Blocking Benefits

摘要

When conducting even a seemingly simple experiment-such as one with a single factor with several levels-significant care and consideration should go into the design setup. It is rare for the response of interest to be influenced only by one factor under study during the actual experimentation. There could be a number of other factors affecting the response if not controlled or included in the experiment. Those factors that are not the main factors of interest but could influence the response are often referred to as nuisance factors. If the nuisance factor can be controlled during experimentation, it is often included in the design setup as a blocking factor.