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Cook’s Distance is a measure used to identify influential data points in a regression analysis. In SPSS, Cook’s Distance is calculated by first running a linear regression model and then using the “Save” command to save the predicted values and residuals. Next, the “Analyze” tab is used to select “Regression” and then “Linear.” In the “Plots” option, the “Cook’s Distance” option is selected, and the plot is generated. The Cook’s Distance values can then be interpreted to identify influential data points that may need to be further examined or potentially removed from the analysis.
Cook’s distance is used to identify influential in a regression model.
The formula for Cook’s distance is:
Di = (ri2 / p*MSE) * (hii / (1-hii)2)
where:
- ri is the ith residual
- p is the number of coefficients in the regression model
- MSE is the mean squared error
- hii is the ith leverage value
Cook’s distance effectively measures how much all of the fitted values in the model change when the ith observation is deleted.
The larger the value for Cook’s distance, the more influential a given observation.
A general rule of thumb is that any observation with a Cook’s distance greater than 4/n (where n = total observations) is considered to be highly influential.
The following example shows how to calculate Cook’s distance for a regression model in SPSS:
Example: How to Calculate Cook’s Distance in SPSS
Suppose we have the following dataset in SPSS that contains information about total ad spend and total sales for 12 different retail stores:
Suppose that we would like to fit a simple linear regression model to this dataset, using Ad_Spend as the predictor variable and Sales as the response variable.
To do so, click the Analyze tab, then click Regression, then click Linear:
In the new window that appears, drag Sales to the Dependent panel and then drag Ad_Spend to the Independent panel:
Then click Continue. Then click OK.
A new variable will be created in the Data View named COO_1 that shows Cook’s distance for each observation:
Recall that, as a rule of thumb, any observation with a Cook’s distance greater than 4/n is considered to be highly influential.
In this particular dataset there are 12 observations, so any observation with a Cook’s distance greater than 4/12 = 0.333 is considered to be highly influential.
We can see that three observations in the dataset are just above this threshold.
To visualize the Cook’s distance values for each observation, click the Chart tab, then click Scatter/Dot:
Then click Simple Scatter:
In the new window that appears, drag Store_ID to the X Axis and Cook’s Distance to the Y Axis:
Then click OK.
The following scatterplot will be generated that shows the 12 store ID’s along the x-axis and Cook’s distance along the y-axis:
This plot helps us visualize Cook’s distance for each observation and allows us to quickly spot which observations have the highest Cook’s distance values.
Notes on Cook’s Distance
It’s important to keep in mind that Cook’s Distance should be used as a way to identify potentially influential observations.
Just because an observation is influential doesn’t necessarily mean that it should be deleted from the dataset. First, you should verify that the observation isn’t a result of a data entry error or some other odd occurrence.
If it turns out to be a legitimate value, you can then decide if it’s appropriate to delete it, leave it, or replace it with an alternative value like the median.