schoolsubjects {eba}

Preference for School Subjects

Description

Two classes of children (ages 11 to 13) were asked to state their preferences with respect to certain school subjects. Each child was given a sheet on which were written the possible pairs of subjects and asked to underline the one preferred in each case (Kendall and Babington Smith, 1940).

Usage

data(schoolsubjects)

Format

A list containing two square matrices of aggregate choice frequencies (row entries are preferred over column entries):

schoolsubjects[["boys"]]

holds the frequencies of 21 boys choosing among 13 school subjects: woodwork, gymnastics, art, science, history, geography, arithmetic, religion, English literature, commercial subjects, algebra, English grammar, geometry.

schoolsubjects[["girls"]]

holds the frequencies of 25 girls choosing among 11 school subjects: gymnastics, science, art, domestic science, history, arithmetic, geography, English literature, religion, algebra, English grammar.

Source

Kendall, M.G., & Babington Smith, B. (1940). On the method of paired comparisons. Biometrika, 31, 324–345. doi: 10.1093/biomet/31.3-4.324

Examples

data(schoolsubjects)

m <- lapply(schoolsubjects, eba)  # Bradley-Terry-Luce (BTL) model

par(mfrow = 1:2)
dotchart(uscale(m$boys), main = "Boys' preferences", log = "x")
dotchart(uscale(m$girls), main = "Girls' preferences", log = "x")
mtext("Utility scale value (BTL model)", outer = TRUE, side = 1,
      line = -2)
mtext("(Kendall and Babington Smith, 1940)", outer = TRUE, line = -4)