Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Spiders and Stats

I think that I have redefined my independent project pretty well (I hope, see last posts), but I guess I need to start thinking about what kind of statistics I want to use. I was thinking about some t-tests, chi-square, and maybe ANOVA. I guess I am just not all that familiar with trying to determine what kind of stats to use. Usually, people just tell me like for example, in ecology lab. I am sure that I will want to show a linear regression for number of sperm released per intromission, which I can find out by dissecting some males and counting sperm. But I am not sure how to compare number of offspring for each group (1. sterile, sterile 2. sterile, fertile 3. fertile, sterile 4. fertile, fertile) especially with varying numbers of sperm in each group. This would involve allowing each male equal number of intromissions and then varying the ratio of intromissions between first and second male(ie: 1:10). Does anyone have any suggestions?? Maybe if my hypothesis that the priority pattern is determined by a sperm number (more of a lottery, vs. placement of sperm) is supported, I could show that there is no difference between a fertile first male with a 10:1 advantage of sperm number and a fertile second male with the same advantage. I don't know, help!!

1 comment:

Rebecca Hazen said...

Carmella,

Ummmmm... I have no idea.

Have you talked to Terry about this? I don't know if anyone in our class is qualified to assist you with the specific details of this design, but I think it sounds REALLY COOL!

Your enthusiasm about your spiderlings is inspiring! :)

Cheers,

Rebecca