p-value / test with finite (limited) score

wgz

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Dec 14, 2017
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Hi guys, at first I want to apologize for my broken English, here is my problem,
My girlfriend is writing her bachelor thesis in animal science (I am doing my PhD thesis but in different field of science – electrical engineering). She held an experiment where she have tested 17 puppies (total of 3 litter (different breeds)) in order to define character type of each. Test is known as “Volhard’s Puppy Aptitude Testing” (http://www.volhard.com/pages/pat.php). To be short there are 10 different situation and referee should decide how dog react to each, scores vary from 1 to 6. The aim of this work is to find out if character types vary in same litter (brothers and sisters) same as they vary between totally unrelated puppies.
She already calculated some statistical data like averages in litter, standard deviation (std), std in litter (table 1).
To define relationship between puppies’ test result she have calculated the correlation coefficients between same and different puppies (table 2-5).
She has decided to count correlation coef. >0.7 (strong positive dependency) and calculate percentages between puppies in litters and percentages between unrelated puppies.
Some professors (definitely not math) during the consultation asked for value of significance (knows as p-value). I am not sure but as I understand suggested approach would eliminate extremely high and low values (outliers) from data. In this particular test it is important to have all values from 1 to 6.
QUESTION
My question is: should significance approach be applied? Is it beneficial in particular case? If no what answer should be given to professor?
Thant you for your time, any comments, thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Table 1
TestStatistical analysis
Dog markingsituation 1situation 2situation 3situation 4situation 5situation 6situation 7situation 8situation 9situation 10Avg. In litterStandard deviationStandard deviation in litter
z111232412343,041,101,04
z233233353230,77
z323635363361,48
z433333312541,00
z522232433440,83
b11122226212 2,431,371,28
b221223435361,45
b311222312340,94
b411423113351,36
a146444614434,241,341,26
a266344664441,10
a356244465431,19
a445464165351,42
a526344362221,50
a622334466321,43
a756444565660,83
a856564265341,28

Table 2
Dog markingz1z2z3z4z5
z11,00
z2-0,351,00
z30,060,261,00
z40,55-0,77-0,201,00
z50,800,000,000,361,00

Table 3
Dog markingb1b2b3b4
b11,00
b20,151,00
b3-0,240,731,00
b4-0,180,540,671,00

Table 4
Dog markinga1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8
a11,00
a20,141,00
a3-0,060,761,00
a4-0,58-0,130,301,00
a5-0,100,440,550,411,00
a6-0,420,030,320,120,191,00
a7-0,180,470,480,060,13-0,041,00
a8-0,350,060,410,890,550,05-0,061,00

Table 5
Dog markingz1z2z3z4z5b1b2b3b4
b1-0,220,850,59-0,730,10
b20,610,090,280,070,67
b30,93-0,410,210,640,78
b40,46-0,480,550,440,21
a10,20-0,58-0,600,37-0,09-0,76-0,260,08-0,22
a2-0,340,59-0,37-0,36-0,030,22-0,23-0,45-0,86
a3-0,600,65-0,40-0,51-0,170,29-0,25-0,65-0,76
a4-0,440,460,29-0,42-0,310,40-0,11-0,400,09
a5-0,500,600,23-0,53-0,370,52-0,53-0,59-0,52
a6-0,160,540,19-0,700,130,690,31-0,19-0,15
a7-0,030,310,000,120,450,170,240,11-0,12
a8-0,700,400,11-0,55-0,600,31-0,46-0,71-0,20
 
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