![matlab 2012 shapiro wilk test matlab 2012 shapiro wilk test](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/shapirowilktest-160525153750/95/shapiro-wilk-test-12-638.jpg)
A boxplot that is symmetric with the median line at approximately the center of the box and with symmetric whiskers that are slightly longer than the subsections of the center box suggests that the data may have come from a normal distribution ( 8). Scores greater than 1.5 times the interquartile range are out of the boxplot and are considered as outliers, and those greater than 3 times the interquartile range are extreme outliers. The whiskers (line extending from the top and bottom of the box) represent the minimum and maximum values when they are within 1.5 times the interquartile range from either end of the box ( 10). The boxplot shows the median as a horizontal line inside the box and the interquartile range (range between the 25 th to 75 th percentiles) as the length of the box. Moreover, the Q-Q plots are easier to interpret in case of large sample sizes ( 2). A Q-Q plot is very similar to the P-P plot except that it plots the quantiles (values that split a data set into equal portions) of the data set instead of every individual score in the data. If the data are normally distributed, the result would be a straight diagonal line ( 2). The actual z-scores are plotted against the expected z-scores. The scores are then themselves converted to z-scores. This is the expected value that the score should have in a normal distribution. After data are ranked and sorted, the corresponding z-score is calculated for each rank as follows: z = x - ᵪ̅ / s. The P-P plot plots the cumulative probability of a variable against the cumulative probability of a particular distribution (e.g., normal distribution). The stem-and-leaf plot is a method similar to the histogram, although it retains information about the actual data values ( 8). The frequency distribution that plots the observed values against their frequency, provides both a visual judgment about whether the distribution is bell shaped and insights about gaps in the data and outliers outlying values ( 10). The frequency distribution (histogram), stem-and-leaf plot, boxplot, P-P plot (probability-probability plot), and Q-Q plot (quantile-quantile plot) are used for checking normality visually ( 2). However, when data are presented visually, readers of an article can judge the distribution assumption by themselves ( 9). Visual inspection of the distribution may be used for assessing normality, although this approach is usually unreliable and does not guarantee that the distribution is normal ( 2, 3, 7). The purpose of this report is to overview the procedures for checking normality in statistical analysis using SPSS. It is important to ascertain whether data show a serious deviation from normality ( 8). Although true normality is considered to be a myth ( 8), we can look for normality visually by using normal plots ( 2, 3) or by significance tests, that is, comparing the sample distribution to a normal one ( 2, 3). According to the central limit theorem, (a) if the sample data are approximately normal then the sampling distribution too will be normal (b) in large samples (> 30 or 40), the sampling distribution tends to be normal, regardless of the shape of the data ( 2, 8) and (c) means of random samples from any distribution will themselves have normal distribution ( 3). If we have samples consisting of hundreds of observations, we can ignore the distribution of the data ( 3). With large enough sample sizes (> 30 or 40), the violation of the normality assumption should not cause major problems ( 4) this implies that we can use parametric procedures even when the data are not normally distributed ( 8). Normality and other assumptions should be taken seriously, for when these assumptions do not hold, it is impossible to draw accurate and reliable conclusions about reality ( 2, 7).
![matlab 2012 shapiro wilk test matlab 2012 shapiro wilk test](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eva-Ostertagova/publication/259291691/figure/fig1/AS:297276657422336@1447887686110/Boxplot-of-three-different-group_Q320.jpg)
The assumption of normality is especially critical when constructing reference intervals for variables ( 6). Many of the statistical procedures including correlation, regression, t tests, and analysis of variance, namely parametric tests, are based on the assumption that the data follows a normal distribution or a Gaussian distribution (after Johann Karl Gauss, 1777–1855) that is, it is assumed that the populations from which the samples are taken are normally distributed ( 2- 5). Statistical errors are common in scientific literature, and about 50% of the published articles have at least one error ( 1).