Descriptive Analysis Workbook Panelist SD Table

Descriptive Analysis Workbook Panelist SD Table

What is it?

Panelist SD Table is one of the sheets in the Descriptive Analysis Workbook . A table with the Square root of Mean Square Error (Sqrt(MSE)) value by attribute and the Standard Deviation (SD) from a 1-way ANOVA by panelist and attribute. 

Why would I use it?

Identify variability of your panelists' responses across sessions.

Setup options



To generate the Panelist SD Table sheet, under 2. Select Options , select Panelist performance summary .  Update the thresholds as required.



Reps are required to generate this sheet.


Analysis Overview

Using the log allows us to compare the relative difference since the means will vary from attribute to attribute so it doesn't make sense to use a linear scale.



  1. Sqrt(MSE)  . Square Root of the Mean Square Error of the panel by attribute.
  2. Panelists .  Standard Deviation (SD) for each panelist by attribute.
  3. Percentage . The total number of times outside of of the preset threshold/ total number *100.
  4. Highlighted cells . SD is greater than the percentage of the scale from the preset threshold.


Example Conclusion


The lower the values are, the better panelist responses are replicated across sessions.
All of the panelists are within our preset acceptable threshold. In this example the SD needs to be less than 16.67% (1/6th) of the scale.