Orthogonal contrasts: definitions and concepts

Abstract

The single degree of freedom of orthogonal contrasts is a useful technique for the analysis of experimental data and helpful in obtaining estimates of main, nested and interaction effects, for mean comparisons between groups of data and in obtaining specific residuals. Furthermore, the application of orthogonal contrasts is an alternative way of doing statistical analysis on data from non-conventional experiments, whithout a definite structure. To justify its application, an extensive review is made on the definitions and concepts involving contrasts.