Graphical and Statistical Methods for Determining the Consistency of Age Determinations
- 1 January 1995
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
- Vol. 124 (1) , 131-138
- https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8659(1995)124<0131:gasmfd>2.3.co;2
Abstract
Many laboratories rely on periodic rereading of reference collections of scales or otoliths to ensure that their age readers remain consistent in their age interpretations, both through time and with other age readers. Measures of both systematic difference (bias) and precision are required for this purpose, because measures of bias are not suitable as measures of precision, and vice versa. Using data from an age comparison study of haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus for demonstration purposes, we evaluated a variety of graphical and statistical approaches for making paired age comparisons from the standpoint of both detecting age differences and assessing precision. Parametric and nonparametric matched-pair tests, regression analysis, analysis of variance, and age difference plots were all capable of detecting systematic over- or underaging. However, only the age bias plot was sensitive to both linear and nonlinear biases. The coefficient of variation (CV = SD/mean) was a robust measure of precisi...Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: