Talk:Multivariate statistics

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[edit] possible additions

Here are a few possible additions to this page, both as a note for myself and as an invitation for discussion:

• Brief discussion of ordination and classification and how the multivariate techniques listed fit into those categories.
• Link to factor analysis and mention of how it and PCA are related.
• Link to cluster analysis.
• Discussion of the kinds of research questions for which multivariate statistics might be most appropriate.

--Belgrano 23:44, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

Currently this page is a little misleading as it does not differentiate between models where more than one variable is modelled as random (multivariate) and those, like that commonly referred to as multiple regression, where only one variable is modelled as random but many explanatory variables are included. These are really univariate and I find it helpful to describe them as multivariable - although not a perfect term since a random variable is also a variable. The advantage of this comes when one uses multiple explanatory variables in a true multivariate regression and can just use both terms to describe the model.217.42.210.162 17:20, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree somewhat with the previous comment. The words multivariate and multivariable have separate and distinct meanings in statistics. Multivariate is used when multiple dependent variables are used (aka outcomes, responses), while multivariable refers to the case when you have multiple predictors (aka, independent variables). Some of the methods listed on this page are not obviously multivariate, such as regression and logistic regression, although they could be. When they are, they are usually referred to as multivariate regression. 12.216.244.172 (talk) 04:01, 29 February 2008 (UTC)Wade