Dakota Reference Manual: main_effects

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main_effects

ANOVA

## Specification

Alias: none

Argument(s): none

Default: No main_effects

## Description

The `main_effects` control prints Analysis-of-Variance main effects results (e.g. ANOVA tables with p-values per variable). The `main_effects` control is only operational with the orthogonal arrays or Latin Hypercube designs, not for Box Behnken or Central Composite designs.

Main effects is a sensitivity analysis method which identifies the input variables that have the most influence on the output. In main effects, the idea is to look at the mean of the response function when variable A (for example) is at level 1 vs. when variable A is at level 2 or level 3. If these mean responses of the output are statistically significantly different at different levels of variable A, this is an indication that variable A has a significant effect on the response. The orthogonality of the columns is critical in performing main effects analysis, since the column orthogonality means that the effects of the other variables "cancel out" when looking at the overall effect from one variable at its different levels.