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Velvet Digest

What is the difference between planned comparisons and post hoc tests?

Author

Christopher Snyder

Updated on April 06, 2026

A planned comparison is something you are committing to before you see your data, and will run no matter what the results look like. A post-hoc comparison is more opportunistic.

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Likewise, people ask, are you more likely to find a significant difference with a post hoc test or a planned comparison?

Post hoc tests are typically used to evaluate pairs of groups to see if they are statistically significant from one another. Unlike planned comparisons, these evaluations are not planned in advance, but rather represent a search "after the fact" to see where the statistically significant differences exist.

Subsequently, question is, what is post hoc comparison? Post-hoc (Latin, meaning “after this”) means to analyze the results of your experimental data. They are often based on a familywise error rate; the probability of at least one Type I error in a set (family) of comparisons. The most common post-hoc tests are: Bonferroni Procedure. Duncan's new multiple range test (MRT)

Considering this, what is a planned comparison?

The term planned comparison is used when you focus in on a few scientifically sensible comparisons. You don't do every possible comparison. And you don't decide which comparisons to do after looking at the data. Instead, you decide -- as part of the experimental design -- to only make a few comparisons.

What is an a priori test?

A priori: A priori tests are comparisons that the experimenter clearly intended to test before collecting any data. Post hoc: Post hoc tests are comparisons the experimenter has decided to test after collecting the data, looking at the means, and noting which means "seem" different.

Related Question Answers

What are post hoc tests used for?

Because post hoc tests are run to confirm where the differences occurred between groups, they should only be run when you have a shown an overall statistically significant difference in group means (i.e., a statistically significant one-way ANOVA result).

Why do contrasts have to be orthogonal?

The contrasts are orthogonal because they have a zero sum of the products of their coefficients (2x0 + -1x1 + -1x-1 = 0). If the control belongs to a different level of A, then the rows of the contrast coefficients can be rearranged accordingly without losing orthogonality.

What does a pairwise comparison show?

Pairwise comparison generally is any process of comparing entities in pairs to judge which of each entity is preferred, or has a greater amount of some quantitative property, or whether or not the two entities are identical.

What is Tukey post hoc test?

The Tukey Test (or Tukey procedure), also called Tukey's Honest Significant Difference test, is a post-hoc test based on the studentized range distribution. An ANOVA test can tell you if your results are significant overall, but it won't tell you exactly where those differences lie.

What is the purpose of Tukey's HSD test?

The Tukey's honestly significant difference test (Tukey's HSD) is used to test differences among sample means for significance. The Tukey's HSD tests all pairwise differences while controlling the probability of making one or more Type I errors.

What are contrasts in Anova?

For a One-way ANOVA, a contrast is a specific comparison of Treatment group means. Contrast constants are composed to test a specific hypothesis related to Treatment means based upon some prior information about the Treatment groups.

What is a linear contrast?

In statistics, particularly in analysis of variance and linear regression, a contrast is a linear combination of variables (parameters or statistics) whose coefficients add up to zero, allowing comparison of different treatments.

How do you do planned comparisons?

There are two approaches to analyzing planned comparisons:
  1. Use the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, but only correct for the number of comparisons that were planned.
  2. Set the significance level (or the meaning of the confidence interval) for each individual comparison.

What is a planned contrast test?

Planned contrasts. (a) Contrasts are the building blocks of most statistical tests: ANOVA, regression, MANOVA, discriminant analysis, factor analysis, etc. We will spend a lot of time on contrasts throughout the year. A contrast is a set of weights (a vector) that defines a specific comparison over scores or means.

How do you use Bonferroni correction?

Applying the Bonferroni correction, you'd divide P=0.05 by the number of tests (25) to get the Bonferroni critical value, so a test would have to have P<0.002 to be significant. Under that criterion, only the test for total calories is significant.

What is an example of post hoc?

Fallacy occurs when an argument is made using illogical reasoning. Post hoc is a fallacy where one reasons that since an event occurred before another, then the first event caused the other. Examples of Post Hoc: 1. Our soccer team was losing until I bought new shoes.

When should I use Howell post hoc test?

Performs Games-Howell test, which is used to compare all possible combinations of group differences when the assumption of homogeneity of variances is violated. This post hoc test provides confidence intervals for the differences between group means and shows whether the differences are statistically significant.

Is math a priori or a posteriori?

Philosophers then go on to say that mathematics is true without reference to reality. The knowledge of mathematics (as opposed to the knowledge created by mathematics) is a priori. It is known without reference to reality. It is claimed that mathematics is a higher form of knowledge.

What is an example of a priori knowledge?

Examples of a priori knowledge A priori knowledge comes from reason alone and not from experience. Mathematical equations, for example, are an example of a priori knowledge, since they do not require any real-world evidence to be considered true. (You might argue that all knowledge is based in real-world experience.

What does a priori mean in research?

A priori, Latin for "from the former", is traditionally contrasted with a posteriori. Whereas a posteriori knowledge is knowledge based solely on experience or personal observation, a priori knowledge is knowledge that comes from the power of reasoning based on self-evident truths.

What is an a priori argument?

The Ontological Argument is a good example of an a priori argument. A priori is a term first used by Immanuel Kant and it means "from the beginning" or "at first". It is a type of argument based on the meaning of terms. To know something a priori is to know it from pure logic, without having to gather any evidence.

What is a priori hypothesis?

An a priori argument, reason, or probability is based on an assumed principle or fact, rather than on actual observed facts.

What is an orthogonal contrast?

Definitions. A contrast is a linear combination of 2 or more factor level means with coefficients that sum to zero. Two contrasts are orthogonal if the sum of the products of corresponding coefficients (i.e. coefficients for the same means) adds to zero.