Abstract
Researchers often wish to understand the relationship between two continuous predictors and a common continuous outcome. Many options for graphing such relationships, including conditional regression lines or 3D regression surfaces, depend on an underlying model of the data. The veridicality of the graph depends upon the veridicality of the model, and poor models can result in misleading graphs. An enhanced 2D scatter plot or bubble plot that represents values of a variable using the size of the plotted circles offers a model-free alternative. The R function bp3way() implements the bubble plot with a variety of user specifiable parameters. An empirical study demonstrates the comparability of bubble plots to other model-free plots for exploring three-way continuous data.
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Markus, K.A., Gu, W. (2010). Bubble Plots as a Model-Free Graphical Tool for Continuous Variables. In: Vinod, H. (eds) Advances in Social Science Research Using R. Lecture Notes in Statistics(), vol 196. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1764-5_5
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