Title
Empirical Statistics .5. Evidence On The Extent Of The Steepness Bias In Visual Estimation Of Trends
Abbreviated Journal Title
Percept. Mot. Skills
Keywords
Psychology, Experimental
Abstract
The existence of a pervasive and pronounced steepness bias in visually fitting a line to data in a scattergraph was investigated. 262 undergraduate business students were asked to fit lines visually to scattergraphs, to correspond to a least squares regression fit; These visually estimated lines strongly overestimated the steepness of the actual trend. As visual inspection of data is an important step for the detection of linear trends and outliers prior to regression analysis, this bias in subjective perception of the line may result in inappropriate deletion or retention of outliers, transferring the subjective bias into the results of least squares regression. In addition, textbooks on management accounting discuss the use of visually fitted lines to estimate cost behavior.
Journal Title
Perceptual and Motor Skills
Volume
82
Issue/Number
3
Publication Date
1-1-1996
Document Type
Article
Language
English
First Page
731
Last Page
734
WOS Identifier
ISSN
0031-5125
Recommended Citation
"Empirical Statistics .5. Evidence On The Extent Of The Steepness Bias In Visual Estimation Of Trends" (1996). Faculty Bibliography 1990s. 1540.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/facultybib1990/1540
Comments
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