single analysis. However, when performing a split-half reliability test using the
RELIABILITY command, the two list boxes are used to determine which variables will be
included in each versions of the instruments.
To remove variables from the dependent or independent list.
Select the variables you want to remove and click on the button. To quickly remove a
single variable from the list, double click on the variable name.
To apply an integer weight to your cases

SIMSTAT allows you to select a variable that will be used to weight the cases. When
SIMSTAT reads a case, the value of the weighting variable for this case is truncated to an
integer. This integer value specifies how many times the case will be duplicated. If the
value is less than 1, the case is excluded from the analysis.
To assign a variable as a weighting variable, highlight in the variable list the variable you
want to use as a weighting variable, and click on the button next to the Weight box.
To remove the weighting variable, select this variable, and click on the button next to
the Weight box.
Binomial test
The BINOMIAL TEST allows you to assess whether the observed number of cases in a
dichotomous variable is the same as that expected from a specified binomial distribution. The
dialog box allows you to specify whether the comparison will be made on the observations above
or below the mean, the median or a user-specified cutoff value, or to select observations equal to
two values. It also allows specification of the test proportion.
OPTIONS
Cutoff point - This list box allows you to specify how the values of a variable will be
dichotomized. The cutoff point used can be either the mean, the median or a user-
specified value. All observations falling below the cutoff point form one group, and all
observations equal to or above the cutoff point form the other group. The value mode
can also be used to restrict the analysis to two groups defined by distinct values.
Values - This option is used only if you have selected Value as a cutoff point. If only one
number is provided, it is used as a cutoff point. All observations falling below this value
form one group, and all observations equal to or above the cutoff point form the other
group. If two numbers are specified, cases with values equal to the first number form
one group and cases with values equal to the second number form the second group.
Providing no values allows the analysis of dichotomous variables.
Proportion - This option allows the specification of the test proportion. This value must
lie between 0 and 1.
Sample output of a binomial test analysis

BINOMIAL TEST: AGGRESS Nb of agressive behaviors
Mean = 27.5424
Proportion = .5000
Cases
37 Lt Mean Observed proportion = .6271

22 Ge Mean
-----
59
Z = 1.8226 2-tailed P = .0684

Bootstrap analysis
The BOOTSTRAP submenu gives you access to an innovative and extremely powerful statistical
technique called bootstrap simulation. This technique, developed by Efron (Efron, 1981;
Diaconis & Efron, 1983) can be used to assess various properties of statistical estimators such
as their accuracy, their sampling variability, etc. Typical applications include the computation
of nonparametric estimates of sampling distributions, the assessment of the stability of statistical
estimators, and the construction of nonparametric confidence intervals. SIMSTAT also allows
the computation of nonparametric power estimates and Type I error rates for various estimators.
The following section provides a short non-technical introduction to the bootstrap technique
followed by a description of SIMSTAT's particular implementation of bootstrapping
methodology. Potential applications for researchers, statistical consultants, and for students and
teachers of statistics are also presented. For further information about bootstrap methods and its
applications, you can read the articles of Efron and his colleagues (Diaconis & Efron, 1983;
Efron, 1981; Efron & Gong, 1983; Efron & Tibshirani, 1993). Wasserman and Bockenhold
(1989) also provide an excellent introduction to bootstrap methodology, while Stine (1989) offers
a comprehensive presentation of its potential applications.
What is bootstrap simulation ?

Bootstrap simulation is a resampling technique whereby initial sample subjects are treated as if
they constitute the population under study. By replicating those data an infinite number of times,
we then draw at random from that population a large number of samples, each the same size as
the original sample. By computing a statistical estimator of interest (such as a mean or a
correlation between two variables) for every bootstrap sample, this resampling procedure
recreates an empirical sampling distribution of this estimator.
The main advantage of such a procedure is that the sampling distribution is not mathematically
estimated but empirically reconstructed based on all the original characteristics of the data. So,
it automatically takes into account distribution properties that are generally considered as
contaminating factors, such as skewness, ceiling effects, outliers, etc. This feature makes
bootstrap estimations adequate even when data are not normally distributed. In fact,
bootstrapping can even be used to describe the sampling distribution of estimators for which
sampling properties are unknown or unavailable.
SIMSTAT implementation of bootstapping

SIMSTAT provides automatic bootstrap analysis for seven descriptive estimators of a single
variable and almost thirty estimators involving two variables. Those estimators are:
One variable estimators:

& Mean
& Median
& Variance
& Standard deviation
& Standard error
& Skewness
& Kurtosis
Two variables estimators:

& Kendall's tau-a and b
& Kendall-Stuart's tau-c
& Symmetric and asymmetric Somers’ d
& Goodman-Kruskal's gamma
& Student's t and F
& Pearson's r
& Spearman's rs
& Regression slope and intercept
& Mann-Whitney's U
& Wilcoxon's W
& Difference between means
& Difference between variances
& Sign test
& Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA
& Median test
& Percentage of agreement
& Cohen's kappa
& Scott's pi
& Krippendorf's R and r-bar
& Free marginal (nominal and ordinal levels)
The number of bootstrap samples for a single analysis can range from 10 to 100,000. The output
of a simulation analysis can consist of various results, including descriptive statistics, frequency
tables, histograms and percentile tables. The program also computes bootstrap confidence
intervals. For estimators which can be tested for significance, SIMSTAT also displays
nonparametric power estimates for up to four alpha levels. Power estimation with the bootstrap
technique is straightforward: while performing bootstrap on a given data set, the proportion of
redrawn samples that led to a statistically significant estimator (at some given alpha level) is
computed and used as a power estimate. In addition to simulation results, the program displays
the value of the seed used to initialize the random number generator. This value may then be
used to regenerate the same data at a later time, or to compare various estimators using the same
bootstrap samples.
The FULL ANALYSIS bootstrap command also offers the possibility to compute almost any
available statistical analysis on successive bootstrap samples and displays the entire results of
those analyses.
EXTENSIONS TO BOOTSTRAP
To achieve an even greater range of potential application, SIMSTAT implements two extensions
to standard bootstrap simulation.
Variable sample size

Typically a bootstrap simulation randomly draws samples the same size as the original one.
SIMSTAT offers the possibility to modify the dimension of the bootstrap samples, thus allowing
users to compare estimator distributions obtained from using different sample sizes. You can set
bootstrap simulations involving sample sizes that range from 1 to 100,000 observations.
Random sampling
Another aspect of bootstrapping is that it rests on the assumption that the original sample is
representative of the population. SIMSTAT offers a modified bootstrap sampling process that
rests on the null assumption that there is no difference or relation between variables in the
population. While in bootstrap sampling the drawing is achieved by drawing vectors of scores
for a particular subject, the RANDOM SAMPLING procedure draws individual subject scores
for each variable independently. Consequently, while a standard bootstrap simulation on a
correlation between two variables would yield coefficients that fluctuate around the correlation
that exists in the original sample, the RANDOM SAMPLING procedure would produce
correlations that vary around a null correlation. In this procedure, the proportion of redrawn
samples that lead to a statistically significant estimator at a given alpha level is used to assess the
Type I error rate.
Possible applications
We have already seen that standard bootstrap resampling can be use to obtain various measures
of sampling variability such as nonparametric confidence intervals. The ability to alter the
bootstrap sample size and to replicate the condition of the null hypothesis makes possible
numerous new applications. The following paragraphs give some examples of such applications.
Research planning - Power estimation

The possibility of comparing various estimator distributions obtained for different sample sizes
can prove useful in planning research by allowing the researcher to determine the sample size
needed to achieve a desired precision level. It can also be used for power estimation, allowing
comparison of the power attained using various estimators and/or sample sizes. Researchers thus
have an empirical basis for choosing between two different statistical strategies. In addition,
unlike standard approaches to power estimation, which rely on numerous assumptions, including
normal data distributions, bootstrap power estimates make no distribution assumptions.
Teaching Tool
As a teaching tool, bootstrap simulation would be effective in illustrating to new statistics
students concepts such as sampling theory or the central limit theorem. It would provide a
simulation of the sampling process of an experiment, allowing the students to visualize the
sampling variability of given estimators. By increasing or decreasing sample size, the student
can observe how these changes affect the variability of estimators or the statistical power of an
experiment. Additionally, bootstrap would be effective in demonstrating how outliers can affect
estimation and how data transformation can improve population estimates.
Monte Carlo investigations

Bootstrap might also be handy for the researcher interested in studying the effect of violation of
the normality assumption on some estimators by allowing the evaluation of the Type I and Type
II (statistical power) error rate of a test. While Monte Carlo simulations usually analyze data
generated by assumed mathematical functions, bootstrap simulation provides a direct assessment
of sample distributions from data supplied by the researcher. By performing simulations on data
distributions more representative of real-world data, bootstrap may be a more appropriate
evaluation of statistical robustness.
The dialog boxes of the ONE VARIABLE, TWO VARIABLES, and RANDOM SAMPLING are
very similar and have comparable options. The following section presents those options and
provides an indication when an option is specific to an analysis.
OPTIONS
RESAMPLING PAGE
Estimator - This option displays a drop down list from which you can choose a specific
measure that will be computed on each bootstrap sample. When the ONE VARIABLE
command is chosen, you can select from a list of seven estimators (see above), while the
TWO VARIABLES and the RANDOM SAMPLING command offer a choice between
28 estimators.
Values - Some estimators performed on independent samples require the specification of
two values of the grouping (independent) variable. Those two values will be used to
define two groups or will be treated as minimum and maximum values of the grouping
under consideration (Option only available for ONE VARIABLE and RANDOM
SAMPLING commands).
Number of samples - This option allows you to choose the number of times resampling
is carried out. This number can range from 10 to 100,000.
Initial seed value - SIMSTAT automatically provides a “seed” value for the random
number generator that drives the simulation analysis. Alternatively, the Initial Seed
Value option can be used to specify a seed value. To instruct SIMSTAT to randomly
choose a new seed value, click on the Shuffle button. SIMSTAT outputs the seed value
with the simulation results. This value can be used to regenerate the same data at a later
time, or to compare various estimators using the same bootstrap samples.
Same as original - When this option is enabled the size of each bootstrap sample drawn
from the original data is automatically adjusted to the size of this original sample. When
disabled, you can use the Size option to specify how large each bootstrap sample will
be. The sample size can range from 1 to 100,000 cases.
OUTPUT PAGE
Descriptive statistics - Enable this option to obtain a table of various descriptive
statistics. This table includes the following statistics: mean, standard error of the mean,
sum, mode, median, standard deviation, variance, skewness, kurtosis, minimum,
maximum, and range.
Confidence intervals - The Confidence Intervals option allows you to display the 90%,
95%, and 99% confidence intervals of the coefficient. The program also displays bias-
corrected confidence intervals that apply a correction to the interval to rectify situations
where there is too much imbalance in the proportion of bootstrap estimates falling on
each side of the observed statistic (median biased). The Width option allows you to
define a fourth interval.
Percentile table - This option displays a percentile table whereby the number of cases in
the sample is divided into equal categories. These categories indicate the percentage
of cases that fall below the corresponding value of the variable. The number of
categories computed in this table is determined in the Number option and is displayed
with the corresponding variable values. For example, if you set this option to 4, the
program will rank all valid cases, divide them into four equal groups, and then display
the values that delimit the 25th (lower quartile), 50th (median) and 75th (upper
quartile) percentiles.
Histogram - This option produces a graphic display of the distribution of a numeric
variable. When this option is activated, the program first separates the values into non-
overlapping intervals of equal width, and then plots bars that represent the relative
frequencies of each interval. The Number of bars option allows you to specify how
many bars (or intervals) to be plotted. You can also superimpose a Normal curve on
the histogram, and visually assess how close your data distribution is to normal.
Type I error rate - This option gives the proportion of samples that have reached a
specified alpha level. The standard display includes the proportions for 0.10, 0.05 and
0.01 alpha levels. The Alpha option lets you specify a fourth Alpha level (option only
available for the RANDOM SAMPLING command).
Power estimate - The Power Estimate option gives the proportion of samples that have
reached a specified alpha level. The standard display includes the proportions for 0.10,
0.05 and 0.01 alpha levels. The Alpha option lets you specify a fourth Alpha level
(only available for the TWO VARIABLES command).
Full analysis bootstrap analysis
The FULL ANALYSIS bootstrap procedure allows one to perform various statistical analyses
such as frequency analysis, crosstabulation or multiple regression on bootstrap samples. The
program provides a complete analysis for each bootstrap sample. Specific statistics can then be
extracted from the listing file with the use of a text editor and then stored in a new data file for
further analysis.
The dialog box allows you to choose which analysis to perform, the sample size and the number
of samples to be taken from the original sample. A second dialog box allows you to control how
the analysis is to be performed and what statistics are to be printed.
OPTIONS
Analysis - Choosing this option evokes a drop down list from which you can choose a
specific analysis to be performed on each bootstrap subsample.
Same as original - When this option is enabled the size of each bootstrap sample drawn
from the original data is automatically adjusted to the size of this original sample. When
disabled, you can use the Size option to specify how large each bootstrap sample will
be. The sample size can range from 1 to 100,000 cases.
Number of samples - This option allows you to choose the number of times resampling
is carried out on the data. This number can range from 1 to 32,000.
Seed - SIMSTAT automatically provides a “seed” value for the random number generator
that drives the simulation analysis. Alternatively, the Initial Seed Value option can be
used to specify a seed value. To instruct SIMSTAT to randomly choose a new seed
value, click on the Shuffle button. SIMSTAT outputs the seed value with the
simulation results. This value can be used to regenerate the same data at a later time,
or to compare various estimators using the same bootstrap samples.
Breakdown analysis
The BREAKDOWN procedure computes descriptive statistics for sub-groups of the sample. This
procedure can display a single line of statistics including the means, standard deviations,
minimum and maximum values for the dependent variable (Y) within groups defined by the
values of the independent variables (X). More detailed statistics can also be obtained for each
group and for the entire sample. The dialog box also allows you to restrict the number of groups
to a specified range and to obtain a multiple box-&-whisker plot that can be used to compare the
distribution of the independent variable among several sub-groups.
OPTIONS
Range of X - This section requests two values that will be treated as minimum and
maximum values of the grouping (or independent) variable under consideration. Each
discrete value of the independent variable that falls within this range defines a distinct
group. If those fields are left blank, all values of the independent variable will be
included.
Statistics - When set to Brief, the mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum
values, and the number of cases are displayed on a single line. To obtain additional
statistics, such as the skewness, kurtosis, mode, median, etc., set this option to Detailed.
Box-&-Whisker plot - The Box-&-Whisker Plot option allows you to obtain a multiple
box-&-whisker plot that can be used to compare the distribution of the dependent
variable among several sub-groups.
Sample output of a breakdown analysis

BREAKDOWN
HOURSTV Hours per week spent watching TV

With SIBLING Number of siblings
Variable Mean Std Dev Mimimum Maximum Cases
Entire Population 15.02 3.76 5.50 23.00 59
SIBLING .00 13.98 3.99 5.50 22.50 29

SIBLING 1.00 15.92 3.30 10.50 23.00 24
SIBLING 2.00 16.42 3.47 12.50 22.50 6
Correlations
The CORRELATION command produces a matrix of Pearson product-moment correlation
coefficients for all pairs of dependent and independent variables. You can request either exact
probabilities for the coefficients or a display of asterisks that indicate the probability levels
attained. You can also tell the program to calculate probabilities using one- (directional) or two-
tailed tests (non-directional) and to display cross-product deviation and covariance tables.
OPTIONS
Type of matrix - When set to X vs Y, the correlation matrix displays correlations between
all variables assigned as independent against all variables assigned as dependent. The
square matrix option produces a matrix displaying correlations between all selected
variables, without taking into account whether they were selected as dependent or
independent.
Confidence intervals - The confidence intervals option allows you to display confidence
intervals of the correlations. The interval Width is expressed as a percentage between
1 and 99%.
Display probabilities values - This option determines the content of the correlation
matrix. When disabled, the display includes up to 3 asterisks (*) to indicate the
significance level attained for each correlation coefficient. If you enable this option, the
program prints a matrix including the number of cases used to compute each coefficient
and the estimated probability of the correlation.
Significance test - This option specifies whether the probability of the correlations is
based on a one-tailed (directional) or two-tailed (non-directional) test.
Missing values - The Missing Values option allows you to specify whether you want to
exclude cases with missing values by either PAIRWISE or LISTWISE deletion. If you
select pairwise deletion, a case is excluded if it has a missing value on either of the two
variables used to compute a given correlation coefficient. However, this case can be
included in the computation of other coefficients. Listwise deletion excludes cases
containing missing data from the computation of all the correlations included in the
matrix.
Cross-product covariance matrix - This option displays cross-product deviation and
covariance tables for the data.
Sample output of a correlation matrix

CORRELATION MATRIX: Pearson
Variables Cases Cross-Prod Dev Variance-Covar
SEX AGE 59 -4.2712 -.0736

SEX SIBLING 59 -1.3051 -.0225
SEX HOURSTV 59 -3.5085 -.0605
SEX AGGRESS 59 -265.2712 -4.5736
AGE SIBLING 59 -4.5254 -.0780
AGE HOURSTV 59 23.9576 .4131
AGE AGGRESS 59 399.6441 6.8904
SIBLING HOURSTV 59 38.3898 .6619
SIBLING AGGRESS 59 192.4746 3.3185
HOURSTV AGGRESS 59 1054.9576 18.1889
SEX AGE SIBLING HOURSTV AGGRESS
SEX 1.0000 -.0988 -.0666 -.0319 -.5471

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .228 P= .308 P= .405 P= .000
AGE -.0988 1.0000 -.0788 .0744 .2813

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .228 P= .276 P= .288 P= .015
SIBLING -.0666 -.0788 1.0000 .2630 .2988

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .308 P= .276 P= .022 P= .011
HOURSTV -.0319 .0744 .2630 1.0000 .2921

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .405 P= .288 P= .022 P= .012
AGGRESS -.5471 .2813 .2988 .2921 1.0000

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .000 P= .015 P= .011 P= .012
(Coefficient / (Case) / Probability 1-tailed)

Crosstabs
The CROSSTAB command produces a standard contingency table for two variables where rows
represent the dependent variable values and columns represent the independent variable values.
The dialog box allows you to include various statistics in the table (count, row, column, or total
percentage, etc.) and obtain various measures of association for nominal, ordinal and interval
levels of measurement.
OPTIONS
TABLE PAGE
Contingency table - This option requests the output of a contingency table.
Sort by - Use this option to tell the program whether rows and columns of the table should
be sorted by the values of the variable or by frequency.
Type - The type option allows you to specify whether rows and columns of the contingency
table should be sorted in ascending or descending order.
Table content group - The Table Content group box allows you to request other statistics
in addition to frequencies to be included in the cells of the table. To obtain the desired
statistics, enable the corresponding check boxes:
& Row percentages
& Column percentages
& Total percentages
& Expected frequencies
& Chi-square residuals
& Standardized chi-square residuals
When performing multiple response crosstab analyses, an additional option allows you
to specify whether the percentage will be based on the total number of responses, or on
the number of respondents.
STATISTICS PAGE
The Statistics page allows you to specify which statistics should be computed on the table.
You can specify as many statistics as needed in a single analysis.
Nominal level statistics

$ Chi-Square and likelihood ratio statistics
$ Phi for 2 x 2 tables or Cramer's V for larger tables
$ Contingency coefficient
Ordinal level statistics

$ Spearman's Rho
$ Kendall's tau-b
$ Kendall-Stuart's tau-c
$ Goodman-Kruskal's gamma
$ Somers' d
Continuous or interval level statistic

$ Pearson's R
CHART PAGE
Barchart - If this option is activated, the program displays a 2 dimensions barchart that
provides a graphical presentation of the relationship between the dependent and the
independent variable.
Type - The Type option offers a choice between 4 different bivariate barcharts to display:
& In a clustered barchart, the bars representing the response frequency for each
category of the independent variable are placed side by side.
& When the overlayed barchart is chosen, the bars are displayed on a 3 axis plane
where bars representing the frequency of each category of the independent variable
are place on different rows. This chart type is available only in 3-D view. While
this kind of chart is very popular, we strongly recommend against its use, since it
is virtually impossible to determine the exact heights of the bars or compare the
heights of bars located on different rows.
& In a stacked barchart, the bars representing the frequency of each category of the
dependent variable are stacked on top of each other.
& The 100% bars type is similar to the stacked barchart in that the bars for each
category of the dependent variable are stacked on top of each other. However, like
a pie chart, each bar represents the proportion of a category of the independent
variable from the total number of observations in a specific category of the
dependent variable. This type of barchart is especially useful if you want to
compare the proportions between different categories of the dependent variables

rather than the absolute frequency.
Perspective- This option allows you to specify whether the barchart should be displayed
in 2 or 3 dimensions.
A sample output of crosstabulation analysis

CROSSTAB
SIBLING Number of siblings

by SEX Sex of the child
SIBLING->
Count
Row Pct
Col Pct
.00 1.00 2.00 Total
SEX
1.00 13 13 3 29
Male 44.8 44.8 10.3 49.2
44.8 54.2 50.0

2.00 16 11 3 30
Female 53.3 36.7 10.0 50.8
55.2 45.8 50.0

Column 29 24 6 59
Total 49.2 40.7 10.2 100.0
Chi-Square Value D.F. Significance

---------- ----- ---- ------------
Pearson .4602 2 .7945

Likelihood ratio .4608 2 .7942
Smallest expected frequency = 2.949

Cells with expected frequency less than 5 = 2 of 6 (33.3%)
Statistic Value Signifiance

--------- ----- -----------
Cramer's V .08832
Contingency Coefficient .08797
Pearson's correlation -.06661 .6162
Spearman's correlation -.07507 .5720
Kendall's Tau-b -.07240 .5675
Kendall's Tau-c -.07814 .5675
Gamma -.13333
Somers' D :
Symetric -.07219
With SIBLING dependent -.07816
With SEX dependent -.06706
Descriptives
DESCRIPTIVES immediately computes univariate descriptive statistics for any variable assigned
as a dependent or independent variable. Display includes mean, standard deviation, minimum,
and maximum values for each variable. To obtain other descriptive statistics such as the
skewness, kurtosis, mode, median, etc., use the FREQUENCY command.
Sample output of descriptive analysis

DESCRIPTIVE
Variable Mean Std Dev Minimum Maximum N Label
SEX 1.51 .50 1.00 2.00 59 Sex of the child

AGE 9.54 1.48 6.00 11.00 59 Age of the child
SIBLING .61 .67 .00 2.00 59 Number of siblings
HOURSTV 15.02 3.76 5.50 23.00 59 Hours per week spen
AGGRESS 27.54 16.58 .00 66.00 59 Nb of agressive beh
Factor analysis
EASY FACTOR ANALYSIS v3.0 performs two common types of factor analysis: Principal
components analysis and image covariance factor analysis. The program has a good selection of
features, such as variable criteria to limit factoring, varimax rotation, factor scores for both
rotated and unrotated solutions, and flexible output. The program can also handle up to 100
variables, and an extremely large number of cases. (For more detailed information on factor
analysis and the various statistics computed by EFA, see EFA user’s manual).
NOTE: EFA v3.0 is an addon module written by Dr Darren Fuerst and sold separately. To get
more information on this module or to order a copy contact Provalis Research.
OPTIONS
Type of Analysis - Sets the type of factor analysis to use. The available types are Principal
Components and Image Covariance.
Varimax Rotation - Set this option if you would like to rotate your factors using varimax
orthogonal rotation.
Number of Factors - Sets the maximum number of factors to retain in subsequent
analyses (i.e., rotation and scoring). The default is the number of variables in the data
set.
Minimum Eigenvalue - Sets the minimum permissible eigenvalue for a factor to be
retained in subsequent analyses (i.e., rotation and scoring). The number of factors to
retain and minimum eigenvalue criteria are evaluated in an either/or fashion; that is,
if either criterion is met, the number of factors retained is cut off at that point.
Descriptive statistics - If you would like means and standard deviations for your selected
variables in the output, enable this option. Note that the standard deviations printed by
EFA are unadjusted (i.e., the sum of the squared deviations is divided by n, rather than
n-1). To obtain adjusted standard deviations or more detailed descriptive statistics see
the DESCRIPTIVES or the FREQUENCY commands.
Correlation matrix - When toggled on, the correlation matrix for the variables in the data
set will be included in the output.
Scree plot - If you would like a scree plot of the eigenvalues in the output, select this
option.
Unrotated factor solution - When enabled, the results of the unrotated factor solution
will be included in the output. You can turn this off if you're running multiple analyses
on the same data and do not need to have this information repeated in the output.
Rotate factor solution - When enabled, the factors are rotated to the varimax criterion,
and the results of this analysis are included in the output. You may wish to turn this
option off during the initial analysis of a very large data set, when you're most interested
in determining the number of factors in your data, as rotation of a large number of
factors can be relatively time consuming.
Factor scoring weights - When enabled, EFA will calculate factor scores for both the
rotated and unrotated solutions. The factor scoring coefficients will be printed in the
output. By default, factor scores are not calculated, as they are not always needed, are
relatively time consuming to calculate, and are usually not calculated until a final factor
solution has been arrived at.
Display factor scores - If you would like the factor scores for your subjects to be printed
in the output, toggle this option on. Be warned that including the factor scores in the
output can increase its size dramatically.
Sample output of a factor analysis

FACTOR ANALYSIS
Easy Factor Analysis 3.0
(c) 1995 Darren Fuerst, All Rights Reserved
Analysis Parameters
-------------------
Path .\
File SIM2EFA
Analysis Type Principal Components
#Factors 10
Min Eigenvalue 1.00000
Max Iterations 30
Rotate Yes
Score Yes
Analysis Log
------------
Analysis began 5/20 1996 at 20:58:31.
The raw data file has 12 variables and 132 observations.
Correlation matrix created.
Factor extraction complete.
NOTE: Trace = 12.000, with 63.46% of the total trace extracted by 3 factors.
Varimax rotation complete.
Unrotated factor scores calculated.
Rotated factor scores calculated.
Analysis ended 5/20 1996 at 20:58:32.
Correlation Matrix
ACHIEVE INTSCREE DEVELOP SOMAT DEPRESS FAMILY
ACHIEVE 1.0000 0.3386 0.6610 -0.0296 0.0667 0.2265

INTSCREE 0.3386 1.0000 0.4172 -0.0738 0.0448 -0.0262
DEVELOP 0.6610 0.4172 1.0000 0.0126 0.1977 0.0944
SOMAT -0.0296 -0.0738 0.0126 1.0000 0.3482 0.1967
DEPRESS 0.0667 0.0448 0.1977 0.3482 1.0000 0.4195
FAMILY 0.2265 -0.0262 0.0944 0.1967 0.4195 1.0000
DELINQ 0.1275 0.0981 0.1755 0.2681 0.3936 0.2691
WITHDRAW 0.1624 0.0044 0.2336 0.1540 0.6755 0.3148
ANXIETY -0.0330 0.0476 0.1030 0.2782 0.8033 0.3570
PSYCHOSI 0.2103 0.1166 0.3907 0.3255 0.7041 0.3182
HYPERACT 0.0424 0.0004 0.0276 0.1281 0.0876 0.1538
SOCSKILL 0.1174 0.1208 0.2713 0.1700 0.6189 0.3127
DELINQ WITHDRAW ANXIETY PSYCHOSI HYPERACT SOCSKILL
ACHIEVE 0.1275 0.1624 -0.0330 0.2103 0.0424 0.1174

INTSCREE 0.0981 0.0044 0.0476 0.1166 0.0004 0.1208
DEVELOP 0.1755 0.2336 0.1030 0.3907 0.0276 0.2713
SOMAT 0.2681 0.1540 0.2782 0.3255 0.1281 0.1700
DEPRESS 0.3936 0.6755 0.8033 0.7041 0.0876 0.6189
FAMILY 0.2691 0.3148 0.3570 0.3182 0.1538 0.3127
DELINQ 1.0000 0.2230 0.2349 0.4754 0.4673 0.5694
WITHDRAW 0.2230 1.0000 0.4263 0.6047 -0.1485 0.4500
ANXIETY 0.2349 0.4263 1.0000 0.4459 -0.0036 0.3962
PSYCHOSI 0.4754 0.6047 0.4459 1.0000 0.1780 0.6615
HYPERACT 0.4673 -0.1485 -0.0036 0.1780 1.0000 0.4163
SOCSKILL 0.5694 0.4500 0.3962 0.6615 0.4163 1.0000
Unrotated Solution: Scree Plot

1
4.0+
|
|
|
|
|
E |
i |
g |
e |
n |
v | 2
a |
l | 3
u |
e |
1.0+---------------4--------------------------------
| 5 6
| 7
| 8 9
| 0 1 2
+-------------------+-------------------+--------
5 10
Factor
Unrotated Solution: Eigenvalues
Factor1 Factor2 Factor3

Eigenvalue 4.2398 1.8856 1.4895

Difference 3.4583 1.9376 0.0000
%Trace 35.3320 15.7136 12.4124
Cumulative 35.3320 51.0456 63.4580
Unrotated Solution: Factor Pattern
DEPRESS 0.8744 -0.2521 -0.2444

PSYCHOSI 0.8480 0.0205 -0.0343
SOCSKILL 0.7884 -0.0258 0.2806
WITHDRAW 0.6856 -0.0777 -0.4527
ANXIETY 0.6715 -0.3092 -0.3189
DELINQ 0.6229 -0.0167 0.5434
FAMILY 0.5343 -0.0892 -0.0131
SOMAT 0.4008 -0.3056 0.0962
ACHIEVE 0.2966 0.7815 -0.0520
DEVELOP 0.4286 0.7614 -0.0979
INTSCREE 0.1745 0.6531 -0.0199
HYPERACT 0.2780 -0.0258 0.8519
Varimax Rotation: Percentage Communalities
ACHIEVE INTSCREE DEVELOP SOMAT DEPRESS FAMILY DELINQ
70.1442 45.7394 77.3038 26.3218 88.7968 29.3585 68.3650
WITHDRAW ANXIETY PSYCHOSI HYPERACT SOCSKILL
68.0991 64.8155 72.0757 80.3728 70.1031
Varimax Rotation: Percentages of trace
29.9706 17.3131 16.1743
Varimax Rotation: Factor Pattern
DEPRESS 0.9311 0.0315 0.1412

ANXIETY 0.8015 -0.0751 -0.0066
WITHDRAW 0.7984 0.1610 -0.1327
PSYCHOSI 0.7437 0.2663 0.3111
SOCSKILL 0.5803 0.1785 0.5766
FAMILY 0.4954 0.0696 0.2081
SOMAT 0.4002 -0.1843 0.2628
DEVELOP 0.1851 0.8579 0.0523
ACHIEVE 0.0463 0.8353 0.0401
INTSCREE -0.0344 0.6750 0.0253
HYPERACT -0.0903 -0.0162 0.8918
DELINQ 0.3293 0.1176 0.7493
Unrotated Scoring Weights
ACHIEVE 0.0700 0.4145 -0.0349

INTSCREE 0.0411 0.3464 -0.0134
DEVELOP 0.1011 0.4038 -0.0657
SOMAT 0.0945 -0.1620 0.0646
DEPRESS 0.2062 -0.1337 -0.1641

FAMILY 0.1260 -0.0473 -0.0088
DELINQ 0.1469 -0.0089 0.3648
WITHDRAW 0.1617 -0.0412 -0.3039
ANXIETY 0.1584 -0.1640 -0.2141
PSYCHOSI 0.2000 0.0109 -0.0230
HYPERACT 0.0656 -0.0137 0.5720
SOCSKILL 0.1860 -0.0137 0.1884
Varimax Rotated Scoring Weights
ACHIEVE -0.0483 0.4185 -0.0208

INTSCREE -0.0617 0.3434 -0.0100
DEVELOP -0.0059 0.4198 -0.0359
SOMAT 0.1044 -0.1328 0.1040
DEPRESS 0.2840 -0.0545 -0.0608
FAMILY 0.1269 -0.0082 0.0450
DELINQ -0.0151 0.0032 0.3931
WITHDRAW 0.2736 0.0327 -0.2104
ANXIETY 0.2714 -0.0929 -0.1246
PSYCHOSI 0.1796 0.0698 0.0595
HYPERACT -0.1668 -0.0422 0.5496
SOCSKILL 0.0905 0.0246 0.2479
Frequencies
FREQUENCY performs frequency and descriptive analysis on all selected variables (dependent
or independent). The dialog box allows you to display a table with frequency counts for each
value of a variable, the percentage of the count over all cases and over valid cases only, and the
cumulative percentage over all valid cases. It allows you to obtain a bar chart, a Pareto, or a pie-
chart for numeric and string variables. When used with numeric variables, you can also obtain
percentile tables, and descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation, variance,
skewness, kurtosis, minimum, maximum, and range) for each variable as well as histograms,
box-&-whisker plots, cumulative distribution charts, and normal probability plots.
OPTIONS
ANALYSIS TAB
Frequency table - This option requests the output of a frequency table. This table
includes the frequency counts for each value of a variable, the percentage of the count
over all cases and over valid cases only, and the cumulative percentage over all valid
cases.
Sort by - Use this option to tell the program whether the frequency table should be sorted
by the values of the variable or by order of frequency.
Type - The Type option allows you to specify whether the frequency table should be sorted
in ascending or descending order.
Descriptive statistics - Use this option to obtain a table of various descriptive statistics.
This table includes the following statistics: mean, standard error of the mean, sum,
mode, median, standard deviation, variance, skewness, kurtosis, minimum, maximum,
and range.
Confidence interval - This option prints a confidence interval around the mean. The
Width option allows you to set the interval width expressed as a percentage. Its value
should lie between 1% and 99%.
Percentile table -This option displays a percentile table whereby the number of cases in
the sample is divided into equal categories. These categories indicate the percentage
of cases that fall below the corresponding value of the variable. The number of
categories computed in this table is determined in the Number option and is displayed
with the corresponding variable values. For example, if you set this option to 4, the
program will rank all valid cases, divide them into four equal groups, and then display
the values that delimit the 25th (lower quartile), 50th (median) and 75th (upper
quartile) percentiles.
CHARTS PAGE
Bar chart - If this option is activated, the program produces a bar chart that provides a
graphical representation showing the relative frequencies of every value of a variable.
Pie chart - This option displays a pie chart where the relative frequency of each value is
represented by a slice. Pie charts are appropriate when you want to compare individual
values to other values and to the whole.
Pareto chart - This option allows you to obtain a bar graph that displays the categories of
a variable, sorted in descending order of frequency, with a line chart above the bars to
represent the cumulative percentages of the cases.
Box-&-Whisker - This option allows you to obtain a box-&-whisker plot that can be used
to examine the distribution of the variable. It is especially useful to detect the presence
of outliers and asymmetry in the data distribution. The box includes values that fall
between the first and the third quartiles (about 50% of the values). The line in the
middle of the box represents the median value, while the whiskers extend to the farthest
observations within 1.5 times the interquartile range measured from the nearest
quartiles. Values that are situated further than 1.5 times the interquartile range, but
within 3 times this distance, are represented by the letter O (for outliers). Values farther
than 3 times the interquartile range from the nearest quartile are represented by the
letter X (for extreme).
Normal plot - This option displays a normal probability plot that allows you to evaluate
whether the data are normally distributed. If the data follow a normal distribution, the
data points will fall approximately along a straight line going from the lower left corner
of the graph to the upper right corner.
Cumulative distribution - This option displays a cumulative distribution of frequencies.
Histogram - The Histogram option graphically displays the distribution of a numeric
variable. When this option is activated, the program first separates the values into non-
overlapping intervals of equal width, then plots bars that represent the relative
frequencies of each interval. The Number option allows you to specify how many bars
will be plotted. You can also assess how close the distribution is to a normal
distribution by superimposing a normal curve on the histogram. To obtain such a curve,
enable the Normal curve option.
OPTIONS PAGE
Suppress table - This option allows you to suppress the printing of frequency tables and
nominal charts such as barcharts, piecharts, and Pareto charts when a variable has more
values the the supplied cut-off value.
Sample output of a frequency analysis

FREQUENCIES: AGGRESS Nb of agressive behavior
Valid Cum
Value Frequency Percent Percent Percent
.00 3 5.1 5.1 5.1

2.00 1 1.7 1.7 6.8
6.00 2 3.4 3.4 10.2
8.00 1 1.7 1.7 11.9
12.00 1 1.7 1.7 13.6
14.00 8 13.6 13.6 27.1
16.00 2 3.4 3.4 30.5
18.00 1 1.7 1.7 32.2
20.00 3 5.1 5.1 37.3
24.00 6 10.2 10.2 47.5
26.00 9 15.3 15.3 62.7
30.00 2 3.4 3.4 66.1
32.00 1 1.7 1.7 67.8
34.00 2 3.4 3.4 71.2
36.00 3 5.1 5.1 76.3
46.00 8 13.6 13.6 89.8
48.00 1 1.7 1.7 91.5
53.00 1 1.7 1.7 93.2
56.00 1 1.7 1.7 94.9
66.00 3 5.1 5.1 100.0
-------- ------- -------
TOTAL 59 100.0 100.0
Mean 28.542 Variance 274.839 Kurtosis -.244

Median 27.000 Std Dev 16.578 S.E. Kurt. .638
Mode 27.000 Std Err 2.158 Skewness .531
Minimum 1.000 Sum 1684.000 S.E. Skew. .319
Maximum 67.000 Range 66.000 Valid 59.000
95% Confidence Interval for the mean = [ 24.311 to 32.773]
Percentile Value Percentile Value Percentile Value
10.00 6.00 20.00 14.00 30.00 16.00

40.00 24.00 50.00 26.00 60.00 26.00
70.00 34.00 80.00 46.00 90.00 48.00
Friedman Test
The FRIEDMAN TEST is a procedure for testing whether two or more related samples have been
drawn from the same population. The output displays the mean rank of each variable, the
number of cases, chi-square, degrees of freedom and probability value.
Because the Friedman test is used to compare correlated samples, it does not really make a
distinction between dependent or independent variables. The Variable Selection dialog box is
used instead to specify which variables should be compared together. For example, assigning
T1DEPRESS, T2DEPRESS, and T3DEPRESS to the Independent list box and T1AGGRESS,
T2AGGRESS, and T3AGGRESS to the Dependent list box will result in two separate Friedman
tests, the first one comparing the first 3 variables, and the second one comparing the other 3.
Sample output of a Friedman two-way anova for K related samples

FRIEDMAN TWO-WAY ANOVA
Mean rank Variable
2.211 T1DEPRES
2.118 T2DEPRES
1.671 T3DEPRES
Cases Chi-sqare D.F. Significance

38 6.3289 2 .0422
GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA
GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA is a procedure which permits the researcher to examine the effects of
one or more variables on a single continuous dependent variable. This procedure provides a way
to test the equality of means in categories within a single variable or factor (main effects) as well
as categories formed by combinations of two or more variables or factors (interaction effects).
Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) allows the comparison of the effect of categorical variables
on the dependent variable while controlling for the effects of one or more quantitative variables
(covariates). SIMSTAT's implementation of analysis of variance and covariance is based on the
General Linear Model. Using a hierarchical regression analysis technique allows much greater
flexibility than standard ANOVA/ANCOVA procedures by allowing one to freely combine
quantitative and categorical factors and to statistically control for covariates which are either
categorical or quantitative. The procedure can also be used to perform standard multiple
regression problems that involve interaction terms. The GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA procedure
also handles balanced and unbalanced ANOVA designs by providing automatic adjustment for
unequal cell size. The dialog box allows you to display standard ANOVA/ANCOVA tables as
well as various outputs usually found in ANOVA/ANCOVA or multiple regression analysis.
Various adjustment methods for unequal cell sizes are provided, including a hierarchical strategy
where the user can set the order of entry of each variable in the model.
OPTIONS
ANALYSIS PAGE
Show steps - This option requests the printing of various statistics at each step of the
analysis. The information output at each step includes an ANOVA table, and a choice
of statistics such as multiple regression coefficients, regression equation for the
variables entered in the model, as well as cell adjusted means for nominal variables.
Multiple regression - This option displays the multiple regression coefficients, R square,
adjusted R square, and the probability (significance) for the whole model (omnibus
test).
Equation - When enabled, this option displays various statistics computed for the
variables included in the model, including the regression coefficient (or Bi), its standard
error and confidence limits, the standardized coefficient (or beta), whole, partial and
semi-partial correlation coefficients, F ratio and its probability. SIMSTAT generates
coded vectors to represent independent categorical variables (factors) and uses multiple
regression techniques using those vectors in order to accomplish ANOVA or ANCOVA
problems and obtain a regression equation that can be used for prediction. Effect coding
is used to create the vectors such that for each vector created, cases of one group are
assigned 1's while all other cases are assigned 0's with the exception of the cases of the
last group, which are coded as -1's. The following table illustrates the result of an effect
coding where 3 vectors (X1, X2, and X3) are created in order to represent the various
values contained in the GROUP variable.
-------------------------------------------------------
GROUP X1 X2 X3
-------------------------------------------------------
1 1 0 0
1 1 0 0
2 0 1 0
2 0 1 0
3 0 0 1
3 0 0 1
4 -1 -1 -1
4 -1 -1 -1
-------------------------------------------------------
The regression equation obtained with this method provides much useful information.
When the sample sizes are equal and there is no covariate, the intercept is equal to the
grand mean of the dependent variable. When the analysis involves unequal cell sizes,
the intercept is equal to the unweighted mean, that is, to the average of all group means.
Each coefficient associated with a coded vector represents the deviation from the grand
mean for the group associated with this vector. The predicted score of a subject is
obtained by adding to the grand mean the regression coefficient of the group to which
the subject belongs. The specific effect of the last group can be obtained by computing
the summation of all the b coefficients of the variables associated with the factor and
inverting the sign of the result (or - bk) The F and the significance value associated with
the coefficients cannot be used to specify whether there are significant differences
among the various groups but represent instead a test of the deviation of a group mean
from the grand mean. When the analysis involves more than one factor, the mean of
each cell can be obtained by substituting for each coded vector the proper code (i.e. 1,
0 or -1) in the regression equation. For instance, the predicted score of a subject with
treatment combination Ai and Bj is equal to the sum of the intercept (grand mean), the
effect of treatment i of factor A, the effect of treatment j of factor B, plus the effect
associated with the interaction between those two treatments. When a quantitative
variable (covariate) is included in the model, the predicted score can be obtained by
adding to the result the value obtained by multiplying the observed value on this
quantitative variable by its b coefficient.
Confidence interval - This option allows you to set the width of the confidence interval
for the unstandardized regression coefficients. This interval width is expressed as a
percentage and must lie between 1% and 99%.
Adjusted means - This option prints the predicted mean for each cell of all the nominal
(categorical) variables entered in the model controlling for every quantitative variable
(covariate) and/or interaction also in the model.
Test of change - This option allows the printing of a summary report of the changes in
R square at each step of the analysis.
Adjustment method - This option allows you to choose between 3 types of adjustment
for unbalanced designs. In the Regression model, all factors, covariates, and
interactions are entered simultaneously; in the Nonexperimental approach covariates
are entered first, followed by categorical factors and then by interactions; the
Hierarchical approach allows you to specify the order in which each variable will be
entered in the model. The following table shows the correspondence between those 3
methods and the terminology used by other sources:
SIMSTAT OVERALL & SPIEGEL SPSS/PC+ SAS

Regression Method 1 Regression Type III
Nonexperimental Method 2 Classic Experimental Type II
Hierarchical Method 3 Hierarchical Type I
DIAGNOSIS PAGE
Residual caseplot - This option allows the display of a casewise plot of standardized
residuals, including the predicted, obtained, and residual values for all cases. This
option is useful for identifying outliers (i.e., cases that are not well represented by the
regression model). The Outliers option allows you to restrict the residual caseplot to
those cases for which the absolute standardized value is greater than or equal to the
specified value. The Outliers value can be set between 0 and 4 standard deviations.
Durbin-Watson statistic - This option tests for the presence of autocorrelation or serial
correlation in the residuals. The larger the autocorrelation, the less reliable the results
of the analysis.
Residual scatterplot - This procedure produces a bivariate scatterplot. The predicted
value is plotted along the horizontal axis, and the standardized residuals on the vertical
axis.
Residual normal plot - This option displays a normal probability plot of residual values
that allows you to evaluate whether those residuals are normally distributed. If the
residuals follow a normal distribution, the data points will fall approximately along a
straight line going from the lower left corner of the graph to the upper right corner.
Save residuals - This option instructs SIMSTAT to save the predicted and residual
values as new variables in the current data file. Creating those variables allows you to
perform further analyses such as displaying scatterplots between each independent
variable and the predicted and residual values. The new variables are named PREDxxx
and RESIDxxx where xxx stands for a serial number between 001 and 999 that
corresponds to the number of analysis performed during a single command. This
number is automatically reset to 001 after each command. To prevent overwriting those
variables, you must rename them using the DEFINE VARIABLE command.
ORDER & INTERACTION PAGE

Type - This column allows you to specify whether the variable is nominal or quantitative.
To toggle between these two types of variables, click on the appropriate radio button at
the bottom of the grid.
Order - When a hierarchical approach is chosen (see Adjustment Method), this option
allows you to specify the sequence of entry of the variables in the model. The order for
each variable can lie between 1 and 6. All variables with the same number are entered
at the same time, while variables that have lower numbers are entered before those that
have higher numbers. Variables for which the order is set to 6 are entered at the same
time as the interaction variables. You can enter the order at the keyboard or use the spin
button located at the right edge of the grid to increase or decrease the order.
Interactions - This option allows you to specify which interactions are tested. For example,
to test for interactions between factors A and B, and factors A, B and covariate C, enter:
Interactions: AB ABC
Sample output of a GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA analysis
GLM - ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE
Dependent Variable: AGGRESS Nb of agressive behavior
Adjustment for unequal cells size: Hierarchical
*********************************** STEP 1 ***********************************
Variable(s) entered on step 1: AGE Age of the child
Multiple Regression
Multiple R = .2813 sig. of R = .0309

Multiple R Square = .0791
Adjusted R square = .0630
Analysis of Variance
Source of Variation Sum of Squares DF Mean Square F P
Variables block #1 1261.136 1 1261.136 4.897 .031

AGE 1261.136 1 1261.136 4.897 .031
Explained 1261.136 1 1261.136 4.897 .031
Residual 14679.508 57 257.535
Total 15940.644 58 274.839

Regression equation
Parameter Estimate Std Err 80% Confidence interval
Intercept -1.5700
B1 : AGE 3.1556 1.4260 1.3071 to 5.0042
Parameter Beta Correl S-Part Partial F ratio Sig F

B1 : AGE .2813 .2813 .2813 .2813 4.553 .0375
*********************************** STEP 2 ***********************************
Variable(s) entered on step 2: SEX Sex of the child

Multiple Regression

Variables block #1 1261.136 1 1261.136 8.283 .006

AGE 1261.136 1 1261.136 8.283 .006
Variables block #2 6457.207 3 2152.402 14.136 .000

SEX 4140.360 1 4140.360 27.192 .000
SIBLING 2115.276 2 1057.638 6.946 .002
Explained 7718.343 4 1929.586 12.673 .000
Residual 8222.301 54 152.265
Total 15940.644 58 274.839
Regression equation
B Std Err 80% Confidence interval
Intercept 3.8458
A1 : SEX = 1.00 8.4532 1.6211 6.3518 to 10.5546
B1 : AGE 3.0895 1.1107 1.6497 to 4.5293
C1 : SIBLING = 0.00 -7.3120 2.4352 -10.4688 to -4.1553
C2 : SIBLING = 1.00 -5.8700 2.5095 -9.1230 to -2.6170
A1 : SEX = 1.00 .5142 .5471 .5096 .5787 26.688 .0000

B1 : AGE .2754 .2813 .2719 .3540 7.594 .0080
C1 : SIBLING = 0.00 -.2955 -.2988 -.2935 -.3782 8.849 .0044
C2 : SIBLING = 1.00 -.2302 -.1612 -.2286 -.3033 5.370 .0244
Cells adjusted means (adjusted for AGE)
SEX SIBLING Adj. mean
1.0 .0 34.4681
1.0 1.0 35.9102
1.0 2.0 54.9622
2.0 .0 17.5617
2.0 1.0 19.0038
2.0 2.0 38.0558
*********************************** STEP 3 ***********************************
Interactions entered on step 3: SEX AGE
Multiple Regression

Variables block #1 1261.136 1 1261.136 8.144 .006

AGE 1261.136 1 1261.136 8.144 .006
Variables block #2 6457.207 3 2152.402 13.900 .000

SEX 4140.360 1 4140.360 26.737 .000
SIBLING 2115.276 2 1057.638 6.830 .002
2-way interactions 15.036 1 15.036 .097 .756

SEX AGE 15.036 1 15.036 .097 .756
Explained 7733.379 5 1546.676 9.988 .000
Residual 8207.265 53 154.854
Total 15940.644 58 274.839 Regression equation

Parameter B Std Err 80% Confidence interval
Intercept 4.3637
A1 : SEX = 1.00 11.8408 10.9935 -2.4103 to 26.0918
B1 : AGE 3.0424 1.1303 1.5772 to 4.5076
C1 : SIBLING = 0.00 -7.4193 2.4798 -10.6340 to -4.2047
C2 : SIBLING = 1.00 -5.7874 2.5445 -9.0859 to -2.4889
A1*B1 -.3550 1.1394 -1.8320 to 1.1219

A1 : SEX = 1.00 .7203 .5471 .1062 .1464 1.160 .2863
B1 : AGE .2712 .2813 .2653 .3468 7.245 .0095
C1 : SIBLING = 0.00 -.2998 -.2988 -.2949 -.3801 8.951 .0042
C2 : SIBLING = 1.00 -.2269 -.1612 -.2242 -.2982 5.173 .0270
A1*B1 -.2085 .5342 -.0307 -.0428 .097 .7566
Cells adjusted means (adjusted for AGE + Interactions)
SEX SIBLING Adj. mean

1.0 .0 34.4286
1.0 1.0 36.0605
1.0 2.0 55.0547
2.0 .0 17.5227
2.0 1.0 19.1546
2.0 2.0 38.1488
History of Changes in Multiple Regression
Step Variable(s) R Square Rsq Chg F Chg D.F. Prob.
1 AGE .0791 .0791 4.897 1 .0309

2 SEX SIBLING .4842 .4051 14.136 4 .0000
3 2-way interactions .4851 .0009 .097 5 .7566
Standardized residual caseplot
Case # Predicted Obtained Residual -3.0 0.0 3.0

:.........:.........:
3 32.9710 67.0000 34.0290 . . * .
4 37.2903 67.0000 29.7097 . . * .
18 32.9710 7.0000 -25.9710 . * . .
22 58.9718 27.0000 -31.9718 . * . .
:.........:.........:
Durbin-Watson test = 1.5870

Inter-raters analysis
Inter-rater agreement measures are used to assess the concordance in observed ratings of two
judges at the same point in time. Such measures can also be used to assess the reliability of the
ratings of a single judge at different points in time. The simplest measure of agreement for
nominal level variables is the proportion of concordant ratings out of the total number of ratings
made. Unfortunately, this measure often yields spuriously high values because it does not take
into account chance agreements. Several adjustment techniques have been proposed in the
literature to correct for the chance factor, three of which are available in the SIMSTAT program.
The following are the assumptions made by each of these correction techniques: free marginal
adjustment assumes either that all categories on a given scale have equal probability of being
observed, or that the judges have not based their decisions on information about the distribution
for their ratings. Scott's pi adjustment does not assume that all categories have equal probability
of being observed, but does assume that the distributions of the categories observed by the judges
are equal. Cohen's kappa adjustment does not assume that all categories have equal probability
of being observed, nor that the distribution of the categories is equal for the two judges. It does,
however, in computing the chance factor, take into account the differential tendencies of the
judges.
SIMSTAT also offers three adjustments for ordinal level variables. These are similar to the
previous measures except that they also take into account the ordinal nature of the scales by
adjusting the weights assigned to various levels of agreement. They apply the same tree model
of chance agreement used in the previous measures of nominal data. Free marginal adjustment
for ordinal level variables also assumes that all categories on a given scale have equal probability
of being observed. Krippendorf's R-bar adjustment is the ordinal extension of Scott's pi and
assumes that the distributions of the categories are equal for the two sets of ratings.
Krippendorf's r adjustment is the ordinal extension of Cohen's Kappa in that it adjusts for the
differential rating tendencies of the judges in the computation of the chance factor.
OPTIONS
TABLE PAGE
Agreement table - This option requests the output of an agreement table.
Sort by - Use this option to tell the program whether the row and columns of the table
should be sorted by the values of the variable or by frequency.
Type - The type option allows you to specify whether the rows and columns of the
agreement table should be sorted in ascending or descending order.
Table content group - The Table Content group box allows you to request other statistics
in addition to frequencies to be included in the cells of the table. You can obtain as
many of the statistics as desired by enabling the corresponding check box:
& Row percentages

& Column percentages
& Total percentages
& Expected frequencies
& Chi-square residuals
& Standardized chi-square residuals
NOTE: The expected frequencies displayed in the inter-rater agreement tables do not necessarily correspond
to the expected frequencies used in the above correction techniques. Rather, they correspond to the values
used in the computation of chi-square statistics used in contingency tables. However, those values coincide
with those used in the computation of Cohen's Kappa and Krippendorf's r.
STATISTICS PAGE
The STATISTICS page allows you to request various nominal and ordinal level measures
of agreement:
& Percentage of agreement
& Cohen's kappa
& Scott's pi
& Free marginal (nominal)
& Krippendorf's r-bar
& Krippendorf's R
& Free marginal (ordinal)
CHART PAGE
Barchart - If this option is activated, the program displays a 2 dimensional barchart that
provides a graphical presentation of the relationship between the dependent and the
independent variable.
Type - The Type option offers a choice between 4 different ways of displaying a bivariate
barchart:
& In a clustered barchart, the bars representing the frequency of each category of the
independent variable are placed side by side.
& When the overlayed barchart is chosen, the bars art is displayed in perspective on
a 3 axis plane where bars representing the frequency of each category of the
independent variable are placed on different rows. This chart type is only available
in 3-D view. While this kind of chart is very popular, we strongly recommend
against its use, since it is virtually impossible to determine the exact heights of the
bars or compare the heights of bars located on different rows.
& In a stacked barchart, the bars representing the frequency of each category of the
dependent variable are stacked on top of each other.
& The 100% bars type is similar to the stacked barchart in that the bars for each
category of the dependent variable are stacked on top of each other. However, just
like a pie chart, each bar represents the proportion of a category of the independent
variable from the total number of observations in a specific category of the
dependent variable. This type of barchart is especially useful if you want to
compare the proportions between different categories of the dependent variables
rather than the absolute frequency.
Perspective- This option allows you to specify whether the barchart should be displayed
in 2 or 3 dimensions.
A sample output of inter-raters analysis
INTER-RATERS TABLE
EVENT1J2 Level of stress - Judge #2
by EVENT1J1 Level of stress - Judge #1
EVENT1J2->
Count Low Medium High
Tot Pct
1.00 2.00 3.00 Total
EVENT1J1
1.00 24 4 28
Low 40.7 6.8 .0 47.5

2.00 22 2 24
Medium .0 37.3 3.4 40.7

3.00 1 2 4 7
High 1.7 3.4 6.8 11.9

Column 25 28 6 59
Total 42.4 47.5 10.2 100.0
INTER-RATER AGREEMENT MEASURES

Nominal level
Pct agreement = 84.7%
Cohen's Kappa = 74.3%
Scott's pi = 74.2%
Free marginals = 77.1%
Ordinal level
Krippendorf's r bar = 77.1%
Krippendorf's R = 77.1%
Free marginals = 84.7%
Item Analysis
STATITEM v1.0 performs classical item and test analysis for multichoice item questionnaires.
It computes the percentage endorsement and the item-total correlations for correct and alternate
responses. It also provides endorsement rates for various achievement levels and descriptive
statistics on the total score such the mean, median, minimum, maximum, variance, skewness,
kurtosis, etc., as well as Cronbach's alpha internal consistency and Ferguson's discrimination
index. Descriptive statistics are also computed on percent correct and item total correlations.
STATITEM is closely integrated with SIMSTAT and will perform analyses on data stored in
each file format currently supported by SIMSTAT. The key responses used to specify correct
responses may be stored in either the first record of the data file or in a key file.
NOTE: STATITEM v1.0 is an addon module sold separately. To get more information on this
module or to order a copy contact Provalis Research.
INTRODUCTION TO ITEM ANALYSIS

Usually, when one is developing a scale not all items will work as expected; Some may be
confusing to the respondent, some may not tell us what we thought they would, others may be
too easy or too hard to answer, and so on. Besides inspection and modification of wording to
eliminate jargon terms, ambiguous formulations, double-barrelled questions, negatively stated
items, etc., it is common practice to submit the items to a field test involving a sample of subjects
and to apply several statistical techniques to the results in order to identify items that are not
functioning as intended. These techniques allow one to improve the reliability and validity of
a test by identifying items that should be eliminated, substituted or revised. In doing so, item
analysis makes it possible to increase the overall quality of a scale while shortening it either by
eliminating unsatisfactory items or by removing redundant ones (i.e., items that are equivalent
to those that remain and thus provide no further information).
ASSESSING ITEM CONTRIBUTION TO INTERNAL CONSISTENCY

Because a scale is developed to measure an attribute, every question should tap an aspect of that
attribute (e.g., attitude, behavior, knowledge) and, ideally, only that attribute. Since all items
must reflect the attribute, they should share a common variance and should be related to the other
items and, consequently, to the scale as a whole. The correlation between an item and the total
score, omitting this item, can be considered as an indication of this relationship. Another desired
attribute of any scale is its reliability, expressed as the stability of the score when the same
instrument or an alternate form is administered to the same individuals. The Cronbach's alpha
represents the most common index of the overall reliability or, more precisely, the internal
consistency of a scale. The alpha coefficient is also an indicator of the scale precision and can
be viewed as the theoretical maximum value a correlation with this scale can take.
Usually, the longer the scale, the higher the value of the alpha coefficient. Consequently, we may
be tempted to always prefer a long version of a questionnaire to a shorter one. There are at least
two problems with this solution. First, it is often desirable, for practical reasons to have a shorter
test in order to reduce the administration time or cost. Second, it often occurs that some items,
while positively correlated with the scale total, may reduce the overall reliability of the scale or
may contribute only marginally to this reliability. The test developer needs to eliminate items
without greatly reducing the scale's reliability. To achieve this, he/she needs to know the specific
contribution of each item to the scale reliability index. The Alpha if item deleted represents
such a measure. As the name suggests, it represents the Cronbach's alpha value we would obtain
if the item was removed from the test. By successively eliminating items that reduce the
Cronbach's alpha, or that contribute only slightly to the reliability index of the total score, it
becomes possible to significantly reduce the number of items while maintaining an acceptable
level of reliability.
MEASURING ITEM DIFFICULTY AND DISCRIMINATION

Many scales developed by psychologists and educational researchers are designed to differentiate
among individuals at all levels of the measured construct, such as when a scale is built to
differentiate subjects according to their level of achievement or ability, either for selection or
classification purposes. Several statistics can be used to assess the discriminative quality of an
item in a questionnaire. The most well known of these statistics is the difficulty index. Any
response that is answered correctly or missed by all the examinees is useless since it will not
allow one to differentiate between individuals. The item difficulty index, obtained by computing
the percentage of subjects who responded correctly to the item, represents a crude indication of
the item's capability to discriminate between examinees. From the perspective of the latent trait
model, if we assume a perfect relationship between the ability of the examinees and the success
on an item, then an item with a difficulty index of 50% would differentiate between those subjects
who are positioned on the higher half of the ability scale from those in the lower half. In this
ideal situation, a scale with all of its items at the same difficulty level of 50% would not be
adequate since it would only differentiate between subjects in two groups and would not allow
one to differentiate further among respondents in either of these groups. It would then be
important to choose items with various levels of difficulty in order to be able to differentiate
between all levels. However, such a perfect relationship between ability level and item response
is seldom achieved, partly because items are seldom homogeneous. According to Henryssen
(1971), when the level of correspondence between the item response and ability level - as
measured by the item-total correlation - is moderate (between .30 and .40), then a scale composed
of items with difficulty levels between 40% and 60% should provide an adequate test that will
permit reliable discrimination between nearly all ability levels. If the average item-total
correlation is higher, a wider range of difficulty levels is required.
When selecting items according to their difficulty level, two additional factors should be
considered. While a mean difficulty level of 50% will usually maximize the total score variance,
this value may need to be increased to take into account the fact that, with multiple choice items,
a specific proportion of correct responses may be obtained simply by guessing. Also, the choice
of an average difficulty level should take into account the fact that the scale may be constructed
to differentiate between those at the lower or the higher ends of the scale. In such situations,
better discriminatory value will be achieved by selecting items with difficulty levels near the
desired end.
However, the percentage of correct responses is not a sufficient condition to judge the quality of
an item, since the number of correct responses should also be related to the level of the ability we
want to measure. If those who answer correctly are low on the measured ability while the
subjects with higher scores choose a wrong answer, or if the success on this item is the same for
these two groups, then there may be a problem in the item formulation or the item may be
measuring a different ability, unrelated to the one of interest. Several methods exist to assess the
relationship between level of endorsement and the measured ability. A simple method consists
of making sure that the percentage of correct responses to an item is higher for those who are
high on the measured construct than for those who are low on this construct. In the absence of
an external criterion, a second method uses the total score on all items as the discriminatory
criterion. In this situation, we simply compute the total scores on the test for each subject and
retain two distinct groups, each representing a specific proportion of the examinees (say 10, 25
or 50%) positioned at the upper and lower end of the ability scale. Once the upper and lower
groups have been composed, we can obtain an index of discrimination for an item by computing
the difference in the percentage of correct responses between the upper and the lower groups.
This index (often designated as the D index) varies from -1.0 to 1.0, a positive value indicating
that the item correctly discriminates according to the measured construct. The greater the
difference, the better the item is able to discriminate between subjects. On the other hand, a
negative value suggests a negative discrimination favoring those in the lower group, and is strong
evidence for a problematic item. Ebel (1965) suggested the elimination or complete revision of
items with a discrimination index less than .20 and the revision of those with an index value
between .20 and .30.
While the D index is easily computed and interpreted, it suffers from a major drawback. When
comparing only the two most extreme groups, much information is discarded such as the
percentage of success in intermediate groups or among the subjects within a group. STATITEM
offers several ways to examine the distribution of correct responses more closely. The program
can provide detailed information about the distribution of correct responses by breaking down
the total number of examinees into several groups (from 2 to 10) of similar size and displaying
the percentage of correct responses for these groups. It is also possible to display even more
detailed information on the success rate of an item for every value of the total score, allowing one
to assess whether the item can provide adequate discrimination of subjects all along the scale.
To simplify the examination of the relationship between the proportion of success to an item and
the total score, STATITEM also provides a graphical representation of this relationship as an
empirical item characteristic curve (also called an item-test regression curve) which displays, for
each total score level, the percentage of persons who responded correctly. This curve allows one
to examine the item's difficulty and discriminatory properties. It also provides a complete picture
of the relation between item performance and the total score. STATITEM can display an
empirical curve computed from the original scores or a smoothed version that may be used to
eliminate noise caused by percentages based on a small number of subjects.
Another common discrimination index is the point-biserial correlation between an item and
the scale total when the item is omitted. The item is removed from the total score since keeping
it would produce artificially inflated correlation coefficients. A positive value suggests that those
who answered the item correctly scored relatively high on the scale total. A negative value
indicates that those who answered the item correctly have obtained relatively low scores on the
scale total.
The biserial correlation coefficient is an index derived from the point-biserial correlation.
This coefficient assumes that the variable measured by a dichotomous item response is in fact a
continuous variable that is normally distributed. Since the reduction of a continuous variable into
a dichotomy has the effect of reducing its correlation with other variables, the computation of the
biserial correlation consists of applying a correction to the point-biserial that tries to estimate
what would have been the value of this correlation if the item had not been dichotomized. One
drawback of this correction is that the biserial correlation is no longer bounded by the -1.0 and
1.0 limits and can take values lower than -1 or higher than 1.
INAPPROPRIATE USE OF ITEM ANALYSIS

When a scale is used to assess the knowledge of individuals on a particular subject for a purpose
other than selection or discrimination, it may be inappropriate to use some of the techniques of
item selection. Examples of this situation include mastery learning or any other instructional
intervention that attempts to teach a new skill and for which achievement is measured using a
criterion-referenced test. In these situations, a test administered prior to the instructional
intervention would yield a very low percentage correct for each item and item-total correlations
near zero, reflecting the fact that examinees knew nothing about the subject matter and responded
almost randomly to the test. These items would indicate the examinees do need such training so
that discarding the items based on their low discriminatory value or their low correlation with
the total score would clearly be inappropriate. Furthermore, performing the same analysis after
a successful training would produce very high percentages of success. An item successfully
answered by a great majority of individuals would be considered to have little or discriminatory
value and would produce either a low or an indeterminate item-total correlation. Again,
discarding this item would mean the removal of a question that measures the mastery of the skill,
which is exactly what we want to assess. In this situation, using the internal consistency index
would also be inappropriate, since in the ideal situation where an instructional intervention
brings about, for all participants, perfect mastery of a skill that was nonexistent before would
mean administering a test with a Cronbach's alpha value of zero prior to the training and with
a undetermined value after the training. Yet, even in this situation, item analysis may still be
useful since information about response patterns may allow test developers to identify flawed
items (unintentional clues, misleading formulation, etc.), and ineffective or needless instruction,
or provide useful information about the kind of errors made by individuals, their misconceptions,
etc.
OPTIONS
Keys location - This option allows you to specify whether the key responses are stored
in the first record of the database or in a key file. If the key file option is selected, the
program will look in the data file directory for a file with the same file name as the data
file but with a .KEY extension. This file is a plain text file where each line contains the
name of a variable followed by the value of the correct response. If a key file is not
found or if a variable has no key response, the analysis will automatically stop (NOTE:
Even if the responses to the item have been previously dichotomized as correct or
incorrect, you still need to specify the key value for each variable by providing the value
used to represent a correct response).
Exclude case with missing - This option allows you to exclude cases containing missing
data (either system or user-missing values) from the analysis. If disabled, all missing
data will be treated as incorrect responses.
Response total correlations - This option displays, for each item in the scale, the
frequency and percentage of endorsement of each response as well as the biserial and
point biserial correlation between the response and the scale total omitting that item.
The item is removed from the total score since keeping it would produce artificially
inflated correlation coefficients. The table also includes the value the Cronbach's alpha
would take if the item was deleted from the scale as well as a discrimination index (D
index) obtained by computing the difference between the percentage of correct responses
in the highest and lowest groups. The percentage of respondents used for this index can
be set using the Hi-Low discrimination index option that can take a value between
10 and 50%. To include similar information about each alternate response, enable the
Include alternate responses option.
Item-total endorsement rate -This option allows one to obtain a matrix that displays for
each value of the scale total the percentage of cases who scored positively on each item.
Item characteristic curves - This option displays curves allowing you to examine the
relationship between the total score and the success level on an item, to compare the
difficulty level of several items, and to estimate their discriminatory value. By default,
the curves are drawn using the original scores. The Smoothed curve option may be
used to eliminate some irregularities in the curves caused by small numbers of subjects
used in the computation.
Item-total response breakdown - This option allows one to separate the whole sample
into several groups of equal size and to compare the percentage of cases who scored
positively on each item. The Number of groups specifies the number of groups to
create. This number must lie between 2 and 10. For example, setting this option to 4
will create four different groups based on the obtained total score, each group
representing 25% of the respondents. The program will then display a table that
indicates for each item of the scale the percentage of correct responses for these four
groups. A discrimination index is also computed for each item by computing the
difference in the percentage of endorsement between the groups with the highest and
the lowest scores.
Scale statistics - The Scale Statistics option displays various descriptive statistics on the
distribution of the scale total (mean, median, minimum and maximum, standard
deviation, standard error, skewness, kurtosis, etc.). The Cronbach's alpha internal
consistency statistic and the Ferguson's delta discrimination index are also computed.
This option also provides summary statistics on the percentages and on the biserial and
point biserial correlations between each correct response and the scale total.
Total score distribution - Activate this option to scrutinize the distribution of total scores
more closely.
Save scale totals - This option allows one to save the total score computed for each
subject in an ASCII data file. This data file can then be opened by SIMSTAT to
perform further analysis.
Sample output of an item analysis

ITEM ANALYSIS
Point-Bis Alpha if 25 pct

Value Freq Percent Biserial Correl Delete Hi-Low
V1 1.0 * 259 65% .43 .34 .674 62%

2.0 10 3% -.62 -.23
3.0 17 4% -.15 -.07
4.0 114 29% -.33 -.25
V2 1.0 63 16% -.18 -.12

2.0 17 4% -.41 -.18
3.0 3 1% -.78 -.19
4.0 * 317 79% .34 .24 .686 40%
V3 1.0 15 4% -.52 -.22

2.0 * 274 69% .63 .48 .653 72%
3.0 22 6% -.58 -.28
4.0 89 22% -.39 -.28
V4 1.0 14 4% -.78 -.33

2.0 3 1% -.61 -.15
3.0 * 378 95% .86 .42 .673 22%
4.0 5 1% -.72 -.21
V5 1.0 * 364 91% .47 .27 .683 24%

3.0 31 8% -.37 -.20
4.0 5 1% -.69 -.20
V6 1.0 8 2% -.19 -.06

2.0 2 1% .03 .01
3.0 1 0% .15 .02
4.0 * 389 97% .12 .05 .697 4%
ITEM-TOTAL RESPONSE RATE
TOTAL 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
FREQUENCY 2 1 6 4 15 20 28 41 47 54 61
V1 50% 0% 33% 50% 20% 25% 39% 34% 45% 72% 80%
V2 0% 100% 50% 25% 53% 55% 54% 76% 77% 78% 85%
V3 0% 0% 0% 0% 20% 15% 29% 51% 62% 74% 85%
V4 50% 0% 17% 25% 53% 95% 86% 100% 100% 100% 100%
V5 0% 0% 83% 50% 60% 75% 86% 85% 96% 93% 97%
V6 100% 0% 83% 100% 93% 100% 100% 98% 96% 96% 95%
TOTAL 17 18
FREQUENCY 60 61
V1 85% 100%
V2 93% 100%
V3 95% 100%
V4 100% 100%
V5 98% 100%
V6 100% 100%
ITEM CHARACTERISTIC CURVES (Smoothed)
V1 V2 V3
100 100 100
50 ............ ....... 50 ...... ............ 50 .......... .........
0 0 0

6 18 6 18 6 18
V4 V5 V6
100 100 100
50 .... ............... 50 . .................. 50 ....................
0 0 0

6 18 6 18 6 18
ITEM-TOTAL RESPONSE BREAKDOWN (25% of respondents in each group)
C25 C50 C75 C100 HI-LOW
V1 32% 53% 80% 94% 62%

V2 57% 77% 86% 97% 40%
V3 26% 64% 85% 98% 72%
V4 78% 100% 100% 100% 22%
V5 75% 93% 96% 99% 24%
V6 96% 96% 96% 100% 4%
SCALE STATISTICS
Total score Percentage Biserial Item-Total
Mean 14.76 82.0 .45 .28
Median 15.00 85.8 .45 .28
Minimum 6.00 48.0 -.03 -.02
Maximum 18.00 97.3 .86 .48
Variance 6.62 206.7 .04 .01
Std. Dev. 2.57 14.4 .19 .12
Skewness -.745
S.E. Skewness .122
Kurtosis .104
S.E. Kurtosis .245
Nb of cases 400
Nb of items 18
Cronbach's Alpha .694

Ferguson's Delta .928
TOTAL SCORE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

Cumul Cumul
Value Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
6 2 .5 2 .5
7 1 .3 3 .8
8 6 1.5 9 2.3
9 4 1.0 13 3.3
10 15 3.8 28 7.0
11 20 5.0 48 12.0
12 28 7.0 76 19.0
13 41 10.3 117 29.3
14 47 11.8 164 41.0
15 54 13.5 218 54.5
16 61 15.3 279 69.8
17 60 15.0 339 84.8
18 61 15.3 400 100.0
-------- -------- -------- --------
TOTAL 400 100.0 400 100.0 0 100
Kolmogorov-Smirnov 1 Sample Test

The KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV one-sample test compares the distribution of each variable
against a standard normal distribution or a uniform distribution. It tests whether the sample data
can reasonably be thought to have come from a population having this distribution. The output
displays the largest absolute positive and negative differences between the two distributions,
Kolmogorov-Smirnov's Z, and the two-tailed probability test.
OPTIONS
Distribution - This option allows you to choose between distribution types: normal or
uniform.
Mean - Standard Deviation - These options allow you to specify the mean and the
standard deviation of the hypothetical normal distribution. If no value is given, the
observed mean and standard deviation are used.
Minimum - Maximum - These options allow you to specify the minimum and the
maximum values of the hypothetical uniform distribution. If no values are given, the
observed minimum and maximum are used.
Sample output of a Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test

KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV GOODNESS OF FIT TEST: AGGRESS Nb of agressive behavior
Type of Distribution: Normal Mean: 27.542 Std Dev: 16.578
Most Extreme Differences

Absolute Positive Negative K-S Z 2-tailed P
.16418 .16418 -.10451 1.261 .083
Kolmogorov-Smirnov 2 Samples Test

The KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV two-samples test evaluates whether a variable has the same
distribution in two independent samples as defined by a grouping variable. This test is sensitive
to differences in the shape, location, and scale of the two sample distributions. The output
displays the count in each group, the largest absolute, positive, and negative differences between
the two groups, Kolmogorov-Smirnov's Z, and the two-tailed probability for each variable.
OPTIONS
Values of x - This option requires two independent variable values. The cases that match
the first value on the independent variable form one group and the cases that match the
second value form the second group. The order in which values are specified determines
which difference is the largest positive and which is the largest negative.
Sample output of a Kolmogorov-Smirnov two samples test

KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV TWO SAMPLES TEST
AGGRESS Nb of agressive behavior

With SEX Sex of the child
Cases
29 SEX = 1.00
30 SEX = 2.00
-----
59 Total
Most Extreme Differences

Absolute Positive Negative K-S Z 2-tailed P
.72989 .00000 -.72989 2.803 .000
Kruskal-Wallis
The KRUSKAL-WALLIS one-way analysis of variance by ranks is a procedure for testing
whether k groups have been drawn from the same population. This test is a nonparametric
version of the ONEWAY analysis of variance. The output displays the number of valid cases,
the mean rank of the variable in each group, chi-square and its probability with a correction for
ties.
OPTION
Range of x - This option requests two values that will be treated as minimum and
group.
Sample output of a Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks

KRUSKAL-WALLIS 1-WAY ANOVA

by SIBLING Number of siblings
Mean Rank Cases
26.45 29 SIBLING = .00

30.33 24 SIBLING = 1.00
45.83 6 SIBLING = 2.00
---
59 Total
Corrected for Ties

CASES Chi-Square Significance Chi-Square Significance
59 6.3480 .0418 6.4123 .0405
Listing cases
LIST CASES displays a listing of the values of the selected dependent and independent variables.
OPTION
List all cases - Check this box if you want to display all currently selected cases.
Number of cases - When the List All Cases option is disabled, this option allows you to
specify how many cases to include in the listing.
Sample output of list cases

LISTING OF DATA (N = 10)
1 1.00 6.00 .00 12.00 16.00

2 1.00 11.00 .00 11.50 46.00
3 1.00 9.00 .00 21.00 66.00
4 1.00 10.00 1.00 16.50 66.00
5 1.00 10.00 1.00 17.50 26.00
6 1.00 10.00 .00 15.50 26.00
7 2.00 10.00 2.00 22.50 53.00
8 1.00 11.00 1.00 15.50 46.00
9 1.00 9.00 1.00 14.00 56.00
10 1.00 9.00 .00 16.00 26.00
Logistic regression
The LOGISTIC REGRESSION command fits a multiple logistic regression model on a binary
response variable with one or several explanatory variables. Output includes the likelihood ratio
statistic for overall significance, parameter estimates, exponentiated parameter estimates (which
are the odds ratios corresponding to a unit change in the independent variables), Wald statistics
for assessing the effects of independent variables, and confidence intervals for the regression
parameters (For more detailed information about logistic regression and the statistics computed,
see the LOGISTIC user’s manual).
NOTE: LOGISTIC v3.11Ef is a shareware program written by Dr Gerard E. Dallal. You can
obtain a copy of the program on any Internet SIMTEL FTP site such as oak.oakland.edu or by
writing to:
Gerard E. Dallal
54 High Plain Road
Andover, MA 01810
USA
OPTIONS
Value for success and Value for failure - These two options allow you to specify legal
values of the binary response. By default those values are set to 0 and 1.
Constant - This option specifies whether or not to include a constant in the model.
Interaction - This option allows to you specify which interactions should be included in
the model. Variables are designated by a single uppercase letter and are grouped
together by an * character. Multiple interactions may be specified on the same line. For
instance the following expression: A*C A*B*C designate a two-way interaction
between the first and the third variables on the list, and a three way interaction between
the first three variables.
Classification table - When enabled, this option constructs a classification table (observed
response vs. P(observed response = 1), with probabilities, grouped in tenths, determined
from the fitted regression model) to aid in assessing the adequacy of the fitted model.
If 3 or more rows have positive totals, a Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistic
(Hosmer and Lemeshow, 1989, sec. 5.2.2) is computed along with its P-value.
Likelihood ratio - This option allows you to display the likelihood ratio statistics for the
significance of each variable. They can be used as a check on the corresponding Wald
statistics, which Hauck and Donner (1977) have shown to be misleading sometimes.
This option was implemented as a separate command because of the work it generates:
a different model must be fitted (iteratively!) to assess the effect of each variable. This
option is not available when the model contains interactions.
Confidence interval - This option specifies the width of the confidence intervals for the
coefficients.
Tolerance - This option specifies the convergence criterion. Iterations cease when the
largest relative change in any coefficient between successive iterations is smaller than
the specified tolerance. The maximum number of iterations is set at 50, and cannot be
altered.
Mann-Whitney U test
The MANN-WHITNEY U test evaluates the hypothesis that two independent samples have the
same distribution. The Mann-Whitney U is the nonparametric version of the t-test for
independent samples. This test is performed on the dependent variable divided into two groups
as defined by values of the independent (grouping) variable.
OPTIONS
Values of x - This option requires two independent variable values. The cases that match
the first value on the independent variable form one group and the cases that match the
second value form the second group.
Direction - This option allows you to select either a one-tailed (directional) or two-tailed
(non-directional) probability test.
Sample output of a Mann-Whitney U - Wilcoxon rank sum W test analysis

MANN-WHITNEY U - WILCOXON RANK SUM W TEST

Mean Rank Cases
40.48 29 SEX = 1.00

19.87 30 SEX = 2.00
---
59 Total
EXACT Corrected for ties

U W 1-tailed P Z 1-tailed P
131.0 1174.0 .0000 -4.6325 .0000
McNemar test
The McNEMAR TEST is a procedure applied to a pair of correlated dichotomous variables to
test whether there is a significant difference in proportions of subjects that change from one
category to another at two different points in time, or in response to two different conditions.
A binomial test is used to compute the significance level when the total number of changes is less
than 10. Otherwise, a chi-square statistic with the Yates correction for continuity is used.
OPTIONS
Values - This option allows you to specify the two values for both the independent and
dependent variables. For each variable, the cases that match the first value are assigned
to one condition and the cases that match the second value are assigned to the second
condition. A 2 x 2 contingency table is then constructed and a significance test is
computed for cases that are in different conditions.
Direction - This option specifies whether the probability of the significance test is based
on a one- or two-tailed test.
Sample output of McNemar test

McNEMAR TEST: VAR2 With VAR1
VAR2
2 1

1 9 5
VAR1
2 3 7

Chi = .063 2 tailed probability = .8026
Median test
The MEDIAN TEST is a procedure for testing whether two or more independent groups differ
in central tendencies. It tests the likelihood that those groups were drawn from populations with
the same median.
The output displays the number of cases greater than, the number of cases less than, and the
number of cases equal to the median for each category of the grouping variable. Also displayed
are the median, chi-square, degrees of freedom and probability value.
OPTIONS
Type - The Type option allows you to choose between a design including 2 samples, or an
extended version that tests for more than 2.
Values of x - You must enter two values in the Values of X option. If the design chosen
is a 2 samples test, then two groups are formed using the two values. If the extended
test is chosen, then every value in the range defined by the two values forms a group.
A test is then performed on all groups.
Sample output of a median test

MEDIAN TEST

With SIBLING Number of siblings
Gt Median Le Median
SIBLING = .00 7 22
SIBLING = 1.00 11 13
SIBLING = 2.00 4 2
Cases Median Chi-square D.F. Signifiance

59 26.000 5.1086 2 .0777
Moses test of extreme reactions

The MOSES TEST of extreme reactions tests whether the range of an ordinal variable is the
same in a control group as in a comparison group, as defined by a grouping variable. The output
includes counts for both groups, number of outliers removed, the span of the control group before
and after outliers are removed, and one-tailed probability of the span with and without outliers.
OPTIONS
Values of x - This option requires two independent variable values. The first value of the
independent variable defines the control group, and the second value defines the
comparison group.
Outliers to remove - This option allows you to determine the percentage of extremes
cases to be excluded from the analysis. If this field is left blank, 5% of the cases are
trimmed from each end of the range of the control group to remove outliers.
Sample output of a Moses test of extreme reactions analysis

MOSES TEST OF EXTREME REACTIONS
HOURSTV Hours per week spent watching TV

Cases
(CONTROL) 29 SEX = 1.00

(EXPERIMENTAL) 30 SEX = 2.00
-----
59 Total
1-tailed P Span of Control Group

.0293 52 Observed
.1633 50 After removing 1 Outlier(s) from each end
Multiple regression
Multiple regression analysis is a statistical technique that allows you to assess the relationship
between one dependent (Y) variable and several independent variables (also called predictors).
For example, you may want to predict the aggressiveness of children from several independent
variables such as gender, age, number of siblings and the time spent watching TV. The
technique can be used to analyze how various combinations of independent variables correlate
with one anothers as well as with the dependent variable.
Multiple regression is an extension of bivariate regression. The result of regression is an
equation that represents the prediction of the dependent variable from several independent
variables. The regression equation takes the following form:
Y' = A + B1X1 + B2X2 + ... + BkXk
where Y' is the predicted value of the dependent variable, A is the intercept (the value of Y when
all values of the independent variables are zero), X represents the observed value of the
independent variables (or predictors) and B is the coefficient assigned to each of the independent
variables. The goal of the regression technique is to find the values of all B that produce
prediction scores that most closely fit the actual values of Y.
SIMSTAT provides three broad classes of multiple regression: standard regression, hierarchical
regression and statistical (stepwise) regression. Each class differs in the way the independent
variables are selected to be included in the equation.
Standard Multiple Regression

In standard regression, all independent variables are entered into the regression equation at the
same time. In this type of regression, some independent variables may be entered in the model
even if their simple correlation with the dependent variable is negligible. It is also possible that
some variables with initial high correlation with the dependent variable are entered, but since
they are also highly correlated with other predictors, their unique contribution to the prediction
of the dependent variable becomes very low.
Hierarchical Multiple Regression

The hierarchical multiple regression model allows you to specify the order in which the
independent variables will be entered in the equation. The variables can be enter one variable
at a time or in sets of variables. At each step, information can be generated about the degree to
which this new variable or set of variables adds to the prediction of the dependent variable. The
order of entry of variables is chosen according to theoretical or logical considerations such as the
theoretical importance, causal precedence or elimination of 'nuisance'.
Statistical Regression
In the statistical regression model, the independent variables are entered in the equation
according solely to some statistical criteria obtained from the current sample. SIMSTAT
provides three versions of statistical regression: forward selection, backward deletion, and
stepwise selection. When forward selection is used, the variable that shows the largest
correlation (positive or negative) with the dependent variable is entered in the equation provided
that it meets a specified statistical criterion of significance. Then, a comparison is made between
all the remaining variables to select the one that contributes the most to a significant increase in
prediction. Forward selection continues until there are no other variables that meet the entry
criterion. In backward deletion, all variables are entered initially. Then, variables that do not
meet the statistical criterion are sequentially removed. Stepwise selection is a combination of the
forward and backward procedures. With this procedure, a variable is selected to be entered in
the equation in the same manner as with forward selection, but after each entry of a new variable,
each variable already in the equations is examined so that if it no longer contributes significantly
to the regression, it is removed. The criteria used to enter or remove a variable from the equation
can be specified by the user.
Much controversy surrounds the use of this type of multiple regression. One of the criticisms of
this technique is that it capitalizes on chance and thus offers a solution that often overfits the
sample data and cannot be generalized to the population or even be replicated on another sample.
In a sense, the solution obtained from the sample may be very unstable.
The reason that those procedures have been included here is that there remain some rare
situations in which these techniques are needed, such as when one wants to select a limited
number of variables among a set of good predictors (mainly for practical reasons). In the author's
opinion, hierarchical regression is probably the most highly recommended procedure. However,
this procedure requires clarification of the logic and theory behind the data collection.
OPTIONS
ANALYSIS PAGE
Method - The Method list box option allows you choose among 5 different strategies of
multiple regression: Hierarchical entry, forward selection, backward deletion, stepwise
selection, and standard regression.
Show steps - This option requests the printing of various statistics at each step of the
regression. The information output at each step can include an ANOVA table, a test for
change, and various statistics for the variables in the equation and for those not yet in
the equation.
ANOVA table - The ANOVA Table option allows printing of an ANOVA table that
includes regression analysis and residual sum of squares, mean square, F and probability
value associated with F.
Test of change - This option allows printing an ANOVA table that tests whether the new
variable(s) in the model significantly increase R square above the R squared predicted
with the variables already in the equation. The table includes the resultant R squared,
the R squared change, the sum of squares, the F ratio and its probability value.
Variables in the equation - This option displays various statistics computed on the
variables in the equation including each unstandardized regression coefficient (or Bi),
its standard error and confidence limits, the standardized coefficient (or beta), whole,
partial and semi-partial correlation coefficients, tolerance level, F ratio and its
probability.
Variables not in the equation - This option displays the tolerance level, the F ratio and
its probability for each variable not yet in the equation.
History - When the History option is activated a summary report of the changes in R
squared at each step of the regression is printed.
Summary ANOVA - This option allows the printing of a detailed ANOVA table that
includes the mean square, the sum of squares, the F ratio and its probability for each
variable or set of variables in the equation.
Confidence interval - This option allows you to set the width of the confidence interval
for the unstandardized regression coefficients. This interval is expressed as a
percentage and must lie between 1% and 99%.
DIAGNOSIS PAGE
Residual caseplot - This option allows the output of a casewise plot of standardized
residuals, including the predicted, obtained, and residual values for all cases. This
option is useful for identifying outliers (i.e., cases that are not well represented by the
regression model). The Outliers option allows you to restrict the residual caseplot to
those cases for which the absolute standardized value is greater than or equal to the
specified value. The Outliers value can be set to between 0 and 4 standard deviations.
of the analysis.
Residual scatterplot - This procedure produces a bivariate scatterplot. The predicted
value is plotted along the horizontal axis, and the standardized residuals along the
vertical axis.
Residual normal plot - This option displays a normal probability plot of residual values
that allows you to evaluate whether those residuals are normally distributed. If the
residuals follow a normal distribution, the data points will fall approximately along a
straight line going from the lower left corner of the graph to the upper right corner.
Save residuals - This option instructs SIMSTAT to save the predicted and residual
values as new variables in the current data file. Creating those variables allows you to
perform further analyses on them such as displaying scatterplots between each
independent variable and the predicted and residual values. The new variables are
named PREDxxx and RESIDxxx where xxx stands for a serial number between 001 and
999 that corresponds to the number of regression analyses performed during a single
command. This number is automatically reset to 001 after each command. To prevent
overwriting those variables, you must rename them using the DEFINE VARIABLE
command.
CRITERIA PAGE
P to enter - P to remove - The P to Enter and P to Remove fields allow you to set
criteria to be used in statistical regression techniques (i.e. stepwise, forward and
backward methods). A variable will be entered in the model if its probability is less
than the P to Enter criteria, while a variable in the equation that has a probability above
the P to Remove criteria will be removed from the model. The P to Remove should
always be greater than the P to Enter value.
Tolerance - The Tolerance criterion is used to prevent the inclusion of a variable that
would produce multicollinearity in the equation. This measure is the proportion of
variance of the variable not explained by the other independent variables already in the
equation (or 1 - R2). In order to be entered or to remain in the equation, a variable must
pass this tolerance test. To disable this function, set the criterion value to zero.
ORDER PAGE
When a hierarchical multiple regression method is chosen, the dialog box displays an Order
tab with a grid that lets you specify the order of entry of each independent variable in the in
the regression model. The order number can lie between 1 and 20. All variables with the
same number are entered at the same time, while variables that have lower numbers are
entered before those that have higher numbers. Variables with identical order numbers will
be entered simultaneously. You can enter the order by using the keyboard or the spin button
located at the right edge of the grid. At each step, information can be generated about the
degree to which a new variable or set of variables explains variance in the dependent
variable.
Sample output of a hierarchical multiple regression

MULTIPLE REGRESSION
Dependent Variable: AGGRESS Nb of agressive behavior
Method: Hierarchical entry

********************************* STEP 1 ***********************************
Variable(s) entered on Step 1 SEX Sex of the child

AGE Age of the child

Significance test for change

Sum of F F
Source D.F. Squares Rsq Chg Ratio Prob.
New variable(s) 3 6885.2089 .4319 13.940 .0000
Regression 3 6885.2089
Residual 55 9055.4351
Multiple Regression
Sum of Mean F F
Source D.F. Squares Squares Ratio Prob.
Regression 3 6885.2089 2295.0696 13.940 .0000

Residual 55 9055.4351 164.6443
Equation: AGGRESS = 21.9872 + (-16.5393 * SEX) + (2.8501 * AGE)

+ (7.0595 * SIBLING)
Variables in the equation
Variable B SE B 80% confidence interval Tolerance
Intercept 21.9872
SEX -16.5393 3.3674 -20.9045 to -12.1741 .9847
AGE 2.8501 1.1501 1.3593 to 4.3410 .9829
SIBLING 7.0595 2.5298 3.7802 to 10.3389 .9882
Variable Beta SE Beta Correl S-Part Partial F Sig F
SEX -.5030 .1024 -.5471 .4992 -.5522 24.124 .0000

AGE .2540 .1025 .2813 .2519 .3169 6.141 .0163
SIBLING .2853 .1022 .2988 .2836 .3522 7.787 .0072
Variables not in the equation
Variable F Sig F
HOURSTV 3.650 .0613

********************************** STEP 2 **********************************
Variable(s) entered on Step 2 HOURSTV Hours per week spent watching TV
Significance test for change
Sum of F F
Source D.F. Squares Rsq Chg Ratio Prob.
New variable(s) 1 573.2781 .0360 3.650 .0614
Regression 4 7458.4870
Residual 54 8482.1570
Multiple Regression

Sum of Mean F F
Regression 4 7458.4870 1864.6218 11.871 .0000

Residual 54 8482.1570 157.0770
Equation: AGGRESS = 11.6725 + (-16.5099 * SEX) + (2.6390 * AGE)

+ (5.7389 * SIBLING) + (.8717 * HOURSTV)
Variables in the equation
Variable B SE B 80% confidence interval Tolerance
Intercept 11.6725
SEX -16.5099 3.2892 -20.7737 to -12.2462 .9846
AGE 2.6390 1.1288 1.1758 to 4.1022 .9735
SIBLING 5.7389 2.5658 2.4127 to 9.0650 .9165
HOURSTV .8717 .4563 .2802 to 1.4632 .9217
Variable Beta SE Beta Correl S-Part Partial F Sig F
SEX -.5021 .1000 -.5471 .4983 -.5640 25.195 .0000

AGE .2352 .1006 .2813 .2321 .3032 5.466 .0231
SIBLING .2319 .1037 .2988 .2220 .2912 5.003 .0295
HOURSTV .1975 .1034 .2921 .1896 .2516 3.650 .0614
Summary Analysis of Variance
Sum of Mean F F
BLOCK #1 3 6098.7331 2032.9110 12.942 .0000

HOURSTV 1 573.2781 573.2781 3.650 .0614
Explained 4 7458.4870 1864.6218 11.871 .0000
Residual 54 8482.1570 157.0770
Total 58 15940.6441 274.8387
Summary tests for change
Step Variable(s) R Square Rsq Chg F Chg D.F. Prob.
1 + SEX,AGE,SIBLING .4319 .4319 13.940 3,55 .0000

2 + HOURSTV .4679 .0360 3.650 1,54 .0614
Standardized residual caseplot

:.........:.........:
:.........:.........:

Multiple responses analyses

The MULTIPLE RESPONSE procedure allows you to obtain descriptive analyses and
crosstabulation analyses on variables which can legitimately have more than one response. These
multiple responses are stored in as many variables as necessary.
Suppose you conduct a survey on the brand of cereal that peoples ate for breakfast in the previous
week, allowing respondents to give up to 3 brands of cereal. One way to code this information
in a data file would be to create as many variables as there are brands of cereal and record for
each of those variables whether the respondent ate that particular brand or not. Another way
would be to create 3 variables corresponding to the maximum number of responses and to enter
a code corresponding to each brand of cereal. One problem with this type of coding is that in
order to obtain a simple frequency analysis you would have to perform 3 different frequency
analyses and compute the total frequency by manually aggregating those 3 tables. The difficulties
increase if you choose to perform a crosstabulation of this variable with another one.
The MULTIPLE RESPONSES procedure allows you to easily obtain frequency and
crosstabulation analyses by treating responses stored in several variables as if they were stored
in a single variable. The dependent (X) and independent variable (Y) designations (see Choose
X & Y command) are used to gather all the variables together.
OPTIONS
Independent/dependent variables as multiple responses - These two options allow

you to specify which type of variable is to be treated as multiple responses.
Pressing the OK button accesses a second dialog box that allows you to alter any options
normally available in the standard FREQUENCY, CROSSTAB or INTER-RATERS
analysis.
Sample output of Multiple responses frequencies
MULTIPLE RESPONSE FREQUENCIES: NBREST1 Nb of meals in restaurants this week
NBREST2 Nb of meals in restaurants last week
Valid Valid
Pct of Pct of Pct of Pct of
Value Frequency Responses Cases Responses Cases
None 0 29 24.6 49.2 24.6 49.2
1 53 44.9 89.8 44.9 89.8
2 36 30.5 61.0 30.5 61.0
-------- ------- ------- ------- -------
TOTAL 118 100.0 200.0 100.0 200.0
Mean 1.059 Variance .552 Kurtosis -1.169
Median 1.000 Std Dev .743 S.E. Kurt. .451
Mode 1.000 Std Err .068 Skewness -.096
Minimum .000 Sum 125.000 S.E. Skew. .225
Maximum 2.000 Range 2.000 Valid 118.000
95% Confidence Interval for the mean = [ .9253 to 1.1934]
Sample output of a multiple responses crosstab analysis

MULTIPLE RESPONSE CROSSTAB: DAY Day of the week
by NBREST1 Nb of meals in restaurant this week

NBREST2 Nb of meals in restaurant last week
NBREST1 NBREST2 ->

Count
Tot Pct
Subject Tot Pct
.00 1.00 2.00 Total
DAYS
1 1 4 3 8
.8 3.4 2.5 6.8
1.7 6.8 5.1

2 3 1 4
.0 2.5 .8 3.4
.0 5.1 1.7

3 3 2 7 12
2.5 1.7 5.9 10.2
5.1 3.4 11.9

4 10 11 5 26
8.5 9.3 4.2 22.0
16.9 18.6 8.5

5 7 11 10 28
5.9 9.3 8.5 23.7
11.9 18.6 16.9

6 8 22 10 40
6.8 18.6 8.5 33.9
13.6 37.3 16.9

Column 29 53 36 118
Total 24.6 44.9 30.5 100.0
Nonparametric matrix
The NPAR MATRIX displays a matrix for various measures of association and concordance
between two variables.
OPTIONS
Estimator - The ESTIMATOR option allows you to choose from a drop down list which
measures of association are to be computed and displayed in an association matrix.
SIMSTAT currently supports the following measures:
& Kendall's tau-a
& Kendall's tau-b
& Kendall-Stuart's tau-c
& Somers' d (symmetric)
& Somers' dxy (asymmetric)
& Somers' dyx (asymmetric)
& Goodman-Kruskal's gamma
& Spearman's rs
& Pearson's r
Type of matrix - When set to X vs Y, the association matrix displays relationships

between all variables assigned as independent against all variables assigned as
dependent. The square matrix option produces a matrix displaying relationships
between all selected variables, without taking into account whether they were selected
as dependent or independent.
Display probability value - When this option is enabled, SIMSTAT outputs an
association matrix with counts and exact probabilities for each coefficient. When
disabled, asterisks are used to show the probability level attained. The standard matrix
includes the chosen coefficient with up to 3 asterisks (*) corresponding to the
significance level attained.
Significance test - This option allows you to specify whether the probability of the
coefficients is based on a one-tailed (directional) or two-tailed (non-directional) test.
Missing values - This option allows you to specify whether you want to exclude cases with
missing values by either PAIRWISE or LISTWISE deletion. If you select pairwise
deletion, a case is excluded if it has a missing value on either of the two variables used
to compute a given coefficient. However, this case can be included in the computation
of the other coefficients. Listwise deletion excludes cases containing missing data from
the computation of all the measures included in the matrix.
Sample output of a nonparametric association matrix (tau-c)

ASSOCIATION MATRIX: Kendall-Stuart's Tau-c
SEX .9997 -.1023 -.0781 -.0046 -.6986

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .000 P= .243 P= .284 P= .488 P= .000
AGE -.1023 .9170 .0095 .0889 .1930

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .243 P= .000 P= .467 P= .191 P= .028
SIBLING -.0781 .0095 .8739 .2646 .2439

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .284 P= .467 P= .000 P= .013 P= .019
HOURSTV -.0046 .0889 .2646 .9809 .1518

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .488 P= .191 P= .013 P= .000 P= .049
AGGRESS -.6986 .1930 .2439 .1518 .9604

( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59) ( 59)
P= .000 P= .028 P= .019 P= .049 P= .000
(Coefficient / (Case) / Probability 1-tailed)

One sample chi-square test

The ONE SAMPLE CHI-SQUARE TEST allows you to assess whether there is a difference
between the observed number of cases in various categories and the expected frequencies in those
same categories. The dialog box allows you to restrict the test to specific values and to specify
the expected frequencies.
OPTIONS
Values - This option allows you to specify the values that define the various categories.
For example, if you enter the following string:
1 1.5 2 3
the analysis will be restricted to the cases with values equal to one of these four
categories. This option can also be used to include categories for which there are no
cases. If you leave this field blank, all distinct values encountered in the variable will
form a separate category.
Frequency - This option allows the specification of the distribution against which the
sample will be tested. All values (expected frequencies, percentages or proportions) are
transformed into relative frequencies. The number of values provided in this field must
match the number of categories in the values field or in the data file. If this option is
left blank, equal frequencies are assumed for all categories.
Sample output of one sample chi-square analysis

CHI-SQUARE TEST: SIBLING Number of siblings
Value Frequency Expected
.00 29 19.67
1.00 24 19.67
2.00 6 19.67
Chi-Square = 14.881 D.F. = 2 P = .0000

Oneway ANOVA
The ONEWAY ANOVA procedure performs a one-way analysis of variance for a dependent
variable on groups defined by a categorical independent variable. It allows testing whether the
means of the groups (2 or more) are significantly different from each other.
ONEWAY produces a table including: between- and within-groups sums of squares, mean
squares, degrees of freedom, F-ratio and its associated probability. You can also obtain for each
group, descriptive statistics including count, mean, standard deviation, standard error and a user-
specified confidence interval for the mean.
OPTIONS
Range of x - This option requests two values that will be treated as the minimum and
group. If those fields are left blank, all values or the independent variable will be
included. An ANOVA test is then performed on these groups.
Descriptives - The Descriptives option displays the count, mean, standard deviation,
standard error, and a user-specified confidence interval around the mean of the
dependent variable for each group.
Post hoc tests - This option allows you to perform a post hoc multiple comparison
between all group means. The program gives a choice between four different methods
each one using different criterion for computing the significance level or constructing
confidence intervals of the difference between two means. The Least-significant
difference (LSD) test computes a confidence interval and a standard Student's t test
between all group means. It is the most powerful a posteriori contrast test, but as the
number of pairwise comparisons increases, so does the probability that at least one of
the confidence intervals or significance tests is in error. For this reason, this test is
usually recommended only when it is applied to comparisons that are planned before
observing the data. The Newman-Keuls test applies different criteria depending on the
number of steps between the two group means. The further apart those two group
means are from each other, the larger the difference between those two groups must be
in order to be significant. This procedure should be used only when the group sizes are
equal. The Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) test uses a single criterion for
all comparisons regardless of the distance between the group means. This test keeps the
experiment-wise error rate equal to α. The Scheffé's test is used to obtain simultaneous
confidence intervals for differences between all pairs of means while keeping the overall
error rate to α. It is a more conservative test and will lead to fewer significant
differences. This test can be used with equal or unequal group sizes, and with planned
or unplanned comparisons.
Confidence interval - This option allows you to set the confidence interval width for the
means, and for the pairwise comparisons of those means (post hoc tests). This interval
width is expressed as a percentage and must lie between 1% and 99%. This value is
also used when displaying bar charts with a confidence interval, or an error bar graph
representing a confidence interval around the mean.
Mean/Error bar graph - This option displays a mean bar and/or an error bar representing
the variability of the mean, or the values in each group.
Type of error - This option allows you to select whether the error bar will represent the
standard deviation, the standard error or a user-defined confidence interval. The width
of this interval is set by the interval option.
With bar chart - This option allows you to draw solid bars where each bar represents the
mean of a separate group.
Upper error bar only - When the bar chart option is selected and an error bar is
requested, this option allows you to specify whether the error bars displayed with the
mean bars should be displayed above and below the mean, or only above it.
Link means - When chosen, this option connects the means with a line.
Deviation chart - This option displays a bar chart where each bar represents the
deviation of the group mean from the grand mean.
Sample output of a one-way analysis of variance

ONEWAY
AGGRESS Nb of aggressive behavior

by SIBLING Number of siblings
Sum of Mean F F
Between Groups 2 1902.18 951.09 3.7939 .0285
Within Groups 56 14038.46 250.69
Total 58 15940.64
Proportion of Variance Explained (R-Square) = .1193
Group Count Mean Std Dev Std Err 90 Pct C.I. for Mean
SIBLING = 0.00 29 25.28 14.83 2.75 20.59 To 29.96

SIBLING = 1.00 24 28.42 16.90 3.45 22.50 To 34.33
SIBLING = 2.00 6 44.83 16.18 6.61 31.52 To 58.14
Total 59 28.54 16.58 2.16 24.93 To 32.15
Tukey's HSD Multiple Comparisons
SIBLING Difference 90% Pct conf interval Sig.
0.00 1.00 3.1408 -6.0130 To 12.2946 .7535

0.00 2.00 19.5575 4.6800 To 34.4349 .0214
1.00 2.00 16.4167 1.2759 To 31.5575 .0683
Regression analysis
REGRESSION produces a simple regression analysis for each pair of dependent-independent
variables. The output includes the Pearson product-moment correlations, the intercept and slope
of the regression line, and an ANOVA table for the equation. The dialog box allows you to
obtain bivariate scatterplots, to select one-tailed (directional) or two-tailed (non-directional) tests
of probabilities, and to request standardized residuals plots.
OPTIONS
Type of analysis - This option allows you to choose between 8 types of nonlinear
regression. The following types of regression will allow the assessment of different
degrees of curvilinearity among the dependent-independent relations or to obtain an
equation that expresses various forms of bivariate relations. The following table
presents the types of regression and their corresponding equations:
TYPE REGRESSION EQUATION

Linear Y = a + b1x
Quadratic Y = a + b1x +b2x2
Cubic Y = a + b1x +b2x2+b3x3
4th degree polynomial Y = a + b1x +b2x2+b3x3+b4x4
5th degree polynomial Y = a + b1x +b2x2+b3x3+b4x4+b5x5
Inverse Y = a + b1 / x
Logarithmic Y = a + b1 * ln(x)
Exponential Y = abx
Confidence interval - This option allows you to set the confidence interval for beta weight
estimates. This interval width is expressed as a percentage and must lie between 1%
and 99%.
Significance test - This option specifies whether the probability of the correlations
probabilities is based on a one-tailed (directional) or two-tailed (non-directional) test.
Scatterplot - Option Scatterplot produces a bivariate scatterplot with the independent
variable plotted along the horizontal axis, and the dependent variable along the vertical
axis.
Residual caseplot - When checked, this option produces a casewise plot of standardized
residuals, including the predicted, obtained, and residual values. The Outliers value
allows you to restrict the residual caseplot to those cases for which the absolute
standardized value is greater or equal to the specified value. The Outliers value can be
set to between 0 and 4 standard deviations.
of the analysis.
Residual scatterplot - This procedure produces a bivariate scatterplot where the
predicted value is plotted along the horizontal axis, and the standardized residuals along
the vertical axis. The graph can be printed in text mode, graphics mode, or both.
Residual normal plot - This option displays a normal probability plot of the residuals
that allows you to evaluate whether those data are normally distributed. If the residuals
follow a normal distribution, the data points will fall approximately along a straight line
going from the lower left corner of the graph to the upper right corner.
Save residuals - This option instructs SIMSTAT to save the predicted and residual values
as new variables in the current data file. Creating those variables allows you to perform
further analyses such as displaying scatterplots between each independent variable and
the predicted and residual values. The new variables are named PREDxxx and
RESIDxxx where xxx stands for a serial number between 001 and 999 that corresponds
to the number of regression analyses performed during a single command. This number
is automatically reset to 001 after each command. To prevent overwriting those
variables, you must rename them using the DEFINE VARIABLE command.
Sample output of a regression analysis

REGRESSION

With HOURSTV Hours per week spent watching TV
Regression
R = .3002 R Square = .0901 sig. of R = .0711

Sum of Mean F F
Regression 2 1436.5105 718.2552 2.773 .0711

Residual 56 14504.1336 259.0024
Equation: AGGRESS = -4.9559 + (3.2271 * HOURSTV) + (-.06251 * HOURSTV^2)
Variable B SE B 80% confidence interval F Sig F

Intercept -4.9559
Degree 1 3.2271 3.6046 -1.4455 to 7.8998 .802 .3745
Degree 2 -.06251 .1148 -.2114 to .08634 .296 .5883
Standardized residual plot

:.........:.........:
4 30.2738 66.0000 35.7262 . . * .
11 31.3756 66.0000 34.6244 . . * .
:.........:.........:

Reliability analysis
Multiple-item additive scales are often used to measure various characteristics of a subject. One
desirable feature of such scales is their reliability. The reliability of a scale refers to the
consistency of the scores obtained when the scale is administered to the same group of subjects
at different occasions, under different conditions, or using different sets of equivalent items that
are supposed to measure the same underlying variable. By using this type of procedure, the
difference or fluctuation observed between the various administrations of the test, provided that
it cannot be attributed to real changes in the subject, can be used to estimate the proportion of the
total variance of the test score that can be attributed to error of measurement. Various methods
are used to estimate the reliability of a test.
The TEST-RETEST reliability method is obtained by administering the same test to the same
subjects on two different occasions (usually no more than 2 months apart). The correlation
between the scores obtained by the same subjects on the two administrations of the test is then
computed to obtain a measure of temporal stability (or test-retest reliability). Provided that the
length of the interval between the two administrations is short enough to preclude any real
change in the variable being measured, any fluctuation between the two scores is attributed to
random error of measurement. The higher the reliability, the less susceptible the scores are to
the random daily changes in the condition of the subject or the testing environment. A test-retest
reliability method can also be applied using alternative forms of the test. The reliability
coefficient obtained with such a method measures both the temporal stability of the test and the
consistency of response to different item samples.
Another method to measure the reliability of a test, known as SPLIT-HALF reliability, requires
only a single administration of a test. In this procedure, the items in the test are divided into two
halves comparable in terms of content, difficulty, etc.. The most common splitting procedure
consists of comparing the scores on the odd and even items of the test. The correlation between
the two scores obtained on the same subjects is then computed. The split-half reliability
coefficient provides a measure of the internal consistency of the scale.
The INTERNAL CONSISTENCY method also requires only a single administration of a test.
It is based on the correlations obtained between all items of the scale. It provides an evaluation
of the homogeneity of the scale (also called internal consistency). The internal consistency
coefficient has been shown to be mathematically equivalent to the mean of all split-half
coefficients obtained from different splits of a scale.
The RELIABILITY command also provides a method of assessing the quality of multiple-item
additive scales through the computation of split-half reliability and internal consistency statistics.
Test-retest reliability can be assessed using the REGRESSION or CORRELATION procedures.
Each selected variable is considered as a single item of the scale. The Xs and Ys are used in the
split half method to specify how the various items should be divided.
The dialog box provides a choice of various item statistics (e.g., mean, minimum, maximum,
standard deviation), inter-item variance-covariance and correlation matrices, total scale and item-
total statistics. The maximum number of items is limited to 90 items per scale.
OPTIONS
Item statistics - This option allows the display of summary statistics on each item in the
scale including the item mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation and mean
correlation with other items. It also provides various statistics for the whole scale such
as the item means, variances, covariances and correlations.
Inter-item correlations - This option displays an inter-item correlation matrix that
allows the identification of items that have small correlations with the other items.
Variance/covariance - This option computes an inter-item variance-covariance matrix.
Item-total statistics - This option displays various statistics that allow the evaluation of
the effect of each item on the reliability of the scale. The output consists of the average
score of the scale and its variance when the item is excluded, the correlation of the
scores on this item with the sum of the scores of the remaining items, and the
Cronbach's alpha that would result from the exclusion of this item.
Split-half reliability - This option allows one to assess the correlation between two parts
of the scale. When selecting the variables, the Xs and Ys can be used to split the
various items into two halves. The output contains summary statistics for both scales
(mean, variance and standard deviation), the correlation between those scales, the
Spearman-Brown coefficient, and the Guttman split-half coefficient which does not
assume that the two parts have the same variance.
Internal consistency - This option allows the computation of Cronbach's alpha internal
consistency statistics. It has been shown to be equivalent to the average of all possible
split-half coefficients. The output also includes the mean inter-item correlation, and the
standardized item Alpha (the alpha that would have been obtained if all the items had
been standardized).
Sample output of reliability analysis
RELIABILITY ANALYSIS
DEP1 Depression scale item #1

Items statistics
MEAN STD DEV MEAN CORR N
DEP1 1.1167 .3301 .2575 1045

DEP2 1.5780 .5169 .2464 1045
DEP3 1.2325 .4382 .2504 1045
DEP4 1.1646 .3911 .2295 1045
DEP5 1.1110 .3378 .2220 1045
DEP6 1.5426 .5916 .2017 1045
DEP7 1.1799 .4444 .3119 1045
DEP8 1.5254 .5811 .2563 1045
Total 10.4507 2.0758 .3875 1045
MEAN MINIMUM MAXIMUM VARIANCE
Item mean 1.3063 1.1110 1.5780 .0419

Item variance .2150 .1090 .3500 .0089
Inter-item corr. .2269 .1586 .3399 .0029
Inter-item covar. .0462 .0258 .0830 .0003
Correlation matrix
DEP1 DEP2 DEP3 DEP4 DEP5 DEP6
DEP1 1.0000 .1992 .1830 .2813 .2531 .1805

DEP2 .1992 1.0000 .2561 .1828 .1698 .1920
DEP3 .1830 .2561 1.0000 .1956 .1749 .1779
DEP4 .2813 .1828 .1956 1.0000 .1951 .1643
DEP5 .2531 .1698 .1749 .1951 1.0000 .1729
DEP6 .1805 .1920 .1779 .1643 .1729 1.0000
DEP7 .3399 .3017 .3358 .3089 .2369 .2077
DEP8 .2242 .2764 .2796 .1586 .2296 .2037
DEP7 DEP8
DEP1 .3399 .2242

DEP2 .3017 .2764
DEP3 .3358 .2796
DEP4 .3089 .1586
DEP5 .2369 .2296
DEP6 .2077 .2037
DEP7 1.0000 .2716
DEP8 .2716 1.0000
Variance-covariance matrix
DEP1 DEP2 DEP3 DEP4 DEP5 DEP6
DEP1 .1090 .0340 .0265 .0363 .0282 .0353

DEP2 .0340 .2671 .0580 .0370 .0296 .0587
DEP3 .0265 .0580 .1920 .0335 .0259 .0461
DEP4 .0363 .0370 .0335 .1530 .0258 .0380
DEP5 .0282 .0296 .0259 .0258 .1141 .0345
DEP6 .0353 .0587 .0461 .0380 .0345 .3500
DEP7 .0499 .0693 .0654 .0537 .0356 .0546
DEP8 .0430 .0830 .0712 .0361 .0451 .0700
Item-total statistics
MEAN IF VAR. IF ITEM-TOTAL ALPHA IF

DELETED DELETED CORREL. DELETED
DEP1 9.3340 3.6939 .3990 .6577

DEP2 8.8727 3.3028 .3935 .6533
DEP3 9.2182 3.4638 .4005 .6519
DEP4 9.2861 3.6355 .3491 .6637
DEP5 9.3397 3.7456 .3437 .6664
DEP6 8.9081 3.2847 .3146 .6799
DEP7 9.2708 3.3145 .4926 .6306
DEP8 8.9254 3.1343 .4068 .6520
Split-half reliability
MEAN VARIANCE STD. DEV. NB OF ITEMS
Part 1 5.0919 1.0824 1.1716 4

Part 2 5.0919 1.2725 1.6192 4
Scale 10.4507 2.0758 4.3091 8
Split-half correlation = .5512

Spearman-Brown = .7106
Guttman split-half = .7047
Reliability statistics
Mean inter-item correlation = .2269

Cronbach's Alpha = .6866
Standardized Item Alpha = .7013
Runs test
The RUNS TEST is a procedure that can be used to test whether the ordered sequence in which
observations were obtained is random. In order to be carried out this test requires that all values
be dichotomized. The dialog box allows you to separate observations in two distinct groups using
the mean, the median or a user-specified value as a cutoff point.
OPTIONS
Cutoff point - This option allows you to specify how the values of a variable will be
dichotomized. The cutoff point used can be either the mean, the median or a user-
specified value. All observations falling below the cutoff point form one group, and all
observations equal to or above the cutoff point form the other group.
Value - This option is used only if you have a selected value as a cutoff point. The value
entered in this field is used as a cutoff point. All observations falling below this value
point form one group, and all observations equal to or above the cutoff point form the
other group. If the data are already dichotomous, specify a numeric value that lies
between those two values.
Sample output of runs test

RUN TEST: AGE Age of the child
Mean = 9.5424
Number of runs = 31
Expected number = 29.8136
Cases
25 Lt Mean
34 Ge Mean
-----
59
Z = .3192 2-tailed P = .7496

Sensitivity analysis
When using a questionnaire or an instrument to identify people who suffer from a specific disease
(or any particular problem), the measure used is often associated with some diagnostic error. Two
types of errors are possible: 1) the instrument can falsely classify a healthy subject as suffering
from the disease (false positive), or 2) the instrument can fail to detect a person who has the
disease (false negative). The error rates depend on the quality of the instrument and on the cut-
off point used to classify the subjects. One problem is that increasing the cut-off point in order
to reduce the number of false negatives will usually generate an increase in false positives. The
sensitivity analysis allows one to assess the ability of a quantitative measure (X) to differentiate
a dichotomous criterion condition (Y) and provide guidelines to choose a cut-off point that will
offer an appropriate trade off between false-positive and false-negative error rates.
The program provides the level of sensitivity (i.e. the number of true cases detected by the test
divided by the total number of true cases in the sample) and the specificity (i.e the number of true
negatives divided by the total number of cases without the problem or disease) for each value of
the quantitative measure. The program also displays, for each value of the test, the percentage
of false-positives and false-negatives. If we plot, on a cartesian scale, and for each cutt-off point
the sensitivity at that point as a function of the proportion of false positives (or 1-specificity), and
connect those points, we obtain what is known as a ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve.
This graph allows us to visualize the performance of the screening or diagnostic test used. If a
test has no discriminatory value, the ROC curve will be a diagonal line with a 45 degree angle
going from the lower left corner to the upper right corner of the graph. The ROC curve of a
perfect test will be composed of a vertical line going from the lower left to the upper left point,
and a horizontal line going from the upper left to the upper right corner. The higher the
sensitivity and specificity of a test at each cutoff point, the closest the curve will be to the upper
left corner of the graph, and the greater the area under the curve. The overall performance of a
test can be quantified by computing the area under the ROC curve (AUC). A perfect test would
yield an AUC of 1.0 while a useless test would yield an AUC of 0.5. Comparisons can also be
made among alternative tests by comparing their ROC curves or their AUC values.
Various methods have been proposed for computing the area under the ROC curve. SIMSTAT
provides two such methods. The first assumes that the categorical scale of the test results from
an underlying continuous variable. The second method adopts a nonparametric strategy that does
not make the assumption of a bivariate normal distribution. This measure of AUC is obtained by
computing the area underneath the straight lines that connect the various observed points of the
curves by using a trapezoidal method.
OPTIONS
Value - This option allows you to specify which value of the criterion variable will be used
to identify positive diagnosis.
Scale orientation - This option allows you to specify whether the scale is positively or
negatively related to the presence of the condition (disease). You must specify whether
this condition is associated with higher or lower values of the scale.
Sensitivity statistics - This option allows you to obtain the level of sensitivity
(proportion of positive cases correctly diagnosed as true) and specificity (proportion of
negative cases effectively diagnosed as false) for each value of the quantitative measure.
The values are reported in terms of absolute and relative frequencies.
Error rate statistics - This option allows you to obtain the number and percentage of
false-positive and false-negative diagnoses for each value of the quantitative measure.
The display also includes likelihood ratios for both positive and negative results.
ROC curve - This option allows you to obtain a receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC)
curve that displays the relationship between the sensitivity and 1-specificity.
Error rate graph - This option provides a line chart that displays the evolution of the
percentage of false-positives and false-negatives for the values of the scale.
Sample output of sensitivity analysis

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS: DISORDER by TEST
Area under ROC curve = .8286
Cutting Cases Control 1-

Point Included Sensitivity Included Specificity Specificity
100.0 1 0.00 1 0.95 0.05

9.0 2 0.10 1 0.95 0.05
8.0 4 0.30 1 0.95 0.05
7.0 9 0.60 3 0.86 0.14
6.0 13 0.80 5 0.76 0.24
5.0 18 0.90 9 0.57 0.43
4.0 25 1.00 15 0.29 0.71
3.0 29 1.00 19 0.10 0.90
2.0 31 1.00 21 0.00 1.00
Cutting False % False False % False Pct False Pos/Neg

Point Negatives Negatives Positives Positives Results Ratio
100.0 10 100.0% 1 4.8% 35.5% 21.0

9.0 9 90.0% 1 4.8% 32.3% 18.9
8.0 7 70.0% 1 4.8% 25.8% 14.7
7.0 4 40.0% 3 14.3% 22.6% 2.8
6.0 2 20.0% 5 23.8% 22.6% 0.8
5.0 1 10.0% 9 42.9% 32.3% 0.2
4.0 0 0.0% 15 71.4% 48.4% 0.0
3.0 0 0.0% 19 90.5% 61.3% 0.0
2.0 0 0.0% 21 100.0% 67.7% 0.0
Sign test
The SIGN TEST tests the hypothesis that two variables have the same distribution. This is
assessed by comparison of the numbers of positive and negative differences between values of the
two variables.
OPTIONS
Direction - This option allows you to select either a one-tailed (directional) or two-tailed
(non-directional) probability test.
Sample output of a sign test
SIGN TEST: T2DEPRES With T1DEPRES
Cases
27 - Diffs (T2DEPRES Lt T1DEPRES)

11 + Diffs (T2DEPRES Gt T1DEPRES)
2 Ties
---
40 Total
Z = 2.4333 1-tailed P = .0075

Single-case design
Single case experimental design was originally developed for the study of animal and human
behaviors in the context of controlled laboratory experiments. This methodology is now currently
used in applied research such as the evaluation of behavior modification programs or other types
of clinical interventions, the effects of pharmacological agents on behaviors, or the impact of
educational and social intervention programs. It involves repeated objective measurement of a
single subject (dependent variable) over a period of time interspersed with changes in the
treatment condition (independent variable). If the application or withdrawal of the treatment
condition is associated with systematic changes in the behavior of the subject, then it is inferred
that the treatment has caused the observed changes. Whereas with traditional group design,
variability is treated as error which should be controlled with the use of experimental design and
statistical analysis in order to identify functional relations that supersede this variability,
advocates of single-case experimental design stress the importance of identifying and controlling
the source of this variability. By carefully monitoring the variability of measures taken on a single
subject it becomes possible to identify the source of this variability and to develop effective
methods of intervention. When applied to the evaluation of complex intervention programs, this
method facilitates the identification of the active ingredients of the intervention. The reliance
of single-case design on visual inspection (instead of statistical analysis) to identify the presence
of a functional relationship also provides assurance that only potent interventions that produce
clinically significant changes will be identified. The generality of the findings is strengthened
through systematic replications of the original experiment with other subjects in various settings,
conditions, or with other behaviors of the same subject.
The SINGLE CASE command provides some basic tools for studying the effect of an intervention
on the behavior of a single subject. The procedure will display a graph representing the evolution
of the dependent variable (Y) at various phases defined by the independent (X) variable. The
dialog box allows one to obtain various statistics for each phase of the analysis as well as various
graphic tools that can be used as judgemental aids to identify the experimental effect of the
intervention (smoothed data, trend lines, control bars, etc.).
OPTIONS
Statistics - This option box allows you to display statistics about the different phases of
the experiment. When set to Brief, the mean, standard deviation, minimum and
maximum values, and the number of cases are displayed on a single line. To obtain
additional statistics, such as the skewness, kurtosis, mode, median, etc., set this option
to Detailed.
Cumulative frequency - This option allows you to represent the values of the series as
a cumulative record of frequency.
Log transformation - This option converts all values in the series into their natural
logarithms.
Trend line - This option allows you to draw, for each condition, a line representing either
the mean, the regression slope, or a split middle trend line. This last method draws a
line through the median values of the first and second halves of each series.
Smoothing - This option allows the application of two methods of identifying trends in
noisy or irregular time series. The moving average procedure is obtained by averaging
a selected number of points on either side of a target value, while the running median
procedure is computed by finding the median value of a specified number of points on
either side of the original value. Successive smoothing can be achieved by specifying
more than one value. For example the following option:
Moving average 4 2 4
instructs SIMSTAT to proceed with three successive moving average smoothings using
4, 2, then 4 values to compute the mean.
Vertical line separators -This option lets you specify whether vertical lines should be
used in the time-series chart to delineate the various phases of the experiment.
Control bars - This option allows you to superimpose 3 horizontal bars that represent the
mean and the upper and lower limits of a confidence interval. Those bars can be used
as a judgemental aid to identify a change in the series. The interval option allows you
to specify the width of the confidence interval. Its value must be between 0% and 99%.
The minimum and maximum options allow you to specify which observation in the
series will be used to calculate the mean and the confidence limits. If those fields are
left blank, the first and the last observations will be used. For example, entering 1 and
10 as the minimum and maximum values tells SIMSTAT to compute the mean and the
confidence interval on the first 10 observations.
Confidence interval - This option allows you to set the confidence interval width for the
control bars. This interval width is expressed as a percentage and must lie between 1%
and 99%.
Time-series analysis
The TIME SERIES command allows the examination of time series data. The dialog box offers
various transformations to remove trends or seasonal dependence in a series and provides a
diagnostic of those transformations by displaying autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation
function plots of the transformed series. This procedure also allows the application of two
smoothing methods (i.e., moving average and running median) to identify trends in noisy time
series data.
OPTIONS
ANALYSIS PAGE
Log transformation - When enabled, this option converts all values in the series into their
natural logarithms.
Remove mean - When enabled, this option subtracts the mean from each value in the
series.
Difference - This transformation subtracts the preceding value from each value in the
series. The Number option allows you to set the number of difference operation to be
performed on the series.
Seasonality - The Seasonality option allows you to remove the seasonality in a series by
subtracting from every value the value that is a specified Number of lags behind it.
ACF plot - The ACF plot produces an autocorrelation function plot. This plot includes the
autocorrelation value, its variance and probability, and a graphic (text mode)
representation of those values from one to a specified number of lags.
PACF plot - This option allows you to obtain a table and a graphic representation of partial
autocorrelations with their variances and probabilities.
Number of lags - This option allows you to specify the maximum number of lags to be
displayed in the ACF and PACF plots.
CHART PAGE
Time series - This option allows the printing of a graphic representation of the
transformed series in either text, graphics mode or both. The Number option allows you
to restrict the number of observations to be plotted in text mode.
Smoothing - This option allows the application of two methods of identifying trends in
noisy or irregular time series data. The Moving average procedure is obtained by
averaging a selected number of points on either side of a target value, while the running
median procedure is computed by finding the median value in a specified number of
points on either side of the original value. Successive smoothing can be achieved by
specifying more than one value. For example the following option:
Moving average 4 2 4
instructs SIMSTAT to proceed with three successive moving average smoothings using
4, 2, then 4 values to compute the mean.
Control bars - This option allows you to display 3 horizontal bars that represent the mean
and the upper and lower limits of a confidence interval. Those bars can be used as a
judgemental aid to identify a change in the series. The Minimum and Maximum
options allow you to specify on which observations in the series the mean and
confidence limits will be calculated. If those fields are left blank, the first and the last
observations will be used. For example, specifying the limits 1 and 10 tells SIMSTAT
to compute the mean and the confidence interval for the first 10 observations.
Width - This option allows you to set the confidence interval width for the control bars.
This interval width is expressed as a percentage and must lie between 1% and 99%.
Sample output of time series analysis

TIME-SERIES - FORCASTING: : SALES Nb of sales per month
Smoothing : Moving average ( 2 4 4 2 )
Mean : 27.5424
Std. dev. : 16.5783
Plot of time-series
Case Value .0000 66.0000
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
1 16.000 | . : |
2 46.000 | * : . |
3 66.000 | : * . |
4 66.000 | : * . |
5 26.000 | .: * |
6 26.000 | .: * |
7 53.000 | : * . |
8 46.000 | : *. |
9 56.000 | : * . |
10 26.000 | .: * |
11 66.000 | : * . |
12 36.000 | : . * |
13 46.000 | : . |
14 36.000 | : . * |
15 46.000 | : *. |
16 46.000 | : *. |
17 30.000 | :. * |
18 46.000 | : * . |
19 6.000 | . : * |
20 46.000 | : * . |
21 32.000 | : . |
22 26.000 | .:* |
23 26.000 | .:* |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
* = Smoothed value . = Observed value
Plot of autocorrelations
Lag corr. S.E. P -1 -0.5 0 0.5 +1

+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
1 .375 .130 .005 . *****.***
2 .399 .147 .009 . ******.**

3 .255 .165 .127 . ******.
4 .359 .171 .040 . *******.
5 .379 .184 .043 . *******.*
6 .296 .196 .137 . ******* .
7 .318 .204 .124 . ******* .
8 .266 .212 .214 . ****** .
9 .348 .218 .115 . ******** .
10 .104 .227 .647 . *** .
11 .230 .228 .316 . ****** .
12 .192 .232 .411 . ***** .
Plot of partial autocorrelations
Lag corr. S.E. P -1 -0.5 0 0.5 +1

+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+
1 .375 .130 .005 . *****.***
2 .301 .130 .024 . *****.*
3 .048 .130 .714 . ** .
4 .209 .130 .114 . *****.
5 .213 .130 .108 . *****.
6 .016 .130 .904 . * .
7 .092 .130 .484 . *** .
8 .044 .130 .739 . ** .
9 .115 .130 .379 . *** .
10 -.229 .130 .084 .***** .
11 .045 .130 .730 . ** .
12 .057 .130 .663 . ** .
T-test analysis
T-TEST calculates either independent-sample t-tests or paired-sample t-tests to determine
whether two sample means are significantly different.
The paired-sample (or correlated) t-test compares the means between each pair of variables
assigned as dependent and independent. The independent t-test compares means on the
dependent variable for two groups defined by values of the independent variable. SIMSTAT
provides two distinct tests to take into account whether the two populations from which the
samples are drawn have equal or unequal variances. You can also specify whether the null
hypothesis should be evaluated using a one-tailed (directional) or a two-tailed (non-directional)
test.
OPTIONS
ANALYSIS TAB
Type of design - This option determines whether the design includes paired (correlated)
or independent samples.
Values of x - For independent samples, the program requires you to specify two values of
the grouping (or independent) variable that will be used to define the two groups.
Direction - The Direction of the statistical test can be one-tailed (directional) or two-tailed
(non-directional).
Confidence interval - The interval options allows you to set the width of the confidence
intervals around the two measures of effect size. The interval width is expressed as a
percentage between 1 and 99%. This value is also used when displaying barcharts with
a confidence interval or an error bar graph representing a confidence interval around
the mean.
CHART TAB
Mean/Error bar graph - This option displays a mean bar and/or an error bar representing
the variability of the mean or of the values in each group.
Type of error - This option allows you to select whether the error bar will represent the
standard deviation, the standard error or a user-defined confidence interval. The width
of this interval is set by the interval option.
With barchart - This option allows you to draw bars where each bar represents the mean
of a separate group. You can use the Type of Error option to add error bars.
Upper error bar only - When the bar chart option is selected and an error bar is
requested, this option allows you to specify whether the error bars displayed with the
mean bars should be displayed above and below the mean, or only above.
Link means - When chosen, this option connects the two means with a line.
Dual histogram - This option displays a dual histogram representing the distribution of
two numeric variables. You must supply the Number of bars bars to plot. A Normal
curve can also be superimposed on the histogram.The horizontal and vertical radio
buttons allow you to select between horizontal histograms where the two charts are
displayed side by side or vertical histograms displayed one above the other.
Sample output of an independent samples t-test

INDEPENDENT SAMPLES T-TEST

by SEX Sex of the child
Number Standard Standard

of Cases Mean Deviation Error
SEX = 1 29 36.690 15.281 2.838

SEX = 2 30 18.700 12.636 2.307
Pooled Variance Estimate Separate Variance Estimate
F 1-tail t Degrees of 1-tail t Degrees of 1-tail

Value Prob. Value Freedom Prob. Value Freedom Prob.
1.46 .314 4.94 57 .000 4.92 54.33 .000
Effect size 90.0% Confidence Interval
R = -.5471 [ -.6827 To -.3752]

D = -1.3073 [ -1.868 To -.8096]
Sample output of a paired-sample t-test

PAIRED SAMPLES T-TEST: T2DEPRES by T1DEPRES
Variable Number Standard Standard

of Cases Mean Deviation Error
T1DEPRES 38 37.895 6.849 1.111

T2DEPRES 38 37.466 7.747 1.257
Difference Standard Standard 1-tail t Degree of 1-Tail

Mean Deviation Error Corr. Prob. Value freedom Prob.
.4291 6.7556 1.0959 .577 .000 .39 37 .349
Effect size statistics
Statistics 90.0% Confidence Interval
r = .0642 [ -.2105 To .3296]

D = .1288 [ -.4307 To .6982]
Wilcoxon test
The WILCOXON matched-pairs signed-ranks test is a procedure used to test whether two related
samples have been drawn from the same population. Like the sign test, it computes the
difference between the values of the two variables but takes into account the magnitude as well
as the direction of the differences. The Wilcoxon signed-ranks test is the nonparametric version
of the t-test for paired samples.
OPTION
Direction - This option allows you to request the program to select either a one-tailed or
two-tailed probability assessment.
Sample output of a Mann-Whitney U - Wilcoxon rank sum W test analysis

MANN-WHITNEY U - WILCOXON RANK SUM W TEST

Mean Rank Cases
40.48 29 SEX = 1.00

19.87 30 SEX = 2.00
---
59 Total
EXACT Corrected for ties

U W 1-tailed P Z 1-tailed P
131.0 1174.0 .0000 -4.6325 .0000
WORKING WITH CHARTS - 153
7 - WORKING WITH CHARTS

Numerous statistical analyses within SIMSTAT include options to create high-resolution charts.
This section describes the steps involved in the creation, modification, printing and saving of
charts.
Creating specific charts

Rather than providing separate commands and modules for numerical and graphical analysis,
SIMSTAT implements an integrated approach where charts are produced along with numerical
analyses.
The table on the next page allows you to determine which statistical commands should be used
to obtain a specific chart. To create a chart, select the variables and the proper statistical analysis
command. Set the check box corresponding to the chart type you want. If some charting options
are also displayed, adjust them to suit your needs.
While the charting options available from statistical analysis dialog boxes are quite limited, it
is possible to modify almost any chart attribute afterward. For more information on the various
adjustments available, see section Customizing Charts on page 158.
Correspondence between chart types and statistical analysis commands
TYPE OF VARIABLES TYPE OF CHART COMMANDS
One variable (nominal) Barchart Descriptive | Frequency

Pie chart Descriptive | Frequency
Pareto chart Descriptive | Frequency
One variable (metric) Histogram Descriptive | Frequency

Box-&-whisker plot Descriptive | Frequency
Cumulative distribution chart (ogive) Descriptive | Frequency
Normal probability plot Descriptive | Frequency
Two variables (nominal) Barchart (2 dimensions) Tables | Crosstab
Two variables (metric x nominal) Multiple box-&-whisker plot Compare | Breakdown

Dual histogram Compare | T-test
Error bars Compare | T-test
Compare | Oneway
Mean bars Compare | T-test
Compare | Oneway
Deviation chart Compare | Oneway
Two variables (metric x metric) Scatterplot Regression | Regression

Residual caseplot Compare | GLM Anova/Ancova
Regression | Regression
Regression | Multiple Regression
Residual scatterplot Compare | GLM Anova/Ancova
Regression | Regression
Regression | Multiple Regression
One metric variable over time Time series plot Time-series | Time-series
Autocorrelation plot (ACF & PACF) Time-series | Time-series
Metric variable over time x nominal Interrupted time-series Time-series | Single case
or single case experimental design
Other ROC curve Scale | Sensitivity

Error rate graph Scale | Sensitivity
Navigating in the chart window
All high-resolution charts created during a session are displayed in the Chart window. This
window can be used to view the charts and perform various operations on individual charts or
on the entire collection of charts. For example, you can modify the various chart attributes, save
those charts to disk, export them to another application using the clipboard or disk files, or print
them. It is also possible to delete a specific chart or to modify the order of those charts in this
window.
TO DISPLAY THE PREVIOUS CHART

& Press the <Ctrl-P> key or click on the icon.
TO DISPLAY THE NEXT CHART

& Press the <Ctrl-N> key or click on the icon.
TO SELECT A SPECIFIC CHART FROM A LIST
& Click on the button to display a list of all charts.

& Select the chart from the list.
TO ERASE A SPECIFIC CHART

& Use the navigation keys or buttons to display the chart you want to delete.
& Select the ERASE command from the EDIT menu or click on the button.
TO REORDER THE CHARTS IN THE CHART WINDOW

& Select the CHART ORDER command from the EDIT menu.
The following dialog box appears:
The list box displays the title of all charts in the Chart window.
& Select the chart you want to move by clicking on its title.
& Click on the up or down arrow buttons to move the chart up or down the list.
You may also drag the chart to its new location by keeping the mouse button down and dragging
the chart title to its new location.
TO WRITE THE CHARTS TO DISK
& Select the CHART | SAVE command from the FILE menu or click on the button while
the Chart window is active.
& If the charts have never been saved before, a File Save dialog box will appear.
& Enter the name of the file under which you want to save the charts and press <Enter> or
click on the OK button. By default, SIMSTAT uses the .CHX extension for chart files. If
no extension is given, the program automatically adds this extension to the end of the file
name.
/ To save the charts under a different file name, choose the CHART | SAVE AS command
and provide a new file name.
TO RETRIEVE CHARTS STORED ON DISK
& Select the CHART | OPEN command from the FILE menu or click on the button while
/ Rather than creating a new chart file, you may want to add new charts to an existing chart
file. To do this, open the existing chart file where you want the new charts to be placed
before creating those charts.
TO MERGE TWO SEPARATE CHART FILES

& Open the first chart file containing the charts that should be positioned at the beginning of
the new file by using the CHART | OPEN command from the FILE menu, or by clicking on
the button while the Chart window is active.
& Select the CHART | APPEND FROM command from the FILE menu, and select the chart
file that should be added to the end of the currently opened chart file.
TO CLEAR THE CHART WINDOW
& Select the CHART | NEW command from the FILE menu or click on the button while
If any modification has been made to a chart in the current Chart window or if new charts
have been created, you will be asked if you would like to save the modifications to disk.
Select Yes if you want to save those modifications or No to clear the chart window without
saving the changes.
Customizing charts
After you create one or several charts, you can edit their title and axis labels, choose a different
font or font size, adjust the scaling on either axis, experiment with different colors or patterns,
add a legend, or make other adjustments to suit your needs. The current section presents the
various options available for customizing charts.
Editing titles and axis labels

Proper titles and axis labels are of utmost importance when describing the information
displayed in a chart. By default, SIMSTAT will use variable names and labels as well as
some predefined strings to provide such descriptions. To add or edit those titles, select the
TITLES command from the CHART menu. The following dialog box will appear:
This dialog box provides 4 edit fields where you can create or edit the existing chart title,
and the labels on the left, bottom and right axis.
You can enter several lines of text for each title by pressing the <Enter> key at the end of
a line before entering the next line.
Font buttons on the right side of each edit box allow you to quickly change the font size or
style of the related title (Please note that the font setting is a global option and will be
applied to all charts in the Chart windows).
Editing axis scaling and grid

The AXIS command on the CHART menu allows you to specify various axis options such
as the axis limits, increments and the number of decimal places used to display axis values.
You can also control the display of horizontal and vertical grids. When this command is
invoked, the following dialog box appears:
Axis selection - This group of radio buttons allows you to specify the appropriate axis that
you want to customize. In some charts, only the Y axis will be available.
Linear or Logarithmic scale - In some types of chart you can choose between a linear
or logarithmic axis. In a linear scale, the value of each major division is exactly the
same. In a logarithmically scaled axis, each major division of the axis represents 10
times the value of the previous major division.
Minimum and Maximum - SIMSTAT automatically adjusts the axis scales to fit the
range of values plotted against it. To manually set these values, type the desired
minimum and maximum for the axis selected.
Increment - SIMSTAT automatically selects the initial increment value used for the axis.
By default, this increment value is set to display 10 tick marks per axis. Increasing or
decreasing this value affects the distance between these tick marks as well as their
number. Grid lines are also affected by modification of this value.
Decimal - This option allows you to increase or decrease the number of decimal places used
to display the values on the axis.
Grid lines - This option lets you turn horizontal (Y axis) and vertical (X axis) grid lines
on and off. Grid lines extend from each tick mark on an axis to the opposite side of the
graph. To increase or decrease the number of grid lines per axis or the distance between
those lines, change the Increment value of the current scale.
A list box also allows you to choose among 3 different line styles to draw those grid
lines.
Controlling the legend display

This command brings a dialog box that allows one to specify whether a legend should be
displayed on the chart and to set the legend position.
To resize the width or height of a legend, simply drag its border to resize it.
To set a default legend location upon creation of new charts, see the GLOBAL OPTIONS
command.
Displaying data point values

Some chart types give you the option of displaying the numeric value associated with each
data point. When such an option is available, the DATA LABELS command in the CHART
menu is enabled. Selecting this command immediately displays those data labels. To remove
the data labels, select the DATA LABELS command again.
Modifying specific chart options

The SPECIFIC OPTIONS dialog boxes control the display of properties that are specific to
the currently displayed chart type. For most chart types, the options available in this dialog
box are the same as those displayed in the dialog box used to create the charts. For example,
if the current chart is a histogram, this dialog box gives you the option of removing or
adding the normal distribution curve, or changing the number of intervals.
Setting global options

Selecting the GLOBAL OPTIONS command from the CHART pull-down menu displays a multi-
page dialog box containing options that are shared by all charts. Any change made to these
options will affect all charts in the current Chart window. These options include frame and series
colors, series markers, titles and label font sizes and styles.
Adjusting the color of various chart components

SIMSTAT allows you to change the color of various chart components such as the chart
itself, the frame and legend backgrounds, the series, or the reference lines drawn over
some chart types. To change the color of an item:
& Click on this item in the Chart Preferences dialog box. This will display a standard
color dialog box.
& Select the new color and click on the OK button to leave the Color dialog box.
The Color Scheme option on the next page of the Chart Preferences dialog box allows
you to use either colors, patterns or both to differentiate the various series or bars in the
chart.
Adjusting line style and width

You can change the line style of reference lines by clicking on the drop down arrow key
of the proper Type list box and selecting the line style you want. To hide a reference
line, select None as the new line style.
When a solid line style is chosen, you can use the Width spin button to set the thickness
of the line to a value between 0 and 9.
Setting the font size and style of charts components

To change the title font, the axis labels or the value labels:
& Select the second page of the Chart Preferences dialog box by clicking on the
Fonts/Misc tab,
& In the String list box, select the text component you want to modify by clicking on
its name,
& Change the font name, size, color or style.
Miscellaneous chart options

Color scheme - This option allows you to use either colors, patterns or both colors
and patterns to differentiate the various series or bars in a chart.
3-D frame - When this option is enabled, SIMSTAT draws a 3D frame.
Point marker size - This option lets you specify the size of point markers for all
series of a chart. Marker size must be set between 1 and 20.
Default legend location - This group of options lets you specify whether to display
a legend when a new chart is created, and its default location. These options apply
to piecharts, bar charts, and Pareto charts.
3D View
Some charts can be diplayed using a 3D perspective. When such an option is available, the
button on the toolbar is enabled. You can click on this button to turn on/off the 3D
perspective for the current chart.
Selecting the 3D VIEW command from the CHART menu or clicking on the button
gives access to the 3D View Property dialog box. This allows you to adjust the viewing
angles, object depth, and shadows of the 3D charts.
To adjust the viewing angles

& Check the Full 3D View box.
& Drag the marbles to the desired angles, or type the desired angles in the fields.
& Verify the desired view shown in the sample rotation frame.
& Click on the Apply button to modify the angles in the background chart while
remaining in the rotation dialog, or click on the OK button to apply these angles
and exit the rotation dialog box..
To control the 3D depth
You can also control the depth of the 3D chart with the sliding control located
underneath the rotation preview. When you drag the sliding control to the right you
will increase the depth (in comparison to the chart width). Sliding it to the left will
decrease the chart depth.
To alter the 3D shadows
In this dialog box, you'll find the shadows check box which will allow you to turn
the shadow for the markers in 3D mode on and off. Turning it off will cause the
back side of the markers to paint in the same color assigned to the front of the
marker.
Zooming in and out

Sometimes, you may want to zoom on a chart to view it in more detail. While it is possible
to do this by adjusting the axis scaling, SIMSTAT provides a more convenient method using
the mouse.
To zoom in on a specific portion of a chart:
& Activate the zooming feature by clicking on the button or selecting the ZOOM IN
command from the CHART menu.
& Click with the mouse on the upper left corner of the area you want to display.
& Drag the mouse cursor to the lower left corner of the area.
& Release the mouse button.
SIMSTAT automatically resets the axis minimum and maximum values as well as the
increment value to coordinates near the defined area. Those new axis limits are usually
saved as soon as you move to another chart or switch to another window.
To restore the original axis scaling

& Select the ZOOM RESET command from the CHART menu to reverts the effect of one
or several ZOOM IN commands and restore the original axis scaling of a chart.
This command should be used immediately after a ZOOM IN command has been
performed because any other modification to the chart or any window operation may
cause the new axis limits to be saved, resulting in the loss of the original scaling
information.
Exporting charts
SIMSTAT lets you transfer charts to the clipboard, or export them to other formats, so that they
can be viewed or edited by other applications. SIMSTAT currently supports 3 different file
formats: Windows Metafiles, Windows Bitmap, and tab separated values files.
Window metafile format (.WMF)

The Windows Metafile format stores graphic images in a vector based format. The resulting
file is much smaller than a bitmap format, and the resolution of the graphic image becomes
device independent. In other words, its resolution will be determined by the output device.
This file format may be inserted in most Windows word processing program, modified using
many drawing packages (such as Corel Draw or Microsoft PowerPoint) or paint programs
(e.g., Microsoft Paint).
Windows bitmap format (.BMP)

Charts saved in a bitmap format are stored as series of pixels of different colors. The charts
are stored as they are displayed on the screen. Therefore, their resolution is determined by
the resolution of the screen as well as the size of the graph. This means that greater
resolution can be achieved by maximizing the Chart Window before exporting the chart to
disk or to the clipboard. However, you should be aware that bitmap files take a lot of disk
space, and increasing the size of a bitmap image can increase its required disk space by
several hundred kilobytes.
Like the Metafile format, bitmap files may be imported into most Windows word processing,
drawing or painting programs.
Tab separated values format (.TAB)

Rather than exporting charts in a graphic format, you may prefer to extract the values of a
chart and use those values in another charting program (such as Harvard Graphics, Chart
XL., Microsoft PowerPoint), or a spreadsheet program with advanced charting features.
Exporting a chart to a tab separated values format produces a generic text document that can
be pasted into or imported by a wide range of charting and spreadsheet applications.
TO TRANSFER A SINGLE CHART TO THE CLIPBOARD

& Display in the Chart window the chart you want to transfer.
& Select the COPY AS command from the EDIT menu.
& Select the format in which you want to transfer the chart.
TO EXPORT A SINGLE CHART TO FILE

& Display in the Chart window the chart you want to export.
& Select the CHART | EXPORT command from the FILE menu.
& Activate the Current Chart radio button to specify that only the current chart should be
exported to disk.
& Set the List of File Type list box to the format in which you want to export the current chart.
& Enter a valid file name and click OK to exit the dialog box and export the chart.
TO EXPORT ALL CHARTS IN THE CHART WINDOW TO FILES

& Make the Chart window active.
& Select the CHART | EXPORT command from the FILE menu.
& Activate the All Charts radio button.
& Set the List of File Type list box to the format in which you want to export the charts.
& Enter a valid prefix that will be used to create file names and click OK to exit the dialog box
and export the charts. This prefix can have a maximum length of 5 characters. A serial
number between 001 and 999 will be automatically added to this prefix to create unique file
names.
NOTE: Great care should be taken when exporting several charts in .BMP format since this
single command may produce several megabites of bitmap files.
USING SCRIPTS - 167
8 - USING SCRIPTS
The script window is used to enter, edit, and execute commands. Those commands can be read
from a script file on disk, typed in by the user or automatically generated by the program. When
used with the RECORD feature, the script window can also be used as a log window to keep track
of the analyses performed during a session. Those commands may then be executed again,
providing an efficient way to automate statistical analysis. Additional commands also allow one
to create demonstration programs, computer assisted teaching lessons, and even computer
assisted data entry programs.
This section introduces you to various tasks that may be performed with script files such as how
to:
& Open an existing script file.
& Navigate in the script window and edit its contents.
& Execute a script or only part of it.
& Use the RECORD SCRIPT command to automatically generate commands.
& Write script files to disk.
The final part of this chapter provides programming information, including a reference section
with a description of all available commands, their syntax and related options.
Introduction to the scripting feature

While SIMSTAT pull-down menus and open panels allow you to do almost everything you need,
it is also possible to perform analyses using the SIMSTAT batch command language. But, why
should you bother using this script language if you can do everything you need with the user
interface?
First, using the script language allows you to keep track of what you did during a session. This
may prove very useful if you want to come back later and inspect what you did, or if you have to
provide to someone else a detailed description of your analyses.
The second advantage is that it allows you to automate statistical processing of your data files.
Often, you will have to perform an identical series of analyses on the same data file on several
occasions, such as every month or every year. It may become easier and faster to resubmit the
same script file than to remember all you did and do it again with the menus and dialog boxes.
You may also want to perform similar analyses on different data files. In that situation,
modifying an existing script file may be more efficient than starting from scratch with the menus.
Another reason to use the script language is that you may want to write sets of procedures that
would be executed by someone else less familiar with statistics or with the operation of
SIMSTAT.
But SIMSTAT's script language goes beyond the simple automation of statistical analysis and
provides some commands that allow you to write interactive tutorials, demonstration programs
or even small applications to be used by someone else. These special commands allow you to
display textual information, wait for a key to be pressed, ask questions, construct bouncing bar
menus, play music or sound files, display graphics or animations, etc.
Using normal and encrypted script files
SIMSTAT normal script files are plain text files with an .SCR extension. They are usually
created and edited from within the program but may also be created or edited using almost any
word processor or text editing program. However, if you use a word processor, make sure that
you save the script file as a plain text file.
SIMSTAT can also execute encrypted and compressed script files with an .SCZ extension. Once
you have developed a program, you may want to prevent others from altering your source file or
simply hide its contents. One reason would be to make sure that no one else will commercialize
your entire script or parts of it under their own name. This encrypting feature may also be useful
to prevent unauthorized changes to the original program or, in the context of computer assisted
instruction, to prevent students from cheating by looking at your code. Encrypted files are
created quite simply by saving an opened script under a filename with a .SCZ extension. The
resulting file will be about 50% to 80% smaller than the original file and may be run from within
SIMSTAT just as any other script file. However, the file can no longer be viewed or edited either
from within SIMSTAT or from an external editor.
USING SCRIPTS - 169
Opening an existing script
To open an existing script file, select the SCRIPT | OPEN command from the FILE menu. This
evokes an Open File dialog box. When this dialog box is displayed, the program points to the
default data directory and displays all available data files in this directory in the File Name list
box. To open a file, double click on its name or select it and click on the OK button.
If the name of the script file you want to open is not displayed, type the filename in the File Name
box (including drive and path if necessary) and select the OK button.
You may also use the following methods to locate the data file:
& If the script file is on a different disk, click on the down arrow of the Drives list box to
display available drives and select the disk where the file is located.
& If the file is in a different directory, double-click on the directory names in the Directory (or
Folder) to move through the directory tree.
If the file name is displayed in the File Name list box, double-click it to open the file or select it
and click on the OK button.
If you want to open a script file that has been used previously, click on the down arrow button
at the right side of the File Name edit box and select the filename.
If the selected file is an encrypted file (with a .SCZ extension), the text editor will be hidden and
only the name of file will be displayed in the middle of the script window.
/ To prevent accidental modifications to the contents of a script file, activate the Read Only
check box in the Open File dialog box before clicking on the OK button. While this
procedure disables all editing features including the RECORD SCRIPT command, it will
still be possible to view or print the content of the script window, and to cut text from it and
paste this text to another SIMSTAT window or another application. To prevent these
operations, create an encrypted version of the script file by saving the file under a new file
name with a .SCZ extension.
Navigating in the script window

To move the caret to a specific location, click on that location with the mouse. You can also use
the following keys to navigate in the script window:
Key Action
<Left> Move the caret one character to the left.
<Right> Move the caret one character to the right.
<Up> Move one line up.
<Down> Move one line down.
<PgUp> Move one screen up.
<PgDn> Move one screen down.
<Home> Move to the beginning of the current line.
<End> Move to the end of the current line.
<Ctrl-Home> Move to the first line of the script.
<Ctrl-End> Move to the last line of the script.
<Ctrl-Right> Move to the beginning of the next word.
<Ctrl-Left> Move to the beginning of the previous word.
You can also move to a specific string within the current script by choosing the FIND command
in the EDIT menu or by pressing <Ctrl-F>.
The followings editing commands are also available:
Key Action
<BackSpace> Delete the character to the left of the caret.
<Del> Delete the current character or selected text.
<Ctrl-Ins> or <Ctrl-C> Copy the selected text to the clipboard.
<Shift-Del> or <Ctrl-X> Delete the selected text after copying it to the clipboard.
<Shift-Ins> or <Ctrl-V> Paste the text from the clipboard.
<Ctrl-Z> Undo the last operation.
<Ctrl-Shift-0> to Set the position of marker (0-9) to the current caret
<Ctrl-Shift-9> position.
<Ctrl-0> to <Ctrl-9> Move to the previously set marker (0-9).
USING SCRIPTS - 171
Using the RECORD SCRIPT Feature
This feature automatically generates proper commands corresponding to the action you undertake
using the menus and dialog boxes, and appends them to the end of the current script.
To activate this feature, select the RECORD option from the SCRIPT menu. The Record
keyword will appear on the status line. From now on, almost every action you perform will be
recorded by SIMSTAT. To deactivate this feature, follow the same steps a second time. You can
also press the <Ctrl-F10> key combination or click on the Record keyword on the status line
to toggle the RECORD script feature on and off.
The extensive correspondence between the commands/keywords and the options available
through the dialog boxes greatly facilitates the learning of the script language syntax. However,
the easiest way for a beginner to write but also to become familiar with this syntax and the
various keywords is to use the RECORD SCRIPT feature. You can experiment by performing
some analysis and looking closely at the commands generated. This feature is also an efficient
method to write script files rapidly and easily.
Running a script
To run an entire script
& Click on the button or select the RUN command from the SCRIPT menu.
To run a specific block of commands

& Select the commands that you want to execute using either the mouse or the keyboard.
Make sure that the beginning of the selected text is located on the first line of a valid
command.
& Click on the button or select the RUN SELECTION command from the SCRIPT
menu.
/ To run a single command, simply position the caret anywhere on the first line of
the command you want to execute and activate the RUN SELECTION command.
To start the execution of a script at a specific line

& Position the cursor anywhere on the line where you want SIMSTAT to begin the
execution of commands.
& Click on the button or select the RUN FROM CURSOR command from the
SCRIPT menu.
Saving script files

To save a script file, choose the SCRIPT | SAVE command from the FILE menu. A file save
dialog box appears. By default, SIMSTAT uses the .SCR extension for script files. If no
extension is given, the program automatically adds this extension to the end of the file name.
To save the contents of the script window in an encrypted and compressed file, enter a file name
with a .SCZ extension or select the Encrypted Script (.SCZ) option from the Save File as Type
list box and enter a valid file name without an extension.
SCRIPT LANGUAGE REFERENCE - 173
9- SCRIPT LANGUAGE REFERENCE
Syntax Convention
This section outlines the syntax conventions of the various commands and options. Unless
specified otherwise, you can type commands and options in either uppercase or lowercase letters.
You will find below a short description of those elements.
UPPERCASE Items in capital letters are keywords. Keywords are a required part
of the statement syntax, unless they are enclosed in brackets or
specified as optional.
lowercase italic Items in lowercase italic characters are placeholders for information
you must supply in the statement. Several types of information can
be required such as:
variable a single variable name.
varlist One or several variable names. A set of consecutive
variables can be designated by typing the first and last
variable names separated by two dots (..). For
example the DEPRES1..DEPRES29 expression refers
to all the variables in the active file starting from
DEPRES1 up to, and including DEPRES29. A
variable list can span over several lines.
filename A filename with a valid extension. By default the file
is assumed to reside in the starting directory. To refer
to a file in another location, specify the full path name.
integer Integer value. You can either use an equal sign '='
between the option and the integer or put the integer
between parentheses.
real Real value. May be entered in either normal or
scientific notation, and can be put after an equal sign
or between parentheses.
string A string of alphabetical as well as numeric characters.
Some commands require the string to be enclosed
between quotation marks (").
color A keyword representing a color. Valid keywords are:
BLACK PURPLE BLUE
MAROON TEAL FUSCHIA
GREEN GRAY AQUA
OLIVE SILVER WHITE
NAVY RED
BLUE LIME
[] Items inside square brackets are optional.
| A vertical bar indicates a choice between two or more items.

item, item, ... A horizontal three-dot ellipsis means more of the preceding items
can be used in a single-line statement.
keyword A vertical three-dot ellipsis is used to indicate block-structured
. statements. Textual information can be put between the beginning
.
. and end of the block.
ending keyword
* Comments can be inserted anywhere in the file by placing an
asterisk as the first character.
{} Comments can also be included anywhere within a command by
enclosing them between braces.
PANEL The PANEL keyword can be used with almost any statistical
analysis command to display the dialog box associated with the
command, allowing the user to change options before performing
the analysis.
; The ';' character is used as a command terminator. Each command
must end with the ';' character.
: A colon at the beginning of a line indicates the presence of a label
(see the GOTO and GOSUB command).
/ The slash '/' character is used to separate the various options from
the commands and the variables. While only one slash is required,
it is also possible to include more slashes to visually separate
various groups of options.
multiple lines It is always possible to spread a long command over several lines, or
even insert blank lines within a command. The semi-colon ';'
character is always used to indicate the end of the command.
Using memory and data file variables

A script can contain 2 different kinds of variables: Memory and data file variables.
A memory variable is the name of a location in memory that stores a value. The value of a
memory variable can change during script execution. Every variable has a name that begins with
a dollar sign as its first character, a data type (i.e., numeric or alphanumeric), and a value.
To declare a memory variable, you must provide its name and data type. The explicit declaration
of a variable is done with a DIM statement. For example, to declare an alphanumeric variable
called $NAME and a numeric variable called $AGE, you must enter the following commands:
DIM $NAME AS STRING;

DIM $AGE AS NUMERIC;
You may also declare a new memory variable in any other command by explicitly stating its data
type on its first appearance. For example:
DIM $AGE AS NUMERIC;

LET $AGE = 12;
can also be expressed as:
LET $AGE AS NUMERIC = 12;
SIMSTAT gives each variable an initial value at the time it is declared. A string variable is
initialized to the empty string, a string with no characters (""). A numeric variable is initialized
to zero.
You can also access any variable (or field) of the currently opened data file by putting a DB.
prefix to the variable's name. For example, to modify the value of a variable named AGE in the
current data file, you can use a LET command in the following way:
LET DB.AGE = 12;
You can also read the value stored in this variable just like you would do with any other memory
variable:
IF DB.AGE < 18 THEN LET CATEGORY = 1;
All reading and writing operations on data file variables are performed on the currently selected
record. In order to access the various records in the data file you need to use the RECORD
command.
SIMSTAT provides several predefined memory variables holding time and date related
information:
Variable Returns
$CURRENT_YEAR Current year
$CURRENT_MONTH Current month number (from 1 to 12)
$CURRENT_DAY Current day of the month (from 1 to 31)
$CURRENT_WEEKDAY Current day of the week (from 1 to 7)
$CURRENT_TIME Current time of the day in seconds with one decimal
place (tenth of a second).
$CURRENT_RECORD Current record number
$NB_RECORDS Number of records currently displayed
Expression Operators and Functions

Some script commands such as LET or IF may include expressions where basic arithmetic,
trigonometric, or random number operations are performed. Those expressions may contain the
following operators or functions:
ARITHMETIC OPERATOR
+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
^ Exponentiation
NUMERIC AND TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

ABS() Absolute
ACOS() ArcCosine
ASIN() ArcSine
ATAN() Arctangent
CSC() Cosecant
COS() Cosine
EXP() Exponential
FACT() Factorial
LN() Natural logarithm
LOG() Base-10 logarithm
MOD10() Modulus
RND() Round
SEC() Secant
SQRT() Square root
SQR() Square
SIN() Sine
TAN() Tangent
TRUNC() Truncate
RANDOM NUMBER FUNCTIONS

NORMAL(x) Pseudo-random number generated from a normal distribution with mean of
0 and standard deviation of X.
UNIFORM(x) Pseudo-random number generated from a uniform distribution

between 0 and X.
One line descriptions of commands

You will find below a short description of all available script commands grouped in four broad
categories. For more detailed information on each of these commands, refer to the description
available in the next section where commands are presented alphabetically.
Database commands:
APPENDFROM Appends data in a .DBF file to the current data file.

COMPUTE Stores the result of a computation in a new variable or an
existing one.
DATA...ENDDATA Creates a temporary data file.
FILTER Filters the records.
IMPORT Imports data from another file format.
OPEN Opens a data file, a notebook file or a chart file.
RANK Transforms the values of a variable into ranks.
RECODE Recodes the numeric values of a variable.
RECORD Moves within the records of the data file, or adds a new record.
SORT Sorts records on one or several variables.
VARDEF Defines variables (label, missing values, display width & decimals, etc.).
VLABELS Defines value labels.
WEIGHT Weights records using a variable.
Flow control commands:
CALL Runs another script program and returns.

GOTO Branches to another part of the program.
GOSUB Branches to and returns from a subroutine.
IF...THEN...ELSE Carries out a command based on a specified condition, otherwise
performs another command.
DEFINE or DIM Defines a new memory variable.
DELAY Temporarily stops the program execution for a specific length of time.
LET Assigns a value or the result of an expression to a variable.
QUIT Quits SIMSTAT.
RUN Runs an external DOS or Windows program.
STOP Stops the script and returns to the SIMSTAT menu.
Interactive commands:
BOX...ENDBOX Displays a dialog box with textual information.

BEEP Generates a beep sound.
INPUT Gets a numeric or a string value from the user.
MENU...END Creates and displays a bouncing bar menu.
QBOX Displays a dialog box with textual information
QUESTION... Displays a multiple items question dialog box.
Statistical analysis commands:

BINOMIAL Binomial test
BOOTSTRAP1 Univariate bootstrap analysis
BOOTSTRAP2 Bivariate bootstrap analysis
BREAKDOWN Breakdown analysis
CHISQUARE Chi-square one sample test
CLUSTER Cluster analysis (requires MVSP v2.2)
CORANAL Correspondence analysis (requires MVSP v2.2)
CORRELATION Correlation matrix
CROSSTAB Contingency crosstabulation
DESC Descriptive analysis
DIVERSITY Diversity Index computation (requires MVSP v2.2)
FACTOR Factor analysis (requires EFA v3.0)
FULL Full analysis on bootstrap samples
FREQUENCY Frequency analysis
FRIEDMAN Friedman test
GLMANOVA GLM analysis of variance and covariance
INTERRATERS Interraters crosstabulation
ITEM Classical item analysis (requires StatItem v1.0)
KRUSKAL Kruskal-Wallis Anova
KS1 Kolmogorov-Smirnov one sample test
KS2 Kolmogorov-Smirnov two sample test
LIST Listing of data
LOGISTIC Logistic regression (requires Logistic v3.11)
MANN Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon W test
MCNEMAR McNemar test
MEDIAN Median test
MOSES Moses test of extreme reactions
MRESPONSE Multiple responses analysis
MULTREG Multiple regression analysis
NPAR Nonparametric association matrix
ONEWAY Oneway analysis of variance
PCA Principal component analysis (requires MVSP v2.2)
PCO Principal correspondence analysis (requires MVSP v2.2)
REGRESSION Linear & nonlinear regression analysis
RELIABILITY Reliability analysis
SCED Single case experimental design
RANDOM Random bivariate bootstrap analysis
RUNS Runs test
SENSITIVITY Sensitivity analysis (ROC curves)
SIGN Sign test
T-TEST T-Test (independent and paired)
TIME-SERIES Time-series analysis
WILCOXON Wilcoxon signed rank test
Environment and Multimedia control commands:
CHART Controls the appearance or display of the current chart.

NOTE Displays a text string at the bottom of the screen.
PLAY Plays a WAV sound file, a MDI music file, or an AVI movie file.
PICTURE Displays a bitmap file on screen.
PRINT Prints the contents of a window.
SAVE Saves the contents of a window on disk.
SCREEN Creates a blank background screen.
TITLE Displays a text string at the top of the screen.
WINDOW Controls the size and location of any SIMSTAT window.
Command descriptions
APPENDFROM
Syntax:
APPENDFROM filename;
Description:
The APPENDFROM command appends data from an existing .DBF data file to the current
data file. All variables with matching names and types are appended to the current file. If
variable length differs, data in the destination data file is either truncated or padded with
spaces. Deleted records in the source file are not appended to the target file.
Example:
OPEN C:\SIMSTAT\DATA\ANNUAL.DBF;
APPENDFROM C:\SIMSTAT\DATA\DECEMBER.DBF;
BEEP
Syntax:
BEEP;
Description:
Generates a beep signal through the computer’s speaker.
BINOMIAL
Syntax:
BINOMIAL varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The BINOMIAL test allows you to assess whether the observed number of cases in a
dichotomous variable is the same as that expected from a specified binomial distribution.
The observations can be divided either below or above the mean, the median or a
user-specified cutoff value. Alternatively, the analysis can also be restricted to cases equal
to two specified values. The user can also specify the test proportion.
Options:
Cutoff value
VALUE (real [,real]) Cuttoff value / values of X
| MEAN Mean
| MEDIAN Median
PROPORTION (real) Test proportion (from 0 to 1)
PANEL Displays the dialog box
BOOTSTRAP1
Syntax:
BOOTSTRAP1 varlist [/options];
Description:
BOOTSTRAP1 performs bootstrap simulation to estimate the distribution of descriptive
statistics in a population (e.g., mean, median, variance). The program draws a specified
number of observations from the sample and computes the estimator for the subsample. This
procedure is performed many times (10 to 30,000 times). The options allow you to display
information about the estimator distribution including descriptive statistics, frequency table,
percentile table and histogram of the estimator distribution. The program also computes
nonparametric and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals. If no sample size is
specified (option SIZE), the bootstrap sample size is automatically adjusted to the size of the
original sample.
Options:
SIZE=integer Size of each sample
SAMPLING=integer Number of samples
SEED=integer Initial seed value
Choice of estimator
MEAN Mean
| VARIANCE Variance
| STDDEV Standard deviation
| STDERR Standard error
| MEDIAN Median
| KURTOSIS Kurtosis
| SKEWNESS Skewness
DESC Descriptive statistics
INTERVAL=real Confidence intervals
PTILES=integer Percentile table
HISTOGRAM Histogram
NBAR=integer Nb of bars/intervals
NORMAL Normal curve
BOOTSTRAP2
Syntax:
BOOTSTRAP2 varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The BOOTSTRAP2 command performs bootstrap resampling to estimate the distribution

of various estimators in a given population (e.g., correlation, Tau-b, Cohen’s Kappa). The
program draws a specified number of pairs of observations from the sample and computes
the estimator for the subsample. This procedure is performed many times (10 to 30,000
times). The options allow you to display information about the estimator distribution
including descriptive statistics, frequency table, percentile table and histogram of the
estimator distribution. The program can also compute nonparametric and bias corrected
bootstrap confidence intervals, and the power rate of some estimators for 3 to 4 alpha levels.
If no sample size is specified (option SIZE), the bootstrap sample size is automatically
adjusted to the size of the original sample.
Options:
Choice of statistics
TAU-A Kendall's Tau-A
| TAU-B Kendall's Tau-B
| TAU-C Kendall-Stuart's Tau-C
| D-SYM Somers' D symmetric
| D-XDEP Somers' D (X dependent)
| D-YDEP Somers' D (Y dependent)
| GAMMA Gamma
| RHO Spearman's Rho
| R Pearson's r
| SLOPE Regression slope
| INTERCEPT Regression intercept
| S-T Student's T
| S-F Student's F
| M-W Mann-Whitney
| WILCOXON Wilcoxon (W value)
| SIGN Sign test (Z value)
| K-W Kruskal-Wallis
| MEDIAN Median test (Z value)
| AGREE Percentage of agreement
| KAPPA Cohen's kappa
| SCOTT Scott's pi
| NFREE Free marginal (nominal scale)
| KRBAR Krippendorff's r bar
| KR Krippendorff's R
| OFREE Free marginal (ordinal scale)

INTERVAL=real Confidence interval
PTILES Percentile table
HISTOGRAM Histogram
NBAR=integer Number of bars/intervals
NORMAL Normal curve
POWER=real Statistical power analysis
BOX...ENDBOX
Syntax:
BOX [Options]
·
·
·
ENDBOX;
Description:
The BOX command displays a window with textual information. By default the window is
positioned in the middle of the screen. The TOP and LEFT options can also be used to
specify the position of the window's upper left corner. The parameter for these two options
is an integer value between 0 a 100 expressing a percentage of the screen height and width.
The window stays on screen until the user presses <Enter> or clicks on the OK button. If
the NOBUTTON option is used, the window stays on screen until a key is pressed. The
DELAY option allows you to insert the minimum length of time the box should be displayed
on screen before the user can proceed. The colors of the text in the box can also be altered
using the COLOR option.
Options:
DELAY=integer Length of delay (msec)
TOP=integer Vertical position of the box’s upper left
corner (0 to 100)
LEFT=integer Horizontal position of the box’s upper
left corner (0 to 100)
color Text color (see below)
NOBUTTON Hide the OK button.
BEEP Sounds a beep using computer’s speaker.
Valid Colors:
Black Maroon Green Olive Navy Yellow Purple Teal
Gray Silver Red Lime Blue Fuchsia Aqua White
Example:
BOX TOP=10 LEFT=10 COLOR=NAVY
The red line drawn in the scatterplot
is the regression line.
ENDBOX;
BREAKDOWN
Syntax:
BREAKDOWN varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The BREAKDOWN command computes descriptive statistics for various sub-groups within
the entire sample. Statistics are computed for each variable on the first list of variable, within
groups defined by the values of the second list (grouping or independent variables). This
command also allows you to obtain a multiple Box-&-Whisker plot that can be used to
compare the distribution of the dependent variable among several sub-groups.
Options:
DETAIL Detailed statistics
RANGE (integer, integer) Range of X
BOXPLOT Box-&-Whisker plot
PANEL Display the dialog box
CALL
Syntax:
CALL filename;
Description:
This procedure executes another script file. After executing the external script file, the
program continues at the statement following the CALL command. If no extension is
provided, the program will successively look for an existing file name with an “.SCR” and
an “.SCZ” extension. If no path information is provided, SIMSTAT will first look in the
same directory as the calling script file and then in the default script directory.
Example:
CALL C:\DEMO\LESSON1.SCR;
CHART
Syntax:
CHART [options];
Description:
The CHART command allows you to modify various properties of the currently displayed
chart, or navigate through the charts either to display another chart on the screen or modify
some features of a chart currently not displayed.
Options:
FIRST Move to the first chart
LAST Move to the last chart
NEXT Move to the next chart
PRIOR Move to the previous chart
3D ON | OFF Add or remove 3D perspective
GRIDX ON | OFF Horizontal grid
GRIDY ON | OFF Vertical grid
GRIDY2 ON | OFF Second vertical grid
SCALEX (value,value) Horizontal axis limits
SCALEY (value,value) Vertical axis limits
INCX=integer Increment value of the horizontal axis
INCY=integer Increment value of the vertical axis
DECX=integer Decimal places for values on the X axis
DEXY=integer Decimal places for values on the Y axis
TITLE "string" Title string
LABELX "string" Horizontal axis string
LABELY "string" Vertical axis string
LABELY2 "string" Second vertical axis
CHI-SQUARE
Syntax:
CHISQUARE varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The CHISQUARE command performs a one-sample chi-square test that allows to assess
whether there is a difference between the observed number of cases in various categories and
the expected frequencies in those same categories. The options allow you to restrict the test
to specific values and to specify the expected frequencies.
Options:
VALUES (real real ...) Expected values
FREQ (real real ...) Expected frequencies
CLUSTER
Syntax:
CLUSTER varlist /[options];
Description:
This procedure performs hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis of a distance or
similarity matrix. Seven forms of clustering are presently available: the four average
linkage procedures (unweighted pair group, unweighted centroid, weighted pair group, and
weighted centroid [or median]); nearest and farthest linkage, and minimum variance.
Requires MVSP v2.2.
Options:
Select a transformation
LOG10 Log base 10
| LOGE Log base e
| LOG2 Log base 2
| SQRT Square root
| RATIO Log ratio
TRANSPOSE Transpose data
Select a coefficient (default: EUCLID)
EUCLID Euclidian distance
| SEUCLID Squared Euclidian distance
| STEUCLID Standardized Euclidian distance
| COSINE Cosine theta distance
| MANHAT Manhattan metric distance
| CANBER Canberra metric distance
| CHORD Chord distance
| CHISQR Chi-square distance
| AVERAGE Average distance
| MEAN Mean character difference distance
| PEARSON Pearson product moment correlation
| SPEARMAN Spearman rank order correlation
| PERCENT Percent similarity coefficient
| GOWER Gower general similarity coefficient
| SORENSEN Sorensen's coefficient
| JACCARD Jaccard's coefficient
| MATCH Simple matching coefficient
| YULE Yule coefficient
| NEI Nei & Lei's coefficient
Clustering method (default: UPAIR)

UPAIR Unweighted pair group
| UCENTER Unweighted centroid
| WPAIR Weighted pair group
| WCENTER Weighted centroid
| MINVAR Minimum variance
| NEAR Nearest linkage

| FAR Farthest linkage
TREEDESC Create tree description file
TREEORDER Create tree order file
RANDOMIZE Randomize input order
CONSTRAIN Constrained clustering
Output of graphics
PLOT Text dendrograms
| GPLOT Graphic dendrograms
COMPUTE
Syntax:
COMPUTE varname = expression;
Description:
The COMPUTE command allows the transformation of existing values of a variable or the
computation of a new variable. SIMSTAT offers more than 50 operations and functions
including numerical operators, trigonometric transformations (cos, sin, log, etc.), statistical
functions (mean, minimum, maximum across variables or cases, etc.), and date and random
number operations. (For more information on the available transformation functions
available, see the “Computing values” section, page 50.)
Examples:
COMPUTE TOTSCORE = (DEP1+DEP2+DEP3+DEP4+LOG(DEP5))/5;
Conditional transformation can be performed by using successive FILTER and COMPUTE

commands such as in the following examples:
FILTER AGE < 8;

COMPUTE TOTSCORE = AVG(DEP1..DEP10);
FILTER AGE >= 8;
COMPUTE TOTSCORE = AVG(DEP1..DEP15);
or
FILTER RELIGION = 1;
COMPUTE PREDFACT = 1.235;
FILTER .NOT. RELIGION = 1;
COMPUTE PREDFACT = 0.656;
CORANAL
Syntax:
CORANAL varlist /[options];
Description:
The correspondence analysis (or reciprocal averaging) procedure performs several varieties
of correspondence analysis including detrended correspondence analysis (DCA).
Correspondence analysis in general is well suited for working with count or
presence/absence data, whereas PCA is geared more towards measurement data on a
continuous scale (although PCA can also be performed on count and binary data. Requires
MVSP v2.2.
Options:
LOG10 Log base 10
| LOGE Log base e
| LOG2 Log base 2
| SQRT Square root
| RATIO Logratio
Computation algorithm
RECIPROCAL Reciprocal averaging
| JACOBI Cyclic Jacobi
Output of graphics
PLOT Text scattergrams
| GPLOT Graphic scattergrams
{the following options apply only to Reciprocal averaging}
DETRENDING Detrending procedure

SEGMENTS=integer Number of segments (default: 26)
CYCLES=integer Number of cycles (default 4)
DOWNWEIGHT Downweight rare species
{the following options apply only to Cyclic Jacobi}
Minimum eigenvalue (default: none)

KAISER Kaiser's rule
| JOLLIFFE Jolliffe's rule
| MINEIGEN=real Specify a minimum eigenvalue
ACCURACY=real Accuracy of solution
Select a weighting strategy
PERCENT Adjust to percentage
| RARE Weight on rare species
| COMMON Weight on common species
CORRELATION
Syntax:
CORRELATION varlist [BY varlist] [/options];
Description:
The CORRELATION command produces a matrix of Pearson correlation coefficients for

all pairs of dependent-independent variables. If only one list of variables is specified, the
procedure produces a square matrix where each variable is treated as dependent and
independent. You can request either exact probabilities for the coefficients or a display of
asterisks that indicate the probability levels attained. You can also tell the program to
calculate probabilities using one- or two-tailed tests, to compute confidence intervals of
specified width and to display cross-product deviation and covariance tables. A graphic
scatterplot can also be obtained with or without regression lines.
Options:
EXACT Exact probabilities / cases

1TAIL | 2TAIL Direction of the test
Deletion of missing values

PAIRWISE Pairwise
| LISTWISE Listwise
CCSS Cross-product deviation & covariance

CI=integer Confidence interval (width)
CROSSTAB
Syntax:
CROSSTAB varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The CROSSTAB command computes a contingency table for two variables where rows
represent all the independent variable (x) values while the columns represent all the
dependent (y) variable values. The options allow you to include various statistics in the table
and obtain measures of association for nominal level (chi-square, phi, contingency
coefficient) and ordinal level (gamma, tau-b, tau-c, Somers' d, etc.) variables. It also allows
you to display a 3-d barchart of the two variables.
Options:
Sort table by
FREQ Ascending frequency
| DFREQ Descending frequency
| VALUE Ascending value
| DVALUE Descending value
TABLE Display table
ROWPCT Row percentages
COLPCT Column percentages
TOTPCT Total percentages
EXPECTED Expected values
RESID Chi-square residuals
SRESID Standardized residuals
CHI2 Chi-square statistics
LRATIO Likelihood ratio statistics
CONTINGENCY Contingency coefficient
PHI Phi (2 x 2) or Cramer’s V
TAU-B Kendall’s tau-b
TAU-C Kendall’s tau-c
GAMMA Goodman-Kruskal’s gamma
SOMERS Somers’ d
RHO Spearman’s Rho
PEARSON pearson’s r
BARCHART 2 dimension barchart
OVERLAP Overlapping bars
STACKED Stacked bars
100% 100% stacked bars
2D 2-D perspective
3D 3-D perspective
DATA...ENDDATA
Syntax:
DATA
.
.
.
ENDDATA;
Description:
The DATA command allows you to define temporary data to be analyzed. The first line
following the DATA keyword must contain the variable names, while the remaining lines
hold the data. SIMSTAT writes the embedded information to a temporary file named
TEMP.DBF and automatically opens it for analysis. For more information on the proper
format to use, see information on ASCII files format.
Example:
DATA
CYLINDERS, MPG, ACCEL
4 15.0 6.3
4 17.2 5.9
6 13.2 5.3
6 12.4 6.2
6 12.4 5.8
ENDDATA;
DEFINE or DIM
Syntax:
DEFINE varname AS NUMERIC | STRING;
Description:
The DEFINE command allows you to explicitly declare a new memory variable and specify
its type. Using a separate DEFINE statement for each variable, along with an explanation
of the variable's purpose at the beginning of each subroutine and function, makes the script
easier to debug and maintain.
Examples:
DEFINE $ANSWER AS NUMERIC;

DEFINE $USERNAME AS STRING;
DELAY
Syntax:
DELAY (integer);
Description:
The DELAY command causes a delay in a program for a specified number of milliseconds.
Example:
Delay (5000); {Suspends the program execution for 5 seconds}

DESC
Syntax:
DESC varlist;
Description:
The DESC command displays the mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values
of each specified variable. To obtain other descriptive statistics such as the variance,
skewness, kurtosis, mode, median, etc., see the FREQUENCY command.
DIVERSITY
Syntax:
DIVERSITY varlist /[options];;
Description:
This procedure computes three diversity indices commonly used in ecology, Simpson's,
Shannon's, and Brillouin's. Requires MVSP v2.2.
Options:
Select a transformation (default: LOG10)
LOG10 Log base 10
| LOGE Log base e
| LOG2 Log base 2
Select a coefficient (default: SIMPSON)
SIMPSON Simpson's diversity index
| SHANNON Shannon's diversity index
| BRILLOUIN Brillouin's diversity index
FACTOR
Syntax:
FACTOR varlist [/options];
Description:
The FACTOR command performs a principal component or an image covariance analysis

with or without axis rotation. Requires EASY FACTOR ANALYSIS v3.0.
Options:
Type of analysis
PCA Principal Component
| IMAGE Image Covariance Analysis
NUMBER=integer Maximum number of factors to retain

EIGEN=real Minimum eigenvalue to retain
VARIMAX Perform varimax rotation
SCREE Display a scree plot in output
DESC Display descriptive statistics
CORREL Display correlation matrix
EXTRACTION Display unrotated factor solution
ROTATION Display rotated factor solution
WEIGHT Display factor scoring weights
FSCORE Display factor scores
SAVE Save factor scores
PANEL Display dialog box
FILTER
Syntax:
FILTER [string];
Description:
The FILTER command allows you to temporarily select cases according to some logical
condition. You can use this command to restrict your analysis to a subsample of cases or to
temporarily exclude some subjects. These conditions are specified in a logical expression
that may consist of a simple expression or include many expressions related by logical
operators (AND, OR, XOR). Most xBase functions (see page 240) can be used with this
command provided that the final expression can be evaluated as either true or false. The
selection stays effective until the logical expression is changed or the selection deactivated.
When used alone, this command deactivates the previous selection.
Examples:
FILTER (AGE > 10) .OR. (SEX = 1);

FILTER; {deactivate the previous filter}
FREQUENCY
Syntax:
FREQUENCY varlist [/options];
Description:
The FREQUENCY command performs various frequency and descriptive analyses on

specified variables. This command also provides a choice of graphs for either categorical
or numeric variables.
Options:
TABLE | NOTABLE Display frequency table

Sort table by
CI=integer Confidence interval width
PTILES=integer Percentile table (number of categories)
BARCHART Bar chart
PIE Pie chart
PARETO Pareto chart
BOXPLOT Box-&-whisker plot
CUMUL Cumulative frequency plot
PPLOT Normal probability plot
HISTOGRAM Histogram
NORMAL Normal curve
MAXNOMINAL Maximum number of values for table and
nominal level charts
FRIEDMAN
Syntax:
FRIEDMAN varlist;
Description:
The FRIEDMAN test is a procedure for testing whether two or more related samples have
been drawn from the same population. The output displays the mean rank of each variable,
the number of cases, chi-square, degree of freedom and probability value.
FULL
Syntax:
FULL [/options] command [/options];
Description:
The FULL command allows you to perform various statistical analyses such as frequency
analysis, crosstabulation or multiple regression on successive bootstrap samples. The first
set of options allows you set the sample size and the number of samples to be drawn from
the original sample. A second set allows you to specify which analysis to perform and set
the options normally available when calling the chosen statistical procedure. This second
set of options allows to control how the analysis is to be performed and what statistics are
to be printed. If no sample size is specified (option SIZE), the bootstrap sample size is
automatically adjusted to the size of the original sample.
Options:

GLMANOVA
Syntax:
GLMANOVA varlist BY varlist [/ options];
Description:
The GLMANOVA command provides a General Linear Model implementation of analysis

of variance and covariance. It can handles balanced and unbalanced ANOVA designs and
support models with categorical and/or quantitative variables. The procedure can also be
used to perform standard multiple regression problems that involve interaction terms.
Various adjustment methods for unequal cell size are provided including a hierarchical
strategy where the user can set the order of entry of each variable in the model. The various
options allow you to display standard tables as well as various outputs usually found in
ANOVA/ ANCOVA or multiple regression analyses.
Options:
COVAR (varlist) Quantitative variables
INTERACTION (var*var*...[var*var*...] ...)

STEP Show statistics at each step
MULTREG Multiple regression statistics
EQUATION Regression equation
CI=integer Confidence interval
MEAN Adjusted means
CHANGE Test of changes in R square
CPLOT Residuals caseplot
OUTLIERS=real Outliers criterion (s.d.)
DURBIN Durbin-Watson statistic
PLOT Residuals scatterplot
PPLOT Residuals normality plot
SAVE Save predicted and residuals
Adjustment method
REGRESSION Regression approach
| NONEXP Nonexperimental
| HIERARCHICAL Hierarchical
ORDER (varlist) (varlist) Order of entry (hierarchical)

[... > (varlist)] (All variables enumerated after the >
character are entered with the
interactions)
GOTO
Syntax:
GOTO label;
Description:
This command branches to another part of the program and continues processing the
commands at that point. The line that the program is to switch to is marked with a label
preceded by a colon_(:).
Example:
GOTO JanuaryStat;
:JanuaryStat;
GOSUB
Syntax:
GOSUB label;
Description:
This command branches to another part of the program and continues processing the
commands at that point until the RETURN keyword is encountered. The program then
continues execution at the statement following the GOSUB command.
IF..THEN...ELSE
Syntax:
IF expression [THEN] command [ELSE command];
Description:
The IF command allows you to specify a condition that must be met for a command to be
carried out. If the condition if true, the first command is executed. If the condition is false,
the command appearing after the ELSE keyword is executed. If the keyword ELSE is not
used, nothing is performed and the execution continues with the next statement. When used
with the GOTO command, this command can increase the flexibility of the program by
allowing SIMSTAT to switch to different parts of the program or perform specific actions
under certain conditions.
Valid expressions:
A valid expression consists of an existing memory or a data file variable name, and a valid
relational operator followed by a string or numeric expression. This numeric expression may
consist of a numeric constant, another numeric variable, or an equation with arithmetic
operations and mathematical functions (see page 176 for a list of available functions).
$NUMERIC =, <, >, <>, <=, => numeric expression

$STRING =, <> "string"
Examples:
IF $ANSWER1 >= 10 THEN GOSUB AgeError ELSE DESC all;

IF $NAME = "John" THEN GOTO MonthlyAnalysis;
IF DB.SALARY > TRUNC($MAXS * 1.1) THEN LET DB.SALARY = $MAXS*1.1;
IMPORT
Syntax:
IMPORT filename;
Description:
This command reads a data file produced by other applications and creates a new data file
that may be used by SIMSTAT. The extension of the supplied filename is used to determine
which kind of file is to be imported.
*.DB Paradox data file (v3.0 - v5.0)

*.WK? Lotus 123 (v1.0 - v5.0)
*.XLS Excel (v2.1 - v5.0)
*.WB? or *.WQ? Quattro Pro (v1.0 - v6.0)
*.WR? Symphony (v1.0 - v1.1)
*.SIM SIMSTAT for DOS (v1.0 - v3.5)
*.SYS SPSS/PC+ file
*.SAV SPSS for Windows file
*.CSV Comma separated values (ASCII)
*.TAB Tab separated values (ASCII)
Examples:
IMPORT C:\LOTUS\DATA\SURVEY.WK3;
IMPORT C:\SPSSWIN\DATA\IMPACT.SAV:
INPUT
Syntax:
INPUT $varname [AS type] "expression" [options];
Description:
The INPUT command allows you to get a value from the user and store the result in a user
defined string or numeric variable. When a value is already stored in the specified variable,
it will be presented as the default value to the user. Use the CLEAR option to erase this
value. The LEN option can also be used to increase or decrease the maximum length of
input. By default the dialog box is positioned in the center of the screen. However, the
LEFT and TOP options can be used to specify the position of the box's upper left corner.
The parameter for these two options is an integer value between 0 a 100 expressing a
percentage of the screen height or width. If the variable specified is a numeric variable, you
can restrict the valid range of responses by using the MIN and/or the MAX options. By
default, the number of decimals displayed is set to 0 and user's input is restricted to integer
values. The DEC option can be used to alter the number of decimal places to display.
Options:
color Text color (see below)

LEFT=integer Vertical position of the box’s upper left
corner (0 to 100)
TOP=integer Horizontal position of the box’s upper
CLEAR Clears previous value
LEN=integer Maximum number of characters
DEC=integer Number of decimal places displayed
MIN=real Minimum value
MAX=real Maximum value
Examples:
INPUT $NAME "What is your name? " LEN=50 CLEAR;

INPUT DB.AGE "How old are you? " MIN=5 MAX=25;
Valid Colors:

INTERRATERS
Syntax:
INTERRATERS varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The INTERRATERS command produces an inter-rater agreement table that consists of a
square table where rows and columns contain the same categories used in both variables.
Options:
Sort table by...
TABLE Display table

ROWPCT Row percentages
COLPCT Column percentages
TOTPCT Total percentages
EXPECTED Expected values
RESID Chi-square residuals
SRESID Standardized residuals
PCTAGREE Percentage of agreement

KAPPA Cohen’s kappa
SCOTT Scott’s pi
NFREE Free marginal nominal agreement
KRBAR Krippendorff’s r-bar
KR Krippendorff’s R
OFREE Free marginal ordinal agreement
BARCHART 2 dimension barchart

OVERLAP Overlapping bars
STACKED Stacked bars
100% 100% stacked bars
2D 2-D perspective
3D 3-D perspective
ITEM
Syntax:
ITEM varlist [/options];
Description:
The ITEM command perfroms a classical item analysis for multiple choice item
questionnaires. Requires STATITEM v1.0.
Options:
KEYFILE Specify that key responses are stored in
a key file.
LISTWISE Eliminate cases with missing values.
ISTAT Display item statistics.
ALTERNATIVE Display statistics for alternate items.
HILOW=integer Set the discrimination index to a
percentage between 10 and 50%.
IRATES Display item-total response rates.
ICC Display item characteristic curves.
SMOOTHED Apply smoothing to item characteristic
curves.
BREAKDOWN=integer Display an endorsement breakdown table
for up to 10 different groups.
TSTAT Display detailed statistics of total
scores.
TFREQ Display a frequency table of total
scores.
SAVE Save the total scores in a data file.
PANEL Display the dialog box.
KRUSKAL
Syntax:
KRUSKAL varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The KRUSKALL command performs a Kruskall-Wallis one-way analysis of variance by

ranks is a procedure for testing whether k groups have been drawn from the same
population. This test is a nonparametric version of the one-way analysis of variance. The
output displays the number of valid cases, the mean rank of the variable in each group,
chi-square and its probability with a correction for ties.
Options:
VALUES (integer, integer) Range of X
PANEL Show dialog box
KS1
Syntax:
KS1 varlist [/options];
Description:
The KS1 command (Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test) compares the distribution of

each variable against a standard normal distribution or a uniform distribution. It tests
whether the sample data can reasonably be thought to have come from a population having
this theoretical distribution.
Options:
Type of distribution
NORMAL Normal distribution
| UNIFORM Uniform distribution
VALUES (real, real) Mean and standard deviation of a normal
distribution or minimum and maximum of a
uniform distribution
KS2
Syntax:
KS2 varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The KS2 command (Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample test) evaluates whether a dependent

variable (Y) has the same distribution in two independent samples as defined by a grouping
variable (X). This test is sensitive to differences in the shape, location, and scale of the two
sample distributions.
Options:
VALUES (integer, integer) Values of independent variable

LET
Syntax:
LET $variable = $variable, value or expression
Description:
The LET command assigns the value of the expression on the right side of the assignment
operator (=) to the variable on the left side of the operator. The assignment statement must
do the following:
& Identify the variable that receives the value.

& Use the assignment operator (=) to separate the variable from the expression.
& End with the expression that determines the variable's value.
Examples:
LET $AGE = 12;

LET $CLASSNAME = "STATISTICS 101";
You can also use a variable on both sides of the first assignment statement that uses it. For
example, the following statement increases the value of the variable $COUNT by one.
LET $COUNT = $COUNT + 1;
In addition to basic arithmetic operations, you can use various functions including
mathematical procedures, trigonometric functions and random number functions on the right
side of the expression (see page 176 for a list of available functions).
You may also use parentheses to control the evaluation sequence such as in:
LET $COUNT = ($LAST + 2) * 1.1415926;

LET $NEWAGE = SQRT(DB.AGE + 2 * NORMAL(2));
LIST
Syntax:
LIST varlist [/ N=integer];
Description:
The LIST command displays a listing of the values of the specified variables. The N option
can be used to restrict the listing to the first N cases in the file.
LOGISTIC
Syntax:
LOGISTIC varlist [/options];
Description:
The LOGISTIC command performs a logistic multiple regression. Requires: LOGISTIC

v3.11ef.
Options:
VALUES (integer,integer) Values for success/failure

NOCONSTANT Exclude the constant
ITER Show iterations
CTABLE Classification table
LRATIO Likelihood ratio statistics
CI=real Confidence interval width
TOLERANCE=real Tolerance level
INTERACTION var*var Interaction
[*var*var*...]

MANN
Syntax:
MANN varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The MANN command produces a Mann-Whitney U test that evaluates the hypothesis that
two independent samples have the same distribution. The Mann-Whitney U is the
nonparametric version of the t-test for independent samples. This test is performed on the
dependent variable divided into two groups as defined by values of the independent
(grouping) variable. The probability test performed can be either one- or two-tailed.
Options:
VALUES (integer,integer) Values of independent variable

1TAIL | 2TAIL Direction of test
McNEMAR
Syntax:
McNEMAR varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The McNEMAR test is a procedure applied to a pair of correlated dichotomous variables to

test whether there is a significant difference in proportions of subjects that change from one
category to another. A binomial test is used to compute the significance level when the
number of changes is less than 10. Otherwise, a chi-square statistic with the Yates
correction for continuity is used.
Options:
VALUES (integer,integer) Values of independent variable

MEDIAN
Syntax:
MEDIAN varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The MEDIAN test is a procedure for testing whether two or more independent groups differ
in central tendencies. It tests the likelihood that those groups were drawn from populations
with the same median. The output displays the number of cases greater than, less than, and
equal to the median for each category of the grouping variable. Also displayed are the
median, chi-square, degree of freedom and probability value.
Options:
EXTENDED Extended median test

VALUES (int, int) Values or range of X
MENU...ENDMENU
Syntax:
MENU [options]
·
·
·
ENDMENU;
Description:
The MENU command allows you to define a bouncing bar menu. Every line between the
MENU and ENDMENU commands will become a menu item. The maximum number of
items is 30. An optional '&' character can be inserted in the command file to specify an
accelerator key that, when pressed, will select this item. A single line command can be
associated with a menu item by putting a command between this menu item and the
associated command. A menu separator can also be added by putting a "-" character on a
separate line.
By default, the menu is displayed in the middle of the screen. The TOP and LEFT options
can also be used to specify the position of the window's upper left corner. The parameter for
these two options is an integer value between 0 and 100 expressing a percentage of the
screen height and width.
Options:

corner (0 to 100)
TOP=integer Horizontal position of the box’s upper
Example:
MENU LEFT=30 TOP=20

&Open,OPEN C:\DATAFILE\DATAFILE
&Save,GOTO SAVEDATA
Save &As,GOTO SAVEAS
-
&Quit,QUIT
ENDMENU;
MOSES
Syntax:
MOSES varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The MOSES test of extreme reactions tests whether the range of an ordinal variable is the same
in a control group as in a comparison group, as defined by a grouping variable. The output
includes counts for both groups, number of outliers removed, the span of the control group before
and after outliers are removed, and one-tailed probability of the span with and without outliers.
By default, 5% of the cases are trimmed from each end of the range of the control group to
remove outliers.
Options:
VALUES (int, int) Values of independent variable
OUTLIERS=integer Number of outliers to remove
MRESPONSE
Syntax:
MRESPONSE [MULTX, MULTY]

FREQUENCY | CROSSTAB | INTERRATERS [/options]
Description:
The MRESPONSE (multiple responses) command allows you to obtain frequency analyses
and crosstabulation analyses on variables which can legitimately have more than one
response. These multiple responses are stored in as many variables as necessary. Choosing
all these variables as dependent (X) or independent (Y) variables allows you to gather all
these responses and treat them as if they were stored in a single variable.
Options:
MULTX Treat X as multiple responses
MULTY Treat Y as multiple responses
FREQ varlist [/options];
CROSSTAB varlist BY varlist [/options];
Example:
MRESPONSES MULTY
CROSSTAB INCOME1 INCOME2 BY SEX /TABLE DFREQ;
MULTREG
Syntax:
MULTREG varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The MULREG command allows you to perform multiple regression analysis to predict a
dependent variable from many independent variables. SIMSTAT provides various
regression methods including standard regression, hierarchical entry, forward selection,
backward selection, stepwise selection. The options also allow you to display a wide range
of statistics and perform various tests on residual values.
Options:
Type of regression
HIERARCHICAL Hierarchical entry
| FORWARD Forward selection
| BACKWARD Backward elimination
| STEPWISE Stepwise selection
| STANDARD Enter all variables
PIN=real P value to enter
POUT=real P value to remove
TOLERANCE=real Minimum tolerance value
STEP Show each step
ANOVA ANOVA table
CHANGE Test of changes in R-square
HISTORY History of changes in R
SUMMARY Summary ANOVA table
EQUATION Variables in the equation
OUT Variables not in the equation
CI=integer Width of confidence interval
CPLOT Casewise plot of residuals
RPLOT Residuals scatterplot
PPLOT Normal plot of residuals
SAVE Save predicted values and residuals
NOTE
Syntax:
NOTE "expression" [options];
Description:
The NOTE command displays a single line string on the background screen. By default, the
note line is displayed horizontally centered and at the bottom of the screen with a font size
of 10 points. The TOP and LEFT options can also be used to specify the position of the text's
upper left corner. The parameter for these two options is an integer value between 0 and 100
expressing a percentage of the screen height and width. Other options allow you to control
the size, style and color of the displayed text.
Options:
TOP=integer Vertical position of the text’s upper

LEFT=integer Horizontal position of the text’s upper
SIZE=integer Size of the font (between 6 and 100)
COLOR=color Color of the font (see below)
ITALIC Displays the string in italic characters
BOLD Displays the string in bold characters
HIDE Hides the string
Examples:
NOTE "Monthly analysis" SIZE=10 COLOR=YELLOW BOLD;

NOTE HIDE;
Valid Colors:

NPAR
Syntax:
NPAR varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The NPAR command displays a matrix for various measures of association and concordance
between two variables. The options provide counts and exact probabilities of each coefficient
or asterisks that show the probability level reached. This probability test can be either one-
or two-tailed.
Options:
Type of statistics
TAU-A Kendall's Tau-a
| TAU-B Kendall's Tau-b
| D-SYM Somers' D (symmetric)
| GAMMA Gamma
| R Pearson's R
EXACT Exact probabilities

Deletion of missing values

PAIRWISE Pairwise
| LISTWISE Listwise
ONEWAY
Syntax:
ONEWAY varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The ONEWAY command performs a one-way analysis of variance for all dependent
variables on groups defined by each categorical (numeric) independent variable. It allows
testing whether the means of the groups (2 or more) are not all equals to each other.
ONEWAY provides one-way variance analysis and a standard table including between and
within groups sums of squares, mean squares, and degrees of freedom, F-ratio and its
associated probability. You can also obtain for each group, descriptive statistics including
count, mean, standard deviation, standard error and a user-specified confidence interval for
the mean. Various measures of effect size and post hoc comparisons can also be obtained
as well as various graphs such as a barchart representing the mean of each group, an error
bar diagram or a deviation chart where each bar represents either the standard deviation, the
standard error or a user specified confidence interval.
Options:
RANGE (integer,integer) Minimum and maximum values

Post hoc test

LSD Least significant difference
| N-K Newman-Keuls
| TUKEY Tukey's H.S.D
| SCHEFFE Scheffé test
ERRORCHART Error bar chart
BARCHART Displays mean bars
UPPER Displays only upper portion of error
bars
CIBAR Confidence interval
| SE Standard error
| SD Standard deviation
LINK Link means
DEVCHART Deviation chart
OPEN
Syntax:
OPEN filename;
Description:
The OPEN command reads a file. The extension of the file is used to determine what kind
of file should be opened. When the file name includes a .DBF extension, SIMSTAT closes
the existing data file and opens this new data file. When an .SNB extension is used, the
program clears the current notebook and loads the specified notebook file. If the file
extension is .CHX then SIMSTAT clears the content of the Chart window and loads the
specified chart file.
Examples:
OPEN C:\DATA\CARS.DBF; (open the cars.dbf data file)

OPEN C:\OUTPUT\REPORT.SNB; (open the report.snb notebook file)
PCA
Syntax:
PCA varlist /[options];
Description:
This procedure performs a R-mode principal component analysis. The component loadings
are scaled to unity, so that the sum of squares of an eigenvector equals 1, and the component
scores are scaled so that the sum of squares equals the eigenvalue. Q-mode PCA will
generally have the opposite scaling. Requires MVSP v2.2.
Options:
LOG10 Log base 10
| LOGE Log base e
| LOG2 Log base 2
| SQRT Square root
| RATIO Logratio
CENTER Centered data
STANDARDIZE Standardize data
Minimum eigenvalue (default = all)
Output of graphics
| GPLOT Graphic scattergrams
PCO
Syntax:
PCO varlist /[options];
Description:
Principal coordinates analysis (PCO) is a generalized form of PCA. Whereas PCA implicitly
uses either a covariance or correlation matrix, PCO allows you to input any matrix of metric
values. PCO may be used with any of the distances calculated by MVSP except for the
squared Euclidean distance. Of the similarity measures only Gower's is metric. PCO is
calculated as a Q-mode eigenanalysis, therefore it only gives the eigenvectors, not scores.
Note that a PCO of Euclidean distances will give the same results as a Q-mode PCA.
Requires MVSP v2.2.
Options:
Transformation
LOG10 Log base 10
| LOGE Log base e
| LOG2 Log base 2
| SQRT Square root
| RATIO Logratio
Select a coefficient (default: EUCLID)
EUCLID Euclidian distance
| STEUCLID Standardized Euclidian distance
| COSINE Cosine theta distance
| MANHAT Manhattan metric distance
| CANBER Canberra metric distance
| CHORD Chord distance
| CHISQR Chi-square distance
| AVERAGE Average distance
| MEAN Mean character difference distance
| GOWER Gower general similarity coefficient
Minimum eigenvalue (default: none)
Output of graphics
| GPLOT Graphic scattergrams.
PICTURE
Syntax:
PICTURE NOx filename [options]
Description:
The PICTURE command allows you to display Windows Metafiles (.WMF), Windows
bitmap (.BMP) or icon (.ICO) files. The filename extension is used to determine the graphic
type of the file. Up to 5 different pictures can be displayed on the same screen. This
command can be used with the CURRENTCHART option to display a bitmap copy of the
currently active chart. When used with this option, the size of the displayed picture will be
equal to the size of the chart window’s content (see the WINDOW command for instruction
on how to change the size of a chart window). By default, the pictures are displayed in the
middle of the screen. The TOP and LEFT options can also be used to specify the position of
the picture’s upper left corner.
Options:
NO1..NO5 Picture number

LEFT=integer Vertical position of the picture’s upper
TOP=integer Vertical position of the picture’s upper
CURRENTCHART Display the currently active chart
HIDE Hide the picture.
Examples:
PICTURE NO1 ‘C:\SIMSTAT\SCRIPT\EARTH.BMP’ TOP=10 LEFT=20;
PICTURE NO2 CURRENTCHART TOP=30 LEFT=60;
PICTURE NO1 HIDE;
PLAY
Syntax:
PLAY filename [options];
Description:
The PLAY command allows you to play multimedia files such as .WAV sound files, .MDI
music files or .AVI movie files. If no directory is provided, the program successively looks
for the file in the active directory and in the directory where the current script file is located.
When playing an .AVI movie file, the viewer is positioned in the middle of the screen. The
TOP and LEFT options can also be used to specify the position of the window's upper left
corner. The parameter for these two options is an integer value between 0 a 100 expressing
a percentage of the screen height and width.
Options:
TOP=integer Vertitical position of the AVI movie

screen’s upper left corner (0 and 100)
LEFT=integer Horizontal position of the AVI movie
screen’s upper left corner (0 and 100)
Examples:
PLAY C:\WINDOWS\TADA.WAV;
PLAY SONATA.MDI;
PLAY INTRO.AVI TOP=10 LEFT=20;
PRINT
Syntax:
PRINT windowtype [options];
Description:
The PRINT command can be used to send the contents of a window to the printer. By
default, all contents are printed. To restrict the printing to some pages of a notebook or to
a specific number of charts, use the FROM and TO options to specify the lower and upper
limits.
Options:
Window types
DATA Data spreadsheet window
| NOTEBOOK Notebook/Statistical results window
| SCRIPT Script/log window
| CHART Charts window
FROM=integer Start printing at page/chart
TO=integer End printing at page/chart
Examples:
PRINT NOTEBOOK;
PRINT CHART FROM 3 TO 5;
QBOX
Syntax:
QBOX "string" [options];
Description:
The QBOX command allows you to display a single line message or question to the screen.
By default the window is positioned in the middle of the screen. The LEFT and TOP options
can also be used to specify the position of the window. The window stays on screen until a
key is pressed. The DELAY option allows you to insert a minimum delay between the
display of the box and the input of a valid key. The colors of the text appearing in the box
can be altered by specifying a color as an option. The default colors can also be changed by
using the SET COLOR command.
Options:
Color Text color
DELAY=integer Length of delay (msec)
corner (0 to 100)
LEFT=integer Horizontal position of the box’s upper
BEEP Sounds a beep using computer’s speaker
NOBUTTON Hide the OK button
Valid Colors:

QUESTION...ANSWERS...ENDBOX
Syntax:
QUESTION varname [/options];

·
·
·
ANSWERS
·
·
·
ENDBOX;
Description:
This command displays a dialog box with a multiple choice question. The lines between the
QUESTION and ANSWERS keywords contain the text of the question while the lines
between the ANSWERS and ENDBOX keywords are used to type the available answers.
Each answer should be entered on a separate line. An optional '&' character can be inserted
in the line to specify an accelerator key that, when pressed, will select this item. The
maximum number of items for each question is 30. The answer provided by the user is stored
as a number in a variable specified on the first line of the command. When a data file
variable is specified, the answer is automatically stored in the current record of the data file.
If a numeric value is already stored in variable, it is used as the default answer. The CLEAR
option can be used to automatically erase this value before the dialog box is displayed. If an
answer is required and should not be skipped, use the NOSKIP option to prevent the user
from exiting the dialog box without providing a valid answer.
Options:
color Color of the text
TOP=integer Vertical position of the dialog box’s
upper left corner (0 to 100)
LEFT=integer Horizontal position of the dialog box’s
upper left corner (0 to 100)
BEEP Sounds a beep using computer’s speaker
NOBUTTON Hide the OK button
CLEAR Clear the content of the variable
MOSKIP Prevent exiting the dialog box without
providing a valid answer
Example:
QUESTION $ANSWER1 BLUE NOSKIP

In the following expression: P = 0.05
What does the probability value stands for?
ANSWERS
&A) The probability that the null hypothesis is true
&B) The probability that the null hypothesis is false
&C) The probability of the data given the null hypothesis
&D) The probability of the null hypothesis given the data
&E) None of the above
END;
QUIT
Syntax:
QUIT
Description:
This command takes you out of the SIMSTAT program. All opened files are closed before
exiting the program.
RANDOM
Syntax:
RANDOM varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The RANDOM command is similar to the BOOTSTRAP2 command but simulates the null
assumption that there is no difference or relation in the population. The program draws
from the sample and for each variable a specified number of random observations with
replacement and computes the estimator for the subsample. The procedure is performed
many times (10 to 30,000 times). The options allow you to display information about the
estimator distribution including descriptive statistics, frequency table, percentile table and
histogram of the estimator distribution. The program also computes nonparametric and bias-
corrected bootstrap confidence intervals and Type I error rate for up to 4 alpha levels. If no
sample size is specified (option SIZE), the bootstrap sample size is automatically adjusted
to the size of the original sample.
Options:

Choice of statistics
TAU-A Kendall's Tau-A
| TAU-B Kendall's Tau-B
| D-SYM Somers' D symmetric
| GAMMA Gamma
| R Pearson's r
| SLOPE Regression slope
| INTERCEPT Regression intercept
| S-T Student's T
| S-F Student's F
| M-W Mann-Whitney
| WILCOXON Wilcoxon (W value)
| SIGN Sign test (Z value)
| K-W Kruskal-Wallis
| MEDIAN Median test (Z value)
| AGREE Percentage of agreement
| KAPPA Cohen's kappa
| SCOTT Scott's pi
| NFREE Free marginal (nominal scale)
| KRBAR Krippendorff's r bar
| KR Krippendorff's R
| OFREE Free marginal (ordinal scale)

CI=real Confidence interval
PTILES Percentile table
HISTOGRAM Histogram
VERT | HORIZ Orientation
MIN=real Minimum value
INC=real Increment value
NBAR=integer Nb of bars/intervals
NORMAL Normal curve
ERROR=real Type I error rate
RANK
Syntax:
RANK varname;
Description:
Replaces the values of the current variable by their rank. If ties occur, the mean rank of the
tied values is used. Missing values are excluded.
Examples:
RANK FINALNOTE;
To store the rank in another variable, use this command in combination with the COMPUTE
command as in the following example:
COMPUTE FINALRANK = FINALNOTE;
RANK FINALRANK;
RECODE
Syntax:
RECODE varname = (value[,value..] = value) [...];
Description:
The RECODE command provides an easy way to make multiple changes to the values of
numeric variables, or to collapse values of a continuous variable into categories. The recode
expression can consist of several transformations enclosed in parentheses, each including
one or more values, or a value range, an equal sign, and the new value. Each value on the
left of the equal sign is recoded into the value on the right. The recoding proceeds from left
to right and stops after a transformation occurs. The SYSMIS and MISSING keywords can
be used to represent missing values, while the ELSE represents all non specified values.
Examples:
RECODE SESTATUS = (1,2 = 1) (3,4,5 = 2) (6..10 = 3) (ELSE = MISSING);
To store the new codes into another variable, use this command in combination with the
COMPUTE command as in the following example:
COMPUTE SESTATCAT = SESTATUT;
RECODE SESTATCAT = (1,2 = 1) (3,4,5 = 2) (6..10 = 3) (ELSE = 4);
RECORD
Syntax:
RECORD [option];
Description:
The RECORD command allows you to move the cursor within the currently opened data file
to make a specific record active. You can also use this command to add a new record at the
bottom of the data file.
Options:
FIRST Move to the first record

LAST Move to the last record
NEXT Move to the next record
PRIOR Move to the previous record
NEW Create a new record
REGRESSION
Syntax:
REGRESSION varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The REGRESSION command produces simple regression analysis for each pair of
dependent-independent variables. SIMSTAT lets you choose among linear and 6 types of
nonlinear regression. The output includes the Pearson product-moment correlations, the
intercept and slope of the regression line, and an ANOVA table for the equation. Various
options allow you to obtain a bivariate scatterplot, to select a one- or two-tailed test of
probabilities and to request a standardized residuals caseplot, a scatterplot of predicted
values by standardized residuals or a normal probability plot of residuals.
Options:
Type of regression
LINEAR Linear regression
| QUADRATIC Quadratic regression
| CUBIC Cubic regression
| 4TH 4th degree polynomial
| 5TH 5th degree polynomial
| INV Inverse regression
| LOG Logarithmic regression
| EXP Exponential regression

XYPLOT Bivariate scatterplot
CPLOT Caseplot of residuals
RPLOT Residuals scatterplot
PPLOT Probability plot of residuals
SAVE Save predicted value and residuals
RELIABILITY
Syntax:
RELIABILITY varlist [BY varlist] [/options];
Description:
The RELIABILITY command provides a means to assess the quality of multiple-item
additive scales through the computation of reliability statistics. The options available offer
the possibility to obtain various item statistics, iter-item variance-covariance and correlation
matrices, total scale and item-total statistics. It also allows you to verify the reliability of the
scale through the use of a split-half method or by computing internal consistency measures.
Each selected variable is considered as a single item of the scale. The first and second lists
or variables can be used to specify the division of items in two different subscales to be used
in a split-half method.
Options:
ITEM Item statistics

CORR Inter-item correlation matrix
COVAR Variance/covariance matrix
TOTAL Item-total statistics
SPLIT Split-half reliability
ALPHA Cronbach's Alpha
RETURN
see GOSUB
RUN
Syntax:
RUN program parameters;
Description:
The RUN command runs another Windows or DOS program. If the program is not in the
program directory or in the current script directory, you will need to specify the full path of
the program.
Examples:
RUN SIMCALC.EXE;
RUN C:\WINDOWS\WRITE.EXE MYDOC.WRI;
RUNS
Syntax:
RUNS varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The RUNS test is a procedure to test whether the ordered sequence in which observations
were obtained is random. In order to be performed, such a test requires that all values be
dichotomized into two categories. The options allow you to separate observations into two
distinct groups using the mean, the median or a user-specified value as a cutoff point.
Options:
Type of cuttoff point
MEAN Mean
| MEDIAN Median
| VALUE Value
VALUES (integer, integer) Values of X

SAVE
Syntax:
SAVE windowtype;
Description:
This command can be used to store the contents of the notebook, the chart or the script
window on disk. If the contents were created during the current session and have not been
saved on disk before, a dialog box will appear to allow you to specify the name and location
of the new file.
Options:
Window types
NOTEBOOK Notebook/Statistical results window
SCRIPT Script/log window
CHART Charts window
Examples:
SAVE NOTEBOOK;
SAVE CHART;
SCED
Syntax:
SCED varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The SCED (single case experimental design) command provides some basic tools to study
the effect of an intervention on the behavior of a single subject. It involves the repeated
objective measurement of the behavior of a single subject (dependent variable) over a long
period of time interspersed with changes in the treatment condition (independent variable).
The procedure will display a graph representing the evolution of the dependent variable (Y)
at various phases defined by the independent (X) variable. The various options allow you to
obtain statistics for each phase of the analysis as well as graphic tools that can be used as
judgemental aids to identify the experimental effect of the intervention (smoothed data,
split-middle trend, control bars).
Options:
BRIEF | DETAIL Descriptive statistics

CUMUL Cumulative frequency
LOG Log transformation
MEAN Display mean lines

| REGRESSION Display least square regression lines
| MEDIAN Display split-middle trend lines
Smoothing technique
MAVG (int int ...) Moving average
| RMED (int int ...) Running median
RBAR Control bars

PCT=integer Width of interval
MIN=integer Lower value
MAX=integer Higher value
SCREEN
Syntax:
SCREEN color;
Description:
This command allows you to display a background screen on which textual information,
pictures, movies, menus and dialog boxes will be displayed. The color option lets you
specify the background color. To remove the screen background, use the HIDE option.
Option:
color See below for valid background colors

HIDE Remove the screen
Valid Colors:

Examples:
SCREEN NAVY;
SCREEN HIDE;
SENSITIVITY
Syntax:
SENSITIVITY varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The SENSITIVITY analysis allows one to assess the ability of a quantitative measure (X)
to differentiate a dichotomous criterion condition (Y) and provide guidelines to choose an
appropriate cutoff point. The program provides, for each value of the quantitative measure,
the level of sensitivity (proportion of positive cases correctly diagnosed as true) and
specificity (proportion of negative cases correctly diagnosed as false), and the percentage of
false-positives and false-negatives. This command also allows you to obtains a ROC
(receiver operating characteristic) curve and an Error rate graph.
Options:
VALUE=real Criterion value
HIGH Scale orientation (ascending)
SSTAT Sensitivity statistics
ESTAT Error rates statistics
ROC Roc curve graph
ERROR Error rates graph
SET
Syntax:
SET [options];
Description:
The SET command can be used to change various global program options such as the
display of the toolbar, the status bar or the help hints. It can also be used to modify options
used when printing notebook pages or charts such as the page header or the number of charts
per page.
The HEADER option is used to specify a line of text that will appear at the top of each
printed analysis result. By default, this command alters the contents of the header printed
at the center of the page. The sections of the header printed to the left or the right edge of
the page remain unchanged. However, you can also modify those sections by using the less
than (<) and the greater than (>) character. All text that appears to the left of the first <
character will be printed on the left margin. Also, all text appearing to the right of the last
> character will be printed flush right. Special codes can be inserted in the header to
display the source data file ($f), the time ($t) and date ($d) when the analysis was done, or
the notebook page number ($p).
The VARSIZE and DECIMALS parameters are used to specify the default physical size and
number of decimal places of newly created variables. It is recommended to set those
parameters before creating a new variable with the COMPUTE command.
The SET command also allows you to run a script in demonstration mode, by using the
SET DEMO=integer;
command where integer stands for the number of milliseconds between dialog boxes. In this
mode, BOX and QBOX no longer stop until the user presses <ENTER> or clicks on the OK
button but will be displayed only for a specified length of time. To disable the DEMO mode,
set the number of milliseconds to zero.
Options:
TOOLBAR ON | OFF Turns the main window's tool bar on/off
STATUS ON | OFF Turns the main window's status bar on/off
HINTS ON | OFF Turns the display of help hints on/off
BEEP ON | OFF Beep on error
SIZE=integer Default physical size of newly created
variables
DECIMAL=integer Default number of decimal places for
newly created variables
HEADER=string Changes the title line on printed output
CHARTSPERPAGE=integer Number of charts per page (1, 2 or 4)
DEMO (integer) Enables/disables demonstration mode (0 to
disable or 1 to 30000 milliseconds)
SIGN
Syntax:
SIGN varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The SIGN test procedure tests the hypothesis that two variables have the same distribution.
This is assessed by comparison of the numbers of positive and negative differences between
values of the two variables. The probability test performed can be either one- or two-tailed.
Options:
SORT
Syntax:
SORT varname or expression;
Description:
This command allows you to arrange cases in numeric or alphabetic order. If only one
variable is specified, the sorting will be done on this variable in ascending order. To sort the
records in descending order or to specify a more complex sort involving several variables,
you need to specify a sort expression. This expression can include almost any supported
xBase function.
Examples:
SORT AGE; Sort on AGE in ascending order
SORT DESCEND(AGE); Sort on AGE in descending order.
SORT SEX*100+AGE; Composite xBase expression that will
first sort the records on sex, and then
on age
STOP
Syntax:
STOP;
Description:
Immediately stops the batch command and returns to the SIMSTAT user interface.
T-TEST
Syntax:
T-TEST varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The T-TEST command calculates either independent-sample t-tests (GROUP) or

paired-sample t-tests (PAIRED) to decide whether two sample means are significantly
different. The paired-sample (or correlated) t-test compares the means between each pair
of dependent and independent variables. The independent t-test compares means on the
dependent variable for two groups defined by values of the independent variable. SIMSTAT
provides two distinct tests to take into account whether the two populations from which the
samples are drawn have equal or unequal variances. You can also specify whether the null
hypothesis should be evaluated using a one- or a two-tailed test.
Options:
GROUP | PAIRED Grouped or paired t-test

VALUE (integer, integer) Values of X
ERRORCHART Error bar graph

BARCHART Display mean bars
UPPER Display upper error bar only
(barchart)
CIBAR Confidence interval
| SE Standard error
| SD Standard deviation
HISTOGRAM Dual histogram
NORMAL Normal curve
VERTICAL Vertical bars
TIME-SERIES
Syntax:
TIME-SERIES varlist [/options];
Description:
The TIME-SERIES command allows the examination of time series. Available options offer
various transformations to remove trends or seasonal dependence in a series and provide a
diagnostic for those transformations by displaying autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation
function plots of the transformed series. This command also allows the application of two
smoothing methods (i.e., moving average and running median) to identify trends in noisy
time series data. Control bars representing the mean and the confidence limits can also be
displayed over the series.
Options:
LOG Log transformation

MEAN Remove the mean
DIFF=integer Number of difference operations
SEASON=integer Length of seasonality
PLOT Plot the series
ACF Autocorrelation function
PACF Partial autocorrelation function
LAG=integer Number of lags for ACF and PACF
Type of smoothing
MAVG (int int...) Moving average
| RMED (int int...) Running median
RBAR Control bars

PCT=integer Width of interval

LOW=integer Lower value
HIGH=integer Higher value
TITLE
Syntax:
TITLE "expression" [options];
Description:
The TITLE command displays a single line string on the background screen. By default, the
title line is displayed horizontally centered and at the top of the screen with a font size of 24
points. The TOP and LEFT options can also be used to specify the position of the text's
upper left corner. The parameter for these two options is an integer value between 0 to 100
expressing a percentage of the screen height and width. Other options allow you to control
the size, style and color of the displayed text.
Options:
TOP=integer Vertical position of the text’s upper

LEFT=integer Horizontal position of the text’s upper
SIZE=integer Size of the font (between 6 and 100)
COLOR=color Color of the font (see below)
ITALIC Displays the string in italic characters
BOLD Displays the string in bold characters
HIDE Hides the string
Examples:
TITLE "Monthly analysis" SIZE=10 COLOR=YELLOW BOLD;

TITLE HIDE;
Valid Colors:

VARDEF
Syntax:
VARDEF varlist / [options];
Description:
The VARDEF command can be used to assign a value description, or define the display
width, number of decimal places, or missing value for one or several variables.
Options:
LABEL "string" Variable label

WIDTH=integer Display width
DECIMAL=integer Number of decimal places to display
MISSING=real User defined missing value
Examples:
VARDEF AGE / LABEL “Age of the child” WIDTH=5 DECIMAL=2;

VARDEF SEX RELIGION INCOME / MISSING = -9;
VLABELS
Syntax:
VLABELS varlist /
real = “string”
[real = “string”];
Description:
The VLABELS command can be used to assign alphanumeric strings to values of one or
several numeric variables. When more than one variable is specified, the first variable in
the list will contain the value labels, and all the other variables will be linked to this first
variable.
Example:
VLABEL DEPRESSION1 TO DEPRESSION9 /

0 = “Never”
1 = “Sometimes”
2 = “All the time”;
WEIGHT
Syntax:
WEIGHT [variable];
Description:
The WEIGHT command allows you to designate a weighting variable. When the command
is used alone, the weighting is turned off.
Example:
WEIGHT GROUPNO; {use values in GROUPNO as weights}
WEIGHT; {turns weighting off}
WILCOXON
Syntax:
WILCOXON varlist BY varlist [/options];
Description:
The WILCOXON matched-pairs signed-ranks test is a procedure used to test whether two
related samples have been drawn from the same population. Like the sign test, it computes
the difference between the values of the two variables but takes into account the magnitude
as well as the direction of the differences. The Wilcoxon signed-ranks test is the
nonparametric version of the t-test for paired samples. The probability test performed can
be either one- or two-tailed.
Options:
WINDOW
Syntax:
WINDOW WindowType [options];
Description:
The WINDOW command provides complete control of the display of any SIMSTAT
window. The various options allow one to control the size and location of each window and
to execute various window related actions (tile, cascade, minimize, etc.). The parameter for
TOP, LEFT, WIDTH, and HEIGHT options is an integer value between 0 and 100
expressing a percentage of the screen height and width.
Options:
Window types
DATA Data spreadsheet window
NOTEBOOK Notebook/Statistical results window
SCRIPT Script/log window
CHART Charts window
ALL All four windows
TOP=integer Vertical position of the window’s upper

LEFT=integer Horizontal position of the window’s upper
WIDTH=integer Relative width of the window (0 to 100)
HEIGHT=integer Relative height of the window (0 to 100)
NORMAL Returns the active window to its size and
position before you chose the Maximize or
Minimize command.
MINIMIZED Reduces the active window to an icon.
MAXIMIZED Enlarges the active window to fill the
available space.
CASCADE Arranges open windows in an overlapped
fashion
TILE Arranges multiple opened windows so they
fit next to each other on the desktop and
do not overlap.
Examples:
WINDOW ALL MINIMIZED;
WINDOW CHART TOP=10 LEFT=10 WIDTH=50 HEIGHT=50;
CUSTOMIZING THE TOOLS MENU - 233
10 - CUSTOMIZING THE TOOLS MENU

The TOOLS pull-down menu can be used to run some SIMSTAT add-in modules or to transfer
execution to an external Windows or DOS application such as a file manager, a calculator, or
even a word processor. To add programs to, delete programs from, or edit programs on the
TOOLS menu, choose the TOOLS SETUP command from the TOOLS menu. The following
dialog box will appear.
To add a program to the TOOLS menu

& Choose Add. SIMSTAT displays the Tool Properties dialog box, where you specify
information about the program to be added.
Title - Enter a name for the program you are adding. This name will appear on the
TOOLS menu. You can add an accelerator to the menu command by preceding that
letter with an ampersand (&).
Program - Enter the location of the program you are adding. You must include the
full path to the program. Click the “...” button to search your drives and directories
to locate the path and file name for the program.
Parameters - Enter parameters to pass to the program at startup. For example, you
might want to pass a file name when the program launches.
To delete a program from the TOOLS menu

& Select the program to delete.
& Click on the Delete button.
To change a program on the TOOLS menu

& Select the program to change.
& Choose the Edit button. SIMSTAT displays the Tool Properties dialog box with information
for the selected program.
& Modify the program property and click on the OK button to save those new properties.
SETTING THE PROGRAM PREFERENCES - 235
11 - SETTING THE PROGRAM PREFERENCES

The PREFERENCES command gives access to a multi-page dialog box where you can set global
options affecting the program’s working environment, file handling, and printing. The current
section provides a description of each option available in the Preferences dialog box.
ENVIRONMENT PAGE
Show toolbar - This option turns the main window's toolbar at the top of the screen on or
off. Turn off the toolbar to gain free work space.
Show status bar - This option turns the status bar at the bottom of the screen on or off.
You can gain extra free work space by hiding the status bar.
Display hints - This option allows you to toggle the display of Help Hints.
Beep on error - This option allows you to determine whether or not the computer sounds
a beep when an error message appears on the screen.
Show notebook scroll bars - This option allows you to specify whether to display scroll
bars on the notebook. Displaying scroll bars allows you to scroll the output horizontally
or vertically with the mouse.
Hide menu items unrelated to the active window -This option allows you to choose
between two different menu systems: a task specific menu system where only menus
related to the active window are shown, and a comprehensive menu system where all
menus are displayed even if unrelated to the active window. While the task specific
menu system may facilitate the location of a specific command by displaying fewer
menu commands at a time, performing a task related to another window requires you
to first activate this window in order to gain access to the proper menu. For example,
if you are browsing through the notebook and want to filter the data file, you will need
to activate the data window before accessing the DATA menu where the FILTER
command is located. The full menu system allows you to perform any action related to
any of the 4 window types without changing the active window.
Save and restore desktop information - Select this option to keep information about
the sizes and locations of the 4 windows at the moment you leave SIMSTAT. The next
time you run the program, the locations and sizes of the 4 windows will be restored.
/ To make the starting locations and size of those windows permanent:

& Enable this option.
& Adjust the size and location of the 4 windows to your preference.
& Quit SIMSTAT
& Restart SIMSTAT
& Disable this option to prevent overwriting previously saved information.
Display notebook after analysis - When this option is enabled, the Notebook window
automatically becomes the active window after an analysis command is performed and
its results added to the notebook. (If the Display Graph Window option is enabled (see
below) and new charts are created during the analysis, the chart will become the active
window).
Display graph window on graph creation - When this option is enabled, the Chart
window automatically become the active window after a new chart is created.
Activate script recording on start up - Selecting this option enables the RECORD
script feature. This feature automatically generates script commands for actions
undertaken using pull-down menus and dialog boxes, and appends those commands to
the end of the script window.
DIRECTORIES/BACKUP TAB
Data files directory - By default, when the DATA | OPEN command is activated, the
program looks in the drive and directory from which the program was started. This
option allows you to specify another default drive and/or directory to be used by the
program.
Output files directory - The Output Files directory specifies the name of the directory
where both notebook files and chart files are located. If no directory information is
provided, the dialogs of the OPEN and SAVE AS commands start on the disk and
directory from which SIMSTAT was started.
Script files directory - The Script Files directory specifies the name of the directory
where the Script files are located. If no directory information is provided, the dialogs
of the OPEN and SAVE AS commands start on the disk and directory from which
SIMSTAT was started.
Backup compression factor - This option allows you to set the compression factor to
be used by SIMSTAT when creating archive copies of data files. You can set the
compression factor to a numeric value between 0 and 9. When set to 0, files are simply
stored in the archive. Setting this compression factor to 9 gives the best compression
ratio but is also the slowest compression. The default value is set to 6.
Keep a session backup - When this option is enabled, SIMSTAT automatically creates
a temporary compressed copy of a data file upon its opening. This feature is especially
useful to cancel all data transformation or editing performed during a session and
restore the file as it was when you opened it. It is also possible to refresh this temporary
backup by using the DATA | SESSION BACKUP | REFRESH option. This will ensure
that all modifications to the data file made so far will not be lost if you later decide to
revert to a previous version of the data file. If you quit SIMSTAT or open another file,
this temporary backup file is deleted.
PRINTING PAGE
The printing page allows you to set various printing options for both text and graphic outputs.
Header - Use this header option to specify a line of text that will appear at the top of each
analysis when those analyses are sent to the printer. The header is composed of 3
strings. All text that appears in the LEFT box will be printed on the left margin. All
text appearing in the RIGHT box will be printed flush right, while all text entered in
the CENTER will be printed in the center of the page.
Special codes can be inserted in any of these boxes to print specific information:
Code Effect
$p This code will be replaced by a page number.

$d Put this code in the title to print the date of the page creation.
$t Print the time of the page creation.
$f This code will be replaced by the original data file name.
$$Print a dollar sign.
Text printing mode -You can choose among 3 different printing methods for printing the
content of the notebook.
& One analysis - When this option is enabled, every analysis will start printing at
the top of a new page.
& Smart - When you select this option, the program will try to fit several analyses
on a single page. If an analysis cannot be entirely printed in the remaining space,
SIMSTAT will start printing at the top of a new page.
& Economy - Selecting this option will print every analysis one after the other.
Even if an analysis cannot be entirely printed in the remaining space, the first lines
will be printed on the current page, while the remaining lines will be printed on a
new page.
Left margin - This option allows you to increase the left margin of the printed analysis
outputs.
Maximum width - This option lets you specify the maximum width of analysis results. By
default, this value is set to 90 characters. You can increase this value up to 254
characters so that larger correlation matrix and contingency tables could be printed.
Font size - This option allows you to increase or decrease the size of the font used to print
the content of the notebook. A smaller font size allow you to print more information per
page.
Chart printing - The chart printing option allows you to specify how many charts should
be printed on a single page. When this option is set to 1 or 4 charts per page, the
printing page orientation is automatically set to landscape, while setting the number of
charts per page to 2 will force the charts to be printed in portrait mode.
DATA PAGE
The Data page allows you to specify information regarding the management of data files
(confirmation of operations, etc.)
The Confirmation section provides check boxes to mark the actions you want SIMSTAT to
prompt you to confirm.
Record deletion - Enabling this option causes SIMSTAT to prompt you to confirm the
deletion of a record made with the DELETE RECORD command from the DATA
menu.
Variable deletion - Enabling this option causes SIMSTAT to prompt you to confirm the
deletion of a variable or a variable list specified using the DELETE VARIABLES
command.
Variable transformation - Most commands from the Transformation submenu allow you
to overwrite values of an existing variable. Enabling this option causes SIMSTAT to
prompt you to confirm the overwriting of those values.
Variable creation - Some transformations may require the creation of one or several new
variables. Enabling this option causes SIMSTAT to prompt you to confirm the creation
of new variables.
The current data file format used by SIMSTAT requires you to determine in advance the physical
size of a new variable in the data file. This section allows you to specify the default width and
number of decimal places of new numeric variables created during a transformation or an
analysis.
Width - The width of a numeric variable should be set to the maximum width that a value
can have. The maximum width for the numeric type is 19.
Number of decimals - The number of decimal positions if the field type is numeric. Note
that the length of a numeric field that contains decimals includes the decimal point, a
leading zero, and an optional sign. The minimum length for a numeric field that
contains one decimal position is therefore 3 (unsigned) or 4 (signed). The maximum
number of decimals permitted is 16.
The DATA grid section provides two options that allow you to specify how the datasheet will
display the content of your data file.
Display font - This option allows you to change the font used to display the data in the
data grid. By choosing a different font size, it is possible to increase or decrease the
number of rows and columns displayed on a single screen.
Minimum cell display width - While it is possible to individually adjust the display
width of each variable in a data file, this option allows you to override these values by
setting a minimum display width for the entire data file. This option has been
implemented in order to circumvent a performance problem associated with the grid in
the 16 bit version of SIMSTAT. This speed problem occurs when working with large
data files involving several hundred variables. Increasing this value reduces the number
of columns displayed and thus increases the redrawing speed of the grid.
APPENDIX A - XBASE SYNTAX AND FUNCTIONS - 241
APPENDIX A - XBASE SYNTAX AND FUNCTIONS

The following section provides a description of xBase syntax rules used in the FILTER,
SORTING and COMPUTE commands and a detailed description of each xBase function.
NOTE: This appendix was reproduced from the Apollo v2.0 user’s manual with the authorization
of Successware 90. Inc.
Expression Operators and Rules

Operators used in xBase expressions are standard in every xBase dialect.
String Operators
+ Joins two strings. Trailing spaces in the strings are placed at the end of each
string.
- Joins two strings and removes trailing spaces from the string preceding the
operator and places them at the end of the string following the minus sign
operator.
Numeric Operators
+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
^ Exponentiation (or **)
Relational Operators
= Equal to
== Exactly equal to
<> Not equal to
# Not equal to
!= Not equal to
< Less than
> Greater than
<= Less than or equal to
>= Greater than or equal to
$ Is contained in
Logical Operators (Notice the periods surrounding the operator)
.AND. both expressions are true

.OR. either expression is true
.NOT. either expression is false
Evaluation Order
When more than one type of operator appears in an xBase expression, the order of evaluation
is as follows:
Expressions containing more than one operator are evaluated from left to right. Parentheses
are used to change the evaluation order. If parentheses are nested, the innermost set is
evaluated first.
Numeric operators are evaluated according to generally accepted arithmetic principles:

operators contained in parentheses
exponentiation
multiplication and division
addition and subtraction
Order of evaluation may be altered with parentheses:

3+4*5+6 = 29
(3+4)*5+6 = 41
(3+4)*(5+6) = 77
Logical operators are evaluated as .NOT. first, .AND. second, and .OR. last. Logical
evaluation order may also be altered with parentheses. In multiple conditional expressions
that contain the .NOT. operator, always use parentheses to enclose the .NOT. operator with
the expression to which it applies.
Supported Xbase functions

The following xBase functions are supported in the SORT RECORDS and FILTER RECORDS
command
NOTE: Memo field names are not allowed in SIMSTAT xBase expressions.
ALIAS()
Returns the Alias name of the current work area as a string.
ALLTRIM (String)
Trims both leading and trailing spaces from a string. The string may be derived from
any valid xBase expression.
ALLTRIM(" Provalis ") returns 'Provalis'.
AT (SearchString, TargetString)
Determine whether a search string is contained within a target. If found, the function
returns the position of the search string within the target string (relative to 1). If not
found, the function returns 0 (zero).
AT("gh", "defghij") returns 4.
CHR (Val)
Converts a decimal value to its ASCII equivalent.
CHR(83) returns 'S'
CTOD (String)
Converts a character string into an xBase date. The string must be formatted according
to the Windows date format settings.
CTOD("12/31/94")
DATE ()
Returns the system date (today). Use DTOC(DATE()) to retrieve today's date
formatted according to the Windows settings.
DAY (DateField)
Returns the day portion of an xBase date as an integer.
DELETED ()
Returns True if the record is deleted and False if not deleted.
DESCEND (String)
An xBase function that inverts a key value using 2's complement arithmetic. The result of
the operation is the arithmetic inverse of the key value. When inverted keys are sorted in
ascending sequence, the result is in descending order. A filter expression could be
DESCEND(DTOS(billdate)) + CUSTNO
DTOC (DateField)
Converts an xBase date into a character string formatted according to the Windows settings.
For example, if the date format was American and the date field contained March 21, 1995,
DTOC(datefield) would return '03/21/1995'.
DTOS (DateField)
Converts an xBase date into a string formatted according to standard xBase storage
conventions (CCYYMMDD). For example, December 21, 1993 would be returned as
'19931221'. Indexes that contain date elements should use the DTOS() function, which
naturally collates into oldest date first.
EMPTY (Field)
Reports the empty status of any xBase field. Character and date fields are empty if they
consist entirely of spaces. Numeric fields are empty if they evaluate to zero. Logical fields
are empty if they evaluate to False.
Memo fields that contain no reference to a memo block in the associated memo file are
empty.
IF (Logical, True Result, False Result)
This is the immediate if function. If the Logical expression is true, return the True result,
otherwise return the False result. The types of the True Result and the False Result must be
the same (i.e., both numeric, or both strings, etc.) The logical expression must of course
evaluate as True or False.
IF(DATE() - CTOD("12/31/93") > 0,"This Year", "Last Year")

IIF (Logical, True Result, False Result)
Supported exactly like IF() as noted above.
INDEXKEY ()
Returns the current index key as a string. (Same as ORDKEY()).
LEFT (String, Length)
Returns the leftmost characters of the expression for the defined length.
LEFT("xyzabc", 3) returns 'xyz'.
LEN (Expression)
Returns the length of the expression result as an integer.
LOWER (String)
Converts the string expression into lower case.
MONTH (DateField)
Returns the month portion of an xBase date as an integer.
ORDER ()
Returns the current index order as an integer.
ORDKEY ()
Returns the current index key as a string. (Same as INDEXKEY())
PADC (String, Length, Character)
Centers the passed string between a number of the passed character to make the string the
specified length.
'[' + PADC("Scott", 9 ,"-") + ']' returns '[--Scott--]'.
PADL (String, Length, Character)
Pads the passed string to the specified length with the specified characters. If the string is
longer than the value specified by Length, the string is truncated to this length.
'[' + PADL("Scott", 8, "*" ) + ']' returns '[***Scott]'.

'[' + PADL("Loren Scott", 8, " " ) + ']' returns '[Loren Sc]'.
PADR (String, Length, Character)
Pads the passed string to the specified length using the specified character. If the string is
longer than the value specified by Length, the string is truncated to this length.
'[' + PADR("Scott", 8, " " ) + ']' returns '[Scott ]'.

'[' + PADR("Loren Scott", 8, " " ) + ']' returns '[Loren Sc]'.
RAT (SearchString, TargetString)
Determine whether a search string is contained within a target, starting from the right side
of the target string. If found, the function returns the position of the search string within the
target string (relative to 1). If not found, the function returns 0 (zero).
RAT( "ab", "abzaba" ) returns 4.
RECCOUNT ()
Returns the number of records in the table as a long integer.
RECNO ()
Returns the current physical record number as a long integer.
RIGHT (String, Length)
Returns the rightmost characters of the expression for the defined length.
RIGHT("xyzabc", 3) returns 'abc'.
SELECT ()
Returns the workarea number for the current workarea as a long integer.
SPACE (Length)
Returns a string consisting entirely of spaces for the defined length.
STOD (String)
The inverse of DTOS(). STOD() converts a string formatted according to standard

xBase storage conventions (CCYYMMDD) to an xBase Date formatted according to the
Windows settings.
STR (Number, Length, Decimals)
Converts a number into a right-justified string with decimal digits following the decimal
point. The total length of the string is defined by the length parameter. STR(RECNO(),
5, 0) is a common indexing element that ensures creation of unique keys if appended to
another field element.
An index key using this expression could be built with NAME + STR(RECNO(),5,0)
If the decimals parameter is omitted, the function defaults to zero decimal places. If the
length parameter is omitted as well, the length of the result is the length of the field.
STRZERO (Number, Length, Decimals)
Converts a number into a, zero-padded right justified string with decimals digits following
the decimal point. The total length of the string is defined by the length parameter.
STRZERO( 1234, 10, 2 ) returns '0001234.00'
If the decimals parameter is omitted, the function defaults to zero decimals. If the length
parameter is omitted as well, the length of the result is the length of the field.
SUBSTR (String, Start, Length)
Returns a portion of the string expression starting at the defined start location for the defined
length..
SUBSTR('xyzabcd', 3, 4) returns 'zabc'.
TIME ()
Returns the system time as a string in the form HH:MM:SS.
TRANSFORM (Expression, Picture)

Transform converts strings and numeric values into formatted character strings. The
function transforms the result of the first expression in accordance with the second picture
string.
The picture string is made up of two parts. The first part is the Function string and it is
optional for both strings and numeric values (as long as the second Template string is
present).
A character string transformation picture may consist of only a Function string or only a
Template or both.
A numeric picture must contain a Template string; the Function string is optional.
A logical value must contain only a Template string with Template characters L or Y.
The Function string consists of a leading @ character followed by one or more formatting
characters. If the Function string is present, the @ character must be the first character in
the picture string with its formatting characters immediately following and it may not
contain spaces.
If a Template string exists as well, it follows the Function string. A single space separates
the Function string and the Template string.
Function string characters allowed for numeric values are:
B left justify;
C display CR after positive numbers;
X display DR after negative numbers;
Z blank a zero value;
( enclose negative numbers in parentheses.
Function string characters allowed for strings are:
R inserts unassigned template characters;

! converts all alpha characters to upper case.
The @R Function requires a Template; the ! Function does not.
The Template string describes the format on a character by character basis. The Template
string is made up of special characters which have specific results and optional unassigned
characters which either replace characters or are inserted in the formatted string depending
upon the absence or presence of the @R Function string.
Template assigned characters are as follows:
A,N,X,(,# are place holders and are interchangeable;

L displays logical values as T or F;
Y displays logical values as Y or N;
! converts the corresponding character to upper case;
, (comma) or a space (in Europe) in a numeric template separate the elements of a
number;
. (period) or , (comma - in Europe) in a numeric template specify the decimal
position;
* fills leading spaces with asterisks in a numeric template;
$ as the leading character in a numeric template results in a floating dollar sign
being placed in front of the formatted number.
Example: Where "phone" is a character field holding a phone number with no formatting
characters.
'transform(phone, "@R (###) ###-####")' returns '(909) 699-6776'.
If the formatting characters were actually present in the field, the "@R" function would be
omitted
For numeric fields,

'transform(123456.78, "$9,999,999.99")' returns ' $123,456.78'.
TRIM (String)
Removes trailing spaces from the string expression.
UPPER (String)
Converts the string expression into upper case. Character fields used in index
expressions should always be converted to upper case to insure correct collating
sequence.
VAL (String)
Converts a string of numeric characters into its equivalent numeric value. The
conversion stops at the first non-numeric character encountered (or the end of the
string).
VAL("123ABC") returns a value of 123.
YEAR (DateField)
Returns the year portion of an xBase date as an integer.

APPENDIX B - REFERENCES
STATISTICAL TEXTBOOK
AGRESTI, A. & FINLAY, B. (1986). Statistical methods for the social sciences, 2nd.
edition. San Francisco: Dellen-Macmillan.
FERGUSON, G.A. (1989). Statistical analysis in psychology & education, sixth edition.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
TABACHNICK, B.G., & FIDELL (1989). Using multivariate statistics, 2nd. edition. New
York: Harper Collins.
WINER, B.J. (1971). Statistical principles in experimental design. New York:

McGraw-Hill.
COMMON PROBLEMS IN STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

ALLISON, D.B., GORMAN, B.S., PRIMAVERA, L.H. (1993). Some of the most common
questions asked of statistical consultants: Our favorite responses and recommended
readings. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 119(2), 153-185.
COHEN, J. (1990). Things I have learned (so far). American Psychologist, 45, 1304-1312.
OAKES, M. (1986). Statistical Inference. New York: Wiley.
MEASURES OF ASSOCIATION
GIBBONS, J. D. (1993). Nonparametric measures of association. Beverly Hill: Sage
Publication.
HILDEBRAND, D.K., LAING, J.D., & ROSENTHAL, H. (1977). Analysis of ordinal data.
Beverly Hill: Sage Publication.
LIEBETRAU, A.M. (1983). Measures of association. Beverly Hill: Sage Publication.
REYNOLDS, H.T. (1977). Analysis of nominal data. Beverly Hill: Sage Publication.
NONPARAMETRIC STATISTICS
CONOVER, W.J (1980). Practical nonparametric statistics 2nd. Ed. New York: John Wiley
& Sons.
HOLLANDER, M. & WOLFE, D. (1973). Nonparametric statistical methods, New York:

John Wiley & Son.
REFERENCES - 251
SIEGEL, S (1956). Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
INTER-RATER AGREEMENT MEASURE

BRENNAN, R.L. & PREDIGER, D.J. (1981). Coefficient kappa: Some uses, misuses, and
alternatives, Educational and Psychological Measurement, 41, 687-699.
COHEN, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales, Educational and

Psychological Measurement, 20, 30-46.
KRIPPENDORFF, K. (1970). Bivariate agreement coefficients for reliability of data. In

E.F. Borgatta and G.W. Bohrnstedt (Eds.). Sociological methodology: 1970. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
SCOTT, W.A. (1955). Reliability of content analysis: The case of nominal scale coding.
Public Opinion Quarterly, 19, 321-325.
MULTIPLE COMPARISON PROCEDURES

JACCARD, J., BECKER, M.A., & WOOD, G. (1984). Pairwise multiple comparison
procedures: A review. Psychological Bulletin. 96, 589-596.
TOOTHAKER, L.E. (1993). Multiple comparison procedures. Beverly Hill: Sage

Publication.
MULTIPLE REGRESSION
DARLINGTON, R.B. (1968). Multiple regression in psychological research and practice.
Psychological Bulletin, 69, 161-182.
COHEN, J. & COHEN, P. (1983). Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation analysis for the
Behavioral Sciences. 2nd Ed. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum.
DRAPER, N.R. & SMITH, H. (1981). Applied Regression Analysis. 2nd Edition. New
York: John Wiley & Sons.
PEDHAZUR, E.J (1982). Multiple Regression in Behavioral Research, 2nd Edition. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
GENERAL LINEAR MODEL & ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE/COVARIANCE

COHEN, J. (1968). Multiple regression as a general data-analytic system. Psychological
Bulletin, 70, 426-443.
COHEN, J. & COHEN, P. (1983). Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation analysis for the
Behavioral Sciences. 2nd Ed. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum.
IVERSEN, G.R., & NORPOTH, H. (1976). Analysis of Variance. Beverly Hill: Sage
Publication.
PEDHAZUR, E.J (1982). Multiple Regression in Behavioral Research, 2nd Edition. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
OVERALL, J.E., & SPIEGEL, D.K. (1969). Concerning least squares analysis of
experimental data. Psychological Bulletin, 72, 311-322.
ITEM ANALYSIS
CROCKER, L., & ALGINA, J. (1986). Introduction to classical & modern test theory. Fort
Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
EBEL, R.L. (1965). Measuring educational achievement. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
HENRYSSEN, S. (1971). Gathering, analyzing and using data on test items. In R.L.
Thorndike (Ed.). Educational measurement (2nd Edition). Washington, D.C.:
American Council on Education.
STREINER, D.L., & NORMAN, G.R. (1989). Health measurement scales: A practical
guide to their development and use. Oxford University Press.
SINGLE-CASE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

HERSEN, M., & BARLOW, D. (1976). Single case experimental designs: Strategies for
studying behavior change. New York: Pergamon Press.
GRESHAM, F.M. (1991). Moving beyond statistical significance in reporting consultation

outcome research. Journal of educational and psychological consultation, 2(1), 1-13.
MICHAEL, J. (1974). Statistical inference for individual organism research: Mixed blessing
or curse? Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 7, 647-653.
SIDMAN, M. (1960). Tactics of scientific research: Evaluating experimental data in

psychology. New York: Author's Cooperative Press.
REFERENCES - 253
RELIABILITY ANALYSIS
CARMINES, E.G., & ZELLER, R.A. (1979). Reliability and validity assessment. Beverly
Hill: Sage Publication.
NUNNALLY, J.C. (1964). Educational measurement and evaluation. New-York:

McGraw-Hill.
BOOTSTRAP SIMULATION
DIACONIS, P., & EFRON, S. (1983, May). Computer intensive methods in statistics.
Scientific American, 116-130.
EFRON, B. (1981). Nonparametric estimates of standard error: The jackknife, the

bootstrap, and other resampling methods. Biometrika, 68, 589-599.
EFRON, B., & GONG, G. (1983). A leisurely look at the bootstrap, the jackknife and
cross-validation. American Statistician, 37, 36-48.
EFRON, B., & TIBSHIRANI, R.J. (1993). An introduction to the bootstrap. New York:
Chapman & Hall.
MOONEY, C.Z., & DUVAL, R.D. (1993). Bootstrapping: A nonparametric approach to

statistical inference. Beverly Hill: Sage Publication.
PÉLADEAU, N., & LACOUTURE, Y. (1993). SIMSTAT: Bootstrap computer simulation

and statistical program for IBM personal computers. Behavior Research Methods,
Instruments, & Computers, 25(3), 410-413.
STINE, R. (1989). An introduction to bootstrap methods: Examples and ideas. Sociological

Methods and Research, 8(2&3), 243-290.
WASSERMAN, S., & BOCKENHOLT, U. (1989). Bootstrapping: Applications to

psychophysiology. Psychophysiology, 26(2), 208-221.
APPENDIX C - LIMITATIONS
Maximum number of variables 1022
Maximum number of cases 320,000 or more
Maximum number of bootstrap resampling 32,000
Maximum number of notebook pages 16,320
Maximum number of charts 16,320
Maximum number of sections in a notebook: 100
Maximum number of nominal values (Frequency, Crosstab 255

Breakdown, Oneway, Kruskall-Wallis)
Maximum number of factors/covariates (GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA) 5
Maximum number of predictors in multiple regression 40
Maximum number of variables in reliability analysis 90
Maximum number of variables in item analysis 250

TECHNICAL SUPPORT - 255
APPENDIX D - TECHNICAL SUPPORT

When contacting Provalis Research for technical support by fax or e-mail, be sure to include your
product name and version. Include a description of the problem, including all the steps needed
to replicate it and, if applicable, a complete program source code and data (in the smallest form
possible). You can contact Provalis Research:
Phone: 514-899-1672 (collect call not accepted)

FAX: 514-899-1750
Compuserve E-mail: simstat
Internet E-Mail: support@simstat.com
Internet Web site: http://www.simstat.com
Standard mail: Provalis Research
2414 Bennett Street
Montréal, QC
H1V 3S4
CANADA
INDEX
A Customizing charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158-164
Exporting charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
ACF plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146, 228 Data point values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Agreement measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97-99 Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Alpha Navigating in the chart window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Bootstrap analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 69-70, 72, 183, 217 Setting global options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Cronbach’s Alpha . . . . 100--107, 137-139, 221, 247 Titles and axis labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
ANCOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90-93, 196 Zooming in and out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250-251 Chi-square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79, 129, 186, 190
ANOVA CHOOSE X-Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 65
Friedman test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89, 195 CHX files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 157, 211
GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . 90, 93, 196 Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 10, 155, 165, 170
Kruskall-Wallis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110, 202 Cluster analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66, 187
Multiple regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119, 120, 208 Cohen’s Kappa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 97, 187, 200, 217
ONEWAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130, 210 Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 236
Regression analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133, 220 Conditional transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55, 188
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250-251 Confidence intervals
Append data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42, 181 Bootstrap analysis . . . . . . . . 68-70, 72, 182, 183, 217
Archival backup of data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Correlations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 190
Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 45 Frequency analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 195
ASCII files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, 42, 191 Logistic regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112-113, 204
Autocorrelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146-148 Oneway ANOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130, 210
AVI files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180, 213 T-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149, 227
Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158, 159, 162-164, 186, 193 Confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Contingency table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77, 115, 125, 190
B Control bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144-145, 147, 223, 228
Correlation
Background color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162, 224 Bootstrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70, 183, 196, 217
Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 45, 236 Correlation matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 190
Backward selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119, 208 Crosstabulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77, 125, 190, 207
Barchart GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92-197
Crosstabulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78-79, 191 Item analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104, 201
Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86-87, 195 Logistic regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112, 204
Inter-raters analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98-99, 200 Multiple regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120-220
Binomial test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 , 181 Regression analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133, 220
Bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 165-166, 214 Reliability analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136-139, 221
BMP files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 165-166, 214 Correspondence analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Bootstrap analysis . . . . . . . . 68-73, 182, 183, 196, 217 Covariance matrix
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Correlation analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 190
Box-&-Whisker plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74, 87, 185, 195 Factor analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 193
Breakdown analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74, 185 GLM ANOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90, 196
Reliability analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136-138, 221
C Creating a new data file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Caseplot Creating specific charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92, 197 Crosstabulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77, 125, 190, 207
Multiple regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120, 220 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133, 220 Cubic regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136, 220
Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153-166 Cumulative distribution chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 195
3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Customizing charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158-164
Axis scaling and grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Creating specific charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
D F
Data distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49, 72, 87 Factor analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 193
Data files Filtering records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 194
Backup of data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158, 161, 209, 229, 238
Creating a new data file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Forward selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119, 208
Defining variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Frequency analysis . . . . . . . . 15, 86, 97, 125, 186, 195
Entering and Editing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Friedman test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89, 195
Exporting data to other applications . . . . . . . . . . 40 Full analysis bootstrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73, 196
Filtering records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249-252
Importing data from other applications . . . . . . . . 38
Limiting access to data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 G
Merging data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Gamma . . . . . . . . . . . . 69, 78, 127, 183, 191, 210, 218
Opening an existing data file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Getting help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Sorting records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA command . . . . 90 , 196, 250
Data labels (in a chart) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Global options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160, 225, 235
dBase files (DBF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 41,191, 211
GO TO command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Decimal places
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 27-28, 50, 226, 238
Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 H
Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159, 186 Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225, 237
Defining variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27, 230 Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Delete record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31, 238 Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 225, 235
Descriptive analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 72, 80, 86, 130, 193 Hierarchical regression . . . . . . . . . . . 90, 118-119, 208
Deviation chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131, 211 Histogram . . . . 49, 72, 87, 150, 183, 184, 195, 217, 227
Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Discrimination index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 201 I
Displaying data point values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Diversity indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Image covariance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 193
Dual histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150, 227 Import data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 199
Dummy recoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Independent t-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149, 227
Durbin-Watson Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92, 197 Interaction
Multiple regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120, 208 GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA . . . . . . . . 90, 91, 196-197
Regression analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134, 221 Logistic regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112, 204
Internal consistency . . . . . . . . . . 100, 136-137, 221, 251
E Inter-item correlation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137, 221
Inter-raters agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97, 200, 250
Editing axis scaling and grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Inverse regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133, 220
Editing titles and axis labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Item analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104, 201, 251
Effect coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59, 90 Item characteristic curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104, 201
Eigenvalue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81-84, 189, 193, 212
Encrypted script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Endorsement rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 K
Entering and editing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Error bar chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130, 149, 210, 227 Kendall’s tau . . . . . . . . . . . . 69, 78, 127, 183, 210, 218
Error rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68, 141, 225 Kolmogorov-Smirnov test . . . . . . . . 108, 109, 202, 203
Excel files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38-40, 199 Krippendorff agreement measures . . . . . . . 97, 200, 250
Exponential regression . . . . . . . . . . . . 52, 133, 176, 220 Kruskal-Wallis command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110, 202
Exportation Kurtosis . . . . . . . . . . 49, 69, 74, 86, 100, 125, 182, 193
Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155, 165-166
Data to other applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-41
Expression operators and functions . . . . . . . . . 176, 240
L Moses test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117, 207
NPAR matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127, 210
Labels
One sample chi-square test . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129, 186
Axis labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160, 162
Runs test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140, 222
Value labels . . . . . . . . . . 22, 27-30, 38, 41, 45, 230
Sign test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143, 226
Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160-162
Wilcoxon test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152, 231
Likelihood ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78, 112, 191, 204
Normal probability plot . . . . . . . . . . . 49, 87, 120, 134,
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 40, 253
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195, 197, 208, 220
Linear regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 220
Notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 60-64, 225
Listing cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111, 204
NPAR matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127, 210, 185
Listwise deletion . . . . . . . . . 75, 104,127, 190, 201, 210
Numeric recoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Logistic regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112, 204
Lotus files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 40, 199
O
M One sample chi-square test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129, 186
Oneway ANOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110, 130, 210, 251
Mann-Whitney test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114, 152, 205
Opening a script file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Manual conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Output management using Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
McNemar test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115, 205
Median . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49, 69, 74, 86, 182, 183, 193
P
Median test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116, 206
Running median . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224, 228, 144 PACF plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146, 228
Split-median trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224, 144 Pack file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Median test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116, 206 Pairwise deletion . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 127, 190, 201, 210
Memory and data file variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Paradox files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 40, 199
Merging data files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Pareto chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 87,195
Metafiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 165 Partial autocorrelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146, 228
Missing values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 28, 53, 57, 75, Password protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127, 190, 201, 210, 219 Pearson’s r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 78, 191
Modifying specific chart options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Percentile table . . . . . . . . . . 69, 86, 182, 184, 195, 217
Moses test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117, 207 Phi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78, 190, 191
Movie file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180, 213 Point marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Moving average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145, 147, 224, 228 Power estimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69, 72, 182
Multiple comparison procedures . . . . . . . 130, 211, 250 Principal components analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Multiple regression . . . 90, 118-124, 196, 197, 204, 208 Principal coordinates analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 215, 237
Multiple responses analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125, 207 Normal probability plot . . . . 49, 87, 120, 134, 195, 197
Program preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225, 235
N
Q
Navigating
in the data windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Quadratic regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136, 220
in the notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Quattro Pro files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38-40, 199
in the chart window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Quitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207, 217, 235, 236
in the script window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Newman-Keuls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130, 211 R
Nonlinear regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133, 220
Rank
Nonparametric tests
Transforming data into ranks . . . . . . . . . . . . 58, 219
Binomial test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 , 181
Statistics . . . . . . . . 89, 110, 114, 152, 195, 202, 219
Friedman test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89, 195
Recoding values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57-59, 219
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test . . . . . . 108, 109, 202, 203
Record
Kruskal-Wallis command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110, 202
Delete record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31, 238
Mann-Whitney test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114, 152, 205
Filtering records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 194
McNemar test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115, 205
Sorting records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 227
Median test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116, 206
Record script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64, 171, 236 Startup options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249-252 Status bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 225, 226, 235
Stepwise regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118, 119, 121, 208
Regression analysis Symphony files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38-40, 199
Bootstrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70, 183, 196, 217 Syntax Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
GLM ANOVA/ANCOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92-197 System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Logistic regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112, 204
Multiple regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120-220 T
Regression analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133, 220
T-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149, 227
Reliability analysis . . . . . . 100-103, 136-139, 221, 251
Tab delimited files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38-41, 165, 199
Residual analysis . . . 87, 120, 134, 195, 197, 208, 220
Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, 60, 63
Rotated factor solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 194
Tau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69, 78, 127, 183, 191, 210, 218
Rounding numerical values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Technical support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 3, 253
Running a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171, 185
Time-series analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147, 228
Running median . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145, 146, 224, 228
Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-11, 225, 235
Runs test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140, 222
Tools menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50, 57-59, 188
S
Rank transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58, 219
Saving script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Tukey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130, 211
Scatterplot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133, 221 Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-19
Residual scatterplot . . . 92, 120, 134, 197, 208, 220
Scheffé . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130, 211 V
Scott’s pi . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183, 201, 218, 244, 245, 250
Value labels . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 27-30, 38, 41, 45, 230
SCR files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168, 172, 185
Variable assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 65
Scree plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 83, 194
Variable name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 27, 28
Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167-180
Variable sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45-46
Encrypted script files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Variable statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Expression Operators and Functions . . . . . . . . . 176
Varimax rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81- 85, 194
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Memory and data file variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
W
Navigating in the script window . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Opening an existing script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 WAV files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180, 213
Recording a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Wilcoxon test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152, 231
Running a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Windows bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165, 214
Saving a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Windows metafile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165, 214
Syntax Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 WMF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165, 214
SCZ files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168, 169, 172
Seasonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 X
Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 43-44
Seed value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71-73, 182, 183, 196, 218 xBase syntax and functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240-248
Sensitivity analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141-142, 225
Sets of variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 46, 118 Z
Setting global options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Zooming in and out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Sign test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143, 226
Single-case experimental design . . . . . . . . . . . 223, 251
Skewness . . . . . . . . . 49, 69, 74, 86, 100, 125, 182, 193
SNB files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 211
Sorting . . . . . . 36, 237, 77, 86, 97, 191, 195, 200, 227
Sound files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180, 213
Split-half reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139, 221
Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39-41, 199
SPSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 40, 199
Standard regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118, 119, 208

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SIMSTAT

Designed and written by Normand Péladeau

2 - Tutorial: Performing statistical analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3 - Data file operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

5 - Working with the notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

7 - Working with charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

8 - Using scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

9- Script language reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

10 - Customizing the tools menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

11 - Setting the program preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

APPENDIX A - xBase syntax and functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

APPENDIX B - References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

APPENDIX C - Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

APPENDIX D - Technical support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Using this manual

The SIMSTAT package

To install the program on your hard disk:

Making a backup copy

Basic program information

The working environment

SIMSTAT's working space contains four windows:

Changing the active window

Working with pull-down menus

Working with dialog boxes

<Tab> Moves to the next item

<Right arrow> Moves the cursor one character to the right.

Multiple-page dialog boxes

Print one or more pages or charts of the active window.

Paste text or a value from the clipboard.

Notebook window buttons

Add a tab to the Notebook.

Add a blank page to the Notebook.

Select variables to be included in subsequent statistical analysis.

Chart window buttons

Copy a bitmap image of the current chart to the clipboard.

Turn on/off the 3D option for the current chart.

Display the 3D rotation dialog box.

Zoom in the currently displayed graph.

Script window buttons

Run the entire script.

Run the selected commands.

Run the script from the current line.

Click on one of these icons switch to another SIMSTAT window.

2 - TUTORIAL: PERFORMING STATISTICAL ANALYSES

Step 1 - Opening a data file for analysis

Double click on the SAMPLE.DBF file to open it.

Step 2 - Assigning variables

Step 3 - Performing frequency analyses

Step 4 - Viewing the results

Step 5 - Selecting a subset of cases

Step 6 - Performing regression analyses

Step 7 - Keeping hard-copies of results

To save the results on disk:

To print the numerical results or the charts:

Step 8 - Exiting SIMSTAT

3 - DATA FILE OPERATIONS

Information on data transformation techniques will be introduced in the next chapter.

Opening an existing data file