Interpret the key results for Attribute Agreement Analysis

Complete the following steps to interpret an attribute agreement analysis. Key output includes kappa statistics, Kendall's statistics, and the attribute agreement graphs.

Step 1: Evaluate the appraiser agreement visually

To determine the consistency of each appraiser's ratings, evaluate the Within Appraisers graph. Compare the percentage matched (blue circle) with the confidence interval for the percentage matched (red line) for each appraiser.

To determine the correctness of each appraiser's ratings, evaluate the Appraiser vs Standard graph. Compare the percentage matched (blue circle) with the confidence interval for the percentage matched (red line) for each appraiser.

Note

Minitab displays the Within Appraisers graph only when you have multiple trials.

This Within Appraisers graph indicates that Amanda has the most consistent ratings and Eric has the least consistent ratings. The Appraiser vs Standard graph indicates that Amanda has the most correct ratings and Eric has the least correct ratings.

Step 2: Assess the consistency of responses for each appraiser

To determine the consistency of each appraiser's ratings, evaluate the kappa statistics in the Within Appraisers table. When the ratings are ordinal, you should also evaluate the Kendall's coefficients of concordance. Minitab displays the Within Appraiser table when each appraiser rates an item more than once.

Use kappa statistics to assess the degree of agreement of the nominal or ordinal ratings made by multiple appraisers when the appraisers evaluate the same samples.

Kappa values range from –1 to +1. The higher the value of kappa, the stronger the agreement, as follows:
  • When Kappa = 1, perfect agreement exists.
  • When Kappa = 0, agreement is the same as would be expected by chance.
  • When Kappa < 0, agreement is weaker than expected by chance; this rarely occurs.

The AIAG suggests that a kappa value of at least 0.75 indicates good agreement. However, larger kappa values, such as 0.90, are preferred.

When you have ordinal ratings, such as defect severity ratings on a scale of 1–5, Kendall's coefficients, which account for ordering, are usually more appropriate statistics to determine association than kappa alone.

Note

Remember that the Within Appraisers table indicates whether the appraisers' ratings are consistent, but not whether the ratings agree with the reference values. Consistent ratings aren't necessarily correct ratings.

Within Appraisers

Assessment Agreement Appraiser # Inspected # Matched Percent 95% CI Amanda 50 50 100.00 (94.18, 100.00) Britt 50 48 96.00 (86.29, 99.51) Eric 50 43 86.00 (73.26, 94.18) Mike 50 45 90.00 (78.19, 96.67) # Matched: Appraiser agrees with him/herself across trials.
Fleiss’ Kappa Statistics Appraiser Response Kappa SE Kappa Z P(vs > 0) Amanda 1 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 2 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 3 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 4 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 5 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 Overall 1.00000 0.071052 14.0741 0.0000 Britt 1 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 2 0.89605 0.141421 6.3360 0.0000 3 0.86450 0.141421 6.1129 0.0000 4 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 5 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 Overall 0.94965 0.071401 13.3002 0.0000 Eric 1 0.83060 0.141421 5.8733 0.0000 2 0.84000 0.141421 5.9397 0.0000 3 0.70238 0.141421 4.9666 0.0000 4 0.70238 0.141421 4.9666 0.0000 5 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 Overall 0.82354 0.071591 11.5034 0.0000 Mike 1 1.00000 0.141421 7.0711 0.0000 2 0.83060 0.141421 5.8733 0.0000 3 0.81917 0.141421 5.7924 0.0000 4 0.86450 0.141421 6.1129 0.0000 5 0.86450 0.141421 6.1129 0.0000 Overall 0.87472 0.070945 12.3295 0.0000
Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance Appraiser Coef Chi - Sq DF P Amanda 1.00000 98.0000 49 0.0000 Britt 0.99448 97.4587 49 0.0000 Eric 0.98446 96.4769 49 0.0001 Mike 0.98700 96.7256 49 0.0001
Key Results: Kappa, Kendall's coefficient of concordance

Many of the kappa values are 1, which indicates perfect agreement within an appraiser between trials. Some of Eric's kappa values are close to 0.70. You might want to investigate why Eric's ratings of those samples were inconsistent. Because the data are ordinal, Minitab provides the Kendall's coefficient of concordance values. These values are all greater than 0.98, which indicates a very strong association within the appraiser ratings.

Step 3: Assess the correctness of responses for each appraiser

To determine the correctness of each appraiser's ratings, evaluate the kappa statistics in the Each Appraiser vs Standard table. When the ratings are ordinal, you should also evaluate the Kendall's correlation coefficients. Minitab displays the Each Appraiser vs Standard table when you specify a reference value for each sample.

Use kappa statistics to assess the degree of agreement of the nominal or ordinal ratings made by multiple appraisers when the appraisers evaluate the same samples.

Kappa values range from –1 to +1. The higher the value of kappa, the stronger the agreement, as follows:
  • When Kappa = 1, perfect agreement exists.
  • When Kappa = 0, agreement is the same as would be expected by chance.
  • When Kappa < 0, agreement is weaker than expected by chance; this rarely occurs.

The AIAG suggests that a kappa value of at least 0.75 indicates good agreement. However, larger kappa values, such as 0.90, are preferred.

When you have ordinal ratings, such as defect severity ratings on a scale of 1–5, Kendall's coefficients, which account for ordering, are usually more appropriate statistics to determine association than kappa alone.

Each Appraiser vs Standard

Assessment Agreement Appraiser # Inspected # Matched Percent 95% CI Amanda 50 47 94.00 (83.45, 98.75) Britt 50 46 92.00 (80.77, 97.78) Eric 50 41 82.00 (68.56, 91.42) Mike 50 45 90.00 (78.19, 96.67) # Matched: Appraiser’s assessment across trials agrees with the known standard.
Fleiss’ Kappa Statistics Appraiser Response Kappa SE Kappa Z P(vs > 0) Amanda 1 1.00000 0.100000 10.0000 0.0000 2 0.83060 0.100000 8.3060 0.0000 3 0.81917 0.100000 8.1917 0.0000 4 1.00000 0.100000 10.0000 0.0000 5 1.00000 0.100000 10.0000 0.0000 Overall 0.92476 0.050257 18.4006 0.0000 Britt 1 1.00000 0.100000 10.0000 0.0000 2 0.83838 0.100000 8.3838 0.0000 3 0.80725 0.100000 8.0725 0.0000 4 1.00000 0.100000 10.0000 0.0000 5 1.00000 0.100000 10.0000 0.0000 Overall 0.92462 0.050396 18.3473 0.0000 Eric 1 0.91159 0.100000 9.1159 0.0000 2 0.81035 0.100000 8.1035 0.0000 3 0.72619 0.100000 7.2619 0.0000 4 0.84919 0.100000 8.4919 0.0000 5 1.00000 0.100000 10.0000 0.0000 Overall 0.86163 0.050500 17.0622 0.0000 Mike 1 1.00000 0.100000 10.0000 0.0000 2 0.91694 0.100000 9.1694 0.0000 3 0.90736 0.100000 9.0736 0.0000 4 0.92913 0.100000 9.2913 0.0000 5 0.93502 0.100000 9.3502 0.0000 Overall 0.93732 0.050211 18.6674 0.0000
Kendall’s Correlation Coefficient Appraiser Coef SE Coef Z P Amanda 0.967386 0.0690066 14.0128 0.0000 Britt 0.967835 0.0690066 14.0193 0.0000 Eric 0.951863 0.0690066 13.7879 0.0000 Mike 0.975168 0.0690066 14.1256 0.0000
Key Results: Kappa, Kendall's correlation coefficient

Most of the kappa values are larger than 0.80, which indicates good agreement between each appraiser and the standard. A few of the kappa values are close to 0.70, which indicates that you may need to investigate certain samples or certain appraisers further. Because the data are ordinal, Minitab provides the Kendall's correlation coefficients. These values range from 0.951863 and 0.975168, which indicate a strong association between the ratings and the standard values.

Step 4: Assess the consistency of responses between appraisers

To determine the consistency between the appraiser's ratings, evaluate the kappa statistics in the Between Appraisers table. When the ratings are ordinal, you should also evaluate the Kendall's coefficient of concordance.

Use kappa statistics to assess the degree of agreement of the nominal or ordinal ratings made by multiple appraisers when the appraisers evaluate the same samples.

Kappa values range from –1 to +1. The higher the value of kappa, the stronger the agreement, as follows:
  • When Kappa = 1, perfect agreement exists.
  • When Kappa = 0, agreement is the same as would be expected by chance.
  • When Kappa < 0, agreement is weaker than expected by chance; this rarely occurs.

The AIAG suggests that a kappa value of at least 0.75 indicates good agreement. However, larger kappa values, such as 0.90, are preferred.

When you have ordinal ratings, such as defect severity ratings on a scale of 1–5, Kendall's coefficients, which account for ordering, are usually more appropriate statistics to determine association than kappa alone.

Note

Remember that the Between Appraisers table indicates whether the appraisers' ratings are consistent, but not whether the ratings agree with the reference values. Consistent ratings aren't necessarily correct ratings.

Between Appraisers

Assessment Agreement # Inspected # Matched Percent 95% CI 50 37 74.00 (59.66, 85.37) # Matched: All appraisers’ assessments agree with each other.
Fleiss’ Kappa Statistics Response Kappa SE Kappa Z P(vs > 0) 1 0.954392 0.0267261 35.7101 0.0000 2 0.827694 0.0267261 30.9695 0.0000 3 0.772541 0.0267261 28.9058 0.0000 4 0.891127 0.0267261 33.3429 0.0000 5 0.968148 0.0267261 36.2248 0.0000 Overall 0.881705 0.0134362 65.6218 0.0000
Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance Coef Chi - Sq DF P 0.976681 382.859 49 0.0000
Key Results: Kappa, Kendall's coefficient of concordance

All the kappa values are larger than 0.77, which indicates minimally acceptable agreement between appraisers. The appraisers have the most agreement for samples 1 and 5, and the least agreement for sample 3. Because the data are ordinal, Minitab provides the Kendall's coefficient of concordance (0.976681), which indicates a very strong association between the appraiser ratings.

Step 5: Assess the correctness of responses for all appraisers

To determine the correctness of all the appraiser's ratings, evaluate the kappa statistics in the All Appraisers vs Standard table. When the ratings are ordinal, you should also evaluate the Kendall's coefficients of concordance.

Use kappa statistics to assess the degree of agreement of the nominal or ordinal ratings made by multiple appraisers when the appraisers evaluate the same samples.

Kappa values range from –1 to +1. The higher the value of kappa, the stronger the agreement, as follows:
  • When Kappa = 1, perfect agreement exists.
  • When Kappa = 0, agreement is the same as would be expected by chance.
  • When Kappa < 0, agreement is weaker than expected by chance; this rarely occurs.

The AIAG suggests that a kappa value of at least 0.75 indicates good agreement. However, larger kappa values, such as 0.90, are preferred.

When you have ordinal ratings, such as defect severity ratings on a scale of 1–5, Kendall's coefficients, which account for ordering, are usually more appropriate statistics to determine association than kappa alone.

All Appraisers vs Standard

Assessment Agreement # Inspected # Matched Percent 95% CI 50 37 74.00 (59.66, 85.37) # Matched: All appraisers’ assessments agree with the known standard.
Fleiss’ Kappa Statistics Response Kappa SE Kappa Z P(vs > 0) 1 0.977897 0.0500000 19.5579 0.0000 2 0.849068 0.0500000 16.9814 0.0000 3 0.814992 0.0500000 16.2998 0.0000 4 0.944580 0.0500000 18.8916 0.0000 5 0.983756 0.0500000 19.6751 0.0000 Overall 0.912082 0.0251705 36.2362 0.0000
Kendall’s Correlation Coefficient Coef SE Coef Z P 0.965563 0.0345033 27.9817 0.0000
Key Results: Kappa, Kendall's coefficient of concordance

These results show that all the appraisers correctly matched the standard ratings on 37 of the 50 samples. The overall kappa value is 0.912082, which indicates strong agreement with the standard values. Because the data are ordinal, Minitab provides the Kendall's coefficient of concordance (0.965563), which indicates a strong association between the ratings and the standard values.