bayes4psy -- an Open Source R Package for Bayesian Statistics in Psychology

TL;DR

bayes4psy is an open-source R package designed to make Bayesian statistical methods accessible and practical for psychology researchers and students, supporting various models and diagnostic tools.

Contribution

It provides a collection of Bayesian models and methods tailored for psychology data analysis, bridging the gap in accessible tools and educational resources.

Findings

Includes Bayesian t-test and bootstrapping methods

Supports analysis of reaction times, success rates, and colors

Offers comprehensive diagnostic, analytic, and visualization tools

Abstract

Research in psychology generates interesting data sets and unique statistical modelling tasks. However, these tasks, while important, are often very specific, so appropriate statistical models and methods cannot be found in accessible Bayesian tools. As a result, the use of Bayesian methods is limited to those that have the technical and statistical fundamentals that are required for probabilistic programming. Such knowledge is not part of the typical psychology curriculum and is a difficult obstacle for psychology students and researchers to overcome. The goal of the bayes4psy package is to bridge this gap and offer a collection of models and methods to be used for data analysis that arises from psychology experiments and as a teaching tool for Bayesian statistics in psychology. The package contains Bayesian t-test and bootstrapping and models for analyzing reaction times, success rates, and colors. It also provides all the diagnostic, analytic and visualization tools for the modern Bayesian data analysis workflow.