----- Forwarded message from "K. James Soda" <[email protected]> -----

Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:32:42 -0400
From: "K. James Soda" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: "K. James Soda" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: CVA vs DA
To: [email protected]

Dear Eloise,

Actually, cannonical variance analysis is the same as (linear) discriminate analysis, although I find that the former term is often used to describe the graphical aspects of the procedure.  There are other types of discriminate function analysis, but the only one with which I am familiar, quadratic function analysis, might be impractical.  Here's a quick explanation of how they work and differ:  Linear discriminate analysis, in a way, tries to draw lines in sample space that will separate two or more groups.  An unknown data point is placed into sample space, and classified into whichever group has a mean on the same side of the line(s) as the unknown.  The downside is that linear discriminate analysis was developed under the assumption that every group has an identical covariance structure; if this is not the case, the method will not work as well.  Quadratic discriminate function analysis does the same thing as linear discriminate analysis, but instead of drawing lines it will draw quadratic curves.  This means that groups need not have identical covariance structures, but, as a result, the method involves estimating every covariance matrix independently, which requires large sample sizes.  Unfortunately, what constitutes a large sample size depends on the number of variables.  Since landmark-based morphometrics tends to have a large number of variables, large sample sizes are hard to come by (though not impossible).

My advice is just to try linear discriminate function analysis, and assess how well it classifies your teeth using a leave-one-out (LOO) cross validation.  This article gives a good overview of how LOO works and why it is necessary:

Kovarovic, Kris, Leslie C. Aiello, Andrea Cardini, and Charles A. Lockwood. 2011. “Discriminant function analyses in archaeology: are classification rates   too good to be true? RID G-9951-2011.” Journal of Archaeological Science 38 (11) (November): 3006-3018. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.06.028.

It might take a little bit of programming though.  If you want it, I can provide you with a LOO cross validation routine I wrote for linear discriminate function analysis in R.  If you are dissatisfied with the results, there are a great deal more classification methods out there.  Slice, Naylor, and I (Soda) have a 2013 SICB abstract on an alternative method, though I don't think the abstract has appeared in SICB's journal yet.  If you can find a copy of the conference proceedings, it is in there, though. 

As far as your question about regression, it may not matter that the teeth are different sizes unless you are interested in size itself as a variable.  For example, if you wanted to regress shape onto calcium content or something to that degree I do not see why you would not be able to.

Long answer to a short question, huh?  Hope it was helpful.

James


On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 10:59 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:


----- Forwarded message from Eloise Cave <[email protected]> -----

Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:11:43 -0400
From: Eloise Cave <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: CVA vs DA
To: [email protected]

Greetings,

I am trying to determine the difference in shape in stingray teeth between mating season and non mating season. I was wondering which test would be best to perform, canonical variate analysis or discriminant analysis? Also is regression a good idea since I do not have a scale with my samples and my samples are different sizes? 

Thank You,
Eloise Cave
Florida Atlantic University



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