Introduction to Jamovi

Zeren Lucky L. Cabanayan

STAT2100 – Statistical Analysis with Software Application
1st Semester, 2024-2025

C E N T R A L L U Z Introduction
O N StoTJamovi
A T |E U N I V E R S I T Y 1
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Learning Outcomes
After completing this chapter, the students must be able to
• Install Jamovi
• Explore the different parts of Jamovi
• Navigate the spreadsheet of Jamovi
• Prepare and manipulate data in Jamovi

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What is Jamovi?
• Jamovi is free statistical-analysis software that is built on top of a wildly
popular, free, statistically-centered, programming language called R.
• The difference is that Jamovi consist of a GUI, whereas R is command-line
software. That is, Jamovi is point-and-click with easy-to-use pull-down
menus, whereas R involves typing code on a blank screen.
• Jamovi has a clean, human-friendly design that facilitates insight into your
data and makes it easy to share your work with others.
• R is rapidly changing the face of data science, but it can be very
intimidating at first because of its command-line nature unlike Jamovi
which is much easier program to use and explicitly designed for beginners.
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Downloading and Installing Jamovi

1. Go to the main Jamovi website (https://www.Jamovi.org)
2. Find the download tab
3. Choose your operating system
4. Download the software
5. Install

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Navigation
• Jamovi is laid out such
that your data or input
is always on the left in
a spreadsheet format
like Excel. Whereas,
whatever analysis you
apply to those data,
your output is always
on the right.

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• The data tab shows you a set of options on how to manipulate data within
the spreadsheet.

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• The analysis tab shows you options for different statistical analyses you
can run on the data that you have in the spreadsheet.

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• The window that occupies most of the right side of the interface is where
output goes. It will be blank until you do something.

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• The edit tab is only useful after you have some statistical output. It allows
you to edit the default headers that are displayed when you conduct any
analysis. it also allows you to add formatted text (e.g., regular text,
underlined, text, italicized text, web links, code blocks, etc.)

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Basic Data Operations

• When you start Jamovi, or open a new document, you will see three default
variable names, A, B and C, in the thee leftmost columns of the spreadsheet
(Jamovi expects you to change these variable names).

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• There is also a tiny, grayed-out column on the far left that gives you the row
number of the spreadsheet. The default scale of measurement for variables
A, B, and C is nominal (categorical). To see this, just double-click A, B, or C.

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Entering data manually

• When you double-click on the variable name, you’ll see the details of that
variable.
• The topmost box will be the official variable name. This variable name
should be short enough to keep you from having to type out really long
names repeatedly.
• The next box down, Description, is an alternative description for the
variable. This is basically for the researcher’s notes. Be as descriptive as you
like. It won’t be output to any graphics or analyses.
• Below that on the left, you’ll see a vertical series of four buttons. These
define the measurement type, data type and missing values.
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• The measurement type have four choices; nominal, ordinal, continuous

and ID. Implicit in continuous are two possible scales: interval and ratio.
The ID variable is just an anonymous substitute for a participant’s name.
• The data type have three choices; integer, decimal and text.
• If one or more of your variables is nominal, then you will need to define
the levels, which appear in the box to the right, labeled Levels. For
example, if you have a variable sex with two levels (0 for male and 1 for
female), once you select the nominal, the levels will automatically appear
then just overwrite the level like for female type 1 and for male type 0.

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• This illustration shows

the variable Sex, made
as nominal and coded
as 0 for male and 1 for
female

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Importing data
• Jamovi is not data-collection software. This means that when the data file is
not given to you from within Jamovi (e.g., sample data sets), you will need to
obtain the data from wherever you collected it into Jamovi. This is known
as importing data.
• There are a variety of ways that this might take place, but two of them are
far more common than others:
a. importing data from a proprietary data format
b. importing data from a non-proprietary delimited text file
• Jamovi opens delimited text files. In Excel, there’s generally a wizard that
you have to get through to import delimited files. In
contrast, Jamovi imports them directly with no wizard.
• Just click (≡) > Open > This PC > Browse and find the delimited file.
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Re-coding new variables

• You can add a new variable to a data set, based on variables that you
already have. One of the most common reasons to do this is if you have
one or more other variables already in your data set that you want to
derive alternative information from in order to change your analysis or
make it simpler.
• For instance, you may have a variable called ClassLevel that has the
following four levels: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior. But it is
possible that you’d want to create a new variable
called ClassLevelStatus (for lack of a better term), with the following two
levels: Upperclassmanand Underclassman

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• We started by going to the Data tab

in Jamovi, double-clicking the
header of a blank variable, and
clicking the fx NEW COMPUTED
VARIABLE icon in the middle of the
list. We gave the new variable the
name ClassLevelStatus

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• To create the new variable, we needed a

nested if-then-else formula. We could have
clicked the fx drop-down box and found
the IF() function under the Logical: heading.
But we needed something more complex.
The syntax for what we needed is below.
We just typed this in to the box next to fx.
IF(ClassLevel=='Freshman','Underclassman',IF
(ClassLevel=='Sophomore','Underclassman',IF
(ClassLevel=='Junior','Upperclassman',IF(Class
Level=='Senior','Upperclassman','error'))))

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You can interpret the syntax/formula as follows:

• IF the value of ClassLevel is Freshman,
• Then place the value Underclassman here, under the current variable
(ClassLevelStatus).
• (Else) IF that’s not the case, then check to see if the level is Sophomore;
• If it is, then also put Underclassman here.
• (Else) IF that’s not the case, then check to see if the level
is Junior;
• If it is, then put Upperclassman here.
• (Else) IF that’s not the case, then check to see if the level
is Senior;
• If it is, then put Upperclassman here.
• ELSE (which means none of those other conditions were true) put error here.
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Generating random data

• Many software programs can generate data randomly
[e.g.,the RAND() and RANDBETWEEN()functions in Excel]. In Jamovi, this can
be done quite easily.
• Many software programs can generate data randomly [e.g.,
the RAND() and RANDBETWEEN()functions in Excel]. In Jamovi, this can be
done quite easily.
• Go to the Data tab. Then create a new variable
by double-clicking at the top of a blank column.
You will see a small menu appear with NEW DATA
VARIABLE, NEW COMPUTED VARIABLE, and NEW
TRANSFORMED VARIABLE
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• Click the middle one: NEW COMPUTED

VARIABLE. Give the new variable an
appropriate name. In the example we
have chosen Random Normal, which
means that it’s going to result in
numbers generated randomly from a
normal distribution that we define with
a mean and standard deviation that we
specify (our choice). There is a small box
labeled (fx ). Click it and scroll down to
the bottom of the Functions window
where it finally says Simulation.

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• Double-click NORM, and then look in the

box to the right of fx, and you’ll see the
following formula: =NORM(). Between
the parentheses, type in two numbers
separated by a comma. The number to
the left of the comma will be the mean
of your randomly generated data, and
the number to the right of the comma
will the standard deviation of that data.
For illustration purposes (see below), we
have chosen the mean to be 65, and the
standard deviation to be 16. You can
choose whatever values you want. Press
the ENTER/RETURN key.

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Filtering data
• Just like R, unless you tell Jamovi otherwise, it will analyze all the
observations (rows) in your data. In order to restrict the analysis to certain
rows, you need what is called a filter.
• For instance, it is common to have a question at the end of a survey that asks
the participant whether they are still comfortable with the researcher(s)
using the data they provided for general analysis. The questions could be as
simple as “Is it still okay to use your data for analysis? Remember, your data
will be completely anonymized, and so in no way will it be traceable back to
your identity.” Some people are not comfortable with having their data
analyzed, and so they answer, “No.” Researchers are required to filter these
observations out.

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• We opened a new file in Jamovi [(≡) > File > New]. Under column A, we typed
in a 1 in the first cell, and changed the variable type to ID, and renamed the
variable ID. For variable B, we renamed it Consent (with variable type set
to Nominal and Text). Then we typed in Yes in the first cell. Finally, we
deleted variable C, and double-clicked on a blank variable and chose NEW
COMPUTED VARIABLE. We renamed that to rt, and then applied
the NORM() function to the first cell. We arbitrarily set the mean to 615 ms,
and the standard deviation to 112 [hence, NORM(615,112)].
• We then typed in 20 in row 20 under ID. Under Consent we copied-and-
pasted Yes from row 1 all the way down to row 18. But for the cells in rows
19 and 20, we typed No. This would mean that fake participants 19 and 20
did not consent to have their data used.
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• The filter function is located under

the Data tab. Once there, we just clicked the
icon labeled Filters (at the upper-right). The
icon looks like a funnel, half full of liquid.
There’s a box there labeled ROW FILTERS. In
the box under Filter 1, labeled fx, we typed in
the following (the first “=” sign is provided
by Jamovi):
• This filter equation could be read as follows,
like a command to Jamovi: “Create a new
variable called Filter 1. For this variable, look
under the variable Consent and
return only the rows that have Yes as a value
in the cell; filter out the others.

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Some useful videos

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKgVgZCM8DU&t=165s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arj0jvyTsAE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBY_lykRxhU
•

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