Unified Multivariate Ordinal Model for analysis of sensory attributes

Janaína Marques e Melo; João César Reis Alves; Gabriel Rodrigues Palma; Sílvia Maria de Freitas; Idemauro Antonio Rodrigues de Lara

arXiv · 2502.11990

Unified Multivariate Ordinal Model for analysis of sensory attributes

Janaína Marques e Melo·João César Reis Alves·Gabriel Rodrigues Palma·Sílvia Maria de Freitas·Idemauro Antonio Rodrigues de Lara

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Experiments involving sensory analysis of foods and beverages are beneficial for selecting healthy products and assessing the preferences of potential consumers. They are generally planned in incomplete blocks, and their attributes, such as aroma, colour, and flavour, are evaluated using a 9-point hedonic scale, characterising an ordinal variable response. Also, the generalised logit model with random effects for panellists is one of the appropriate models to relate the multivariate response to the covariates. This study aims to present a method for analysing sensory attributes through a unified multivariate model. Due to the nature of the variable, each separate model already corresponds to a multivariate analysis, so our proposal would incorporate a complete analysis with solely one model. This proposal is based on multivariate methods for categorical data and maximum likelihood theory. Our method was evaluated through a simulation study, in which we consider three distinct formulations with two attributes to represent various formulation selection scenarios via mixed discrete models. The simulated results demonstrated overall concordance rates exceeding 80\% for the unified model compared to the separate models. Moreover, as motivation is presented, a study of 13 prebiotic beverages based on cashew nut almonds added to grape juice, with 130 potential consumers. The attributes evaluated were overall impression, aroma, Body, sweetness and flavour, using a 9-point hedonic scale. The selected unified model considering all attributes was the non-proportional odds mixed-effect model. According to this model, the prebiotic beverage formulations most likely to be accepted were: 8\% sugar and 40\% grape juice ($F_4$), 6\% sugar and 44\% grape juice ($F_6$), and 9\% sugar and 30\% grape juice ($F_{13}$). The unified analysis and computational time showed the advantages of this proposal.

Explore related subjects

stat.ME

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Janaína Marques e Melo, João César Reis Alves, Gabriel Rodrigues Palma, Sílvia Maria de Freitas, Idemauro Antonio Rodrigues de Lara. 2025-02-17. Unified Multivariate Ordinal Model for analysis of sensory attributes. https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.11990

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Surprise Reduction and Nullification in Bayesian and Inverse Bayesian Inference under Ambiguous Prediction-Error Attribution

In non-stationary environments, prediction errors may signal environmental change or transient outliers, and adaptive systems must track such changes without overreacting to outliers. We distinguish surprise reduction, which updates beliefs to fit observations, from surprise nullification, which weakens constraints imposed by the predictive structure, and formalize both within Bayesian and inverse Bayesian (BIB) inference. Belief and likelihood updates are derived from variational objectives sharing a nullification strength, determined endogenously by minimizing surprise under the candidate post-update predictive distribution. In the Gaussian case, nullification expands belief and likelihood variances by a common factor relative to standard Bayesian updating, leaving the ratio unchanged. BIB thus defers attribution of the prediction error, committing to neither latent-state change nor observation-process uncertainty. The nullification strength is carried over as a candidate and is maintained or released according to the predictive surprise of the next observation. In a mean estimation task with outliers and changepoints, no scanned parameter setting of a Sage-Husa-type adaptive Kalman filter, fixed-strength BIB variant, or belief-forgetting-only variant outperforms BIB in both changepoint tracking and post-outlier stability. An oracle-informed reduced Bayesian model tracks changepoints better but is less stable after outliers. Although BIB maintains no explicit hypotheses about changepoints or outliers, it generates event-dependent dynamics. The learning rate increases after changepoints, whereas after outliers, nullification is released, and this increase is suppressed. Deferring attribution and letting subsequent observations differentiate the responses may constitute a principle of adaptive inference in non-stationary environments.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2026

Generalized Ridge Refitting for the Lasso and Prediction Improvement Bounds

We study a class of Lasso based estimators obtained by applying a quadratic correction on the Lasso equicorrelation set. The penalty matrix determines both the magnitude and geometry of the correction and contains, among other cases, the isotropic Lasso--Ridge correction, least squares refitting, Gram proportional interpolation between the Lasso and least squares, and coordinate specific penalties. We first derive a closed form representation and isolate the positive gain component of the resulting prediction improvement. We then control the remaining stochastic linear term in expectation by localizing the random signed equicorrelation model around a deterministic reference support. This yields a finite sample expectation bound that explicitly accounts for the randomness induced by Lasso model selection. The resulting decomposition provides a unified framework for understanding when Lasso based quadratic corrections can improve prediction.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2026

Discretization in covariate-adaptive randomization: gains and losses

Covariate-adaptive randomization(CAR) is widely implemented in clinical trials to balance prognostic covariates across treatment arms. Continuous covariates are often discretized into strata in practice, yet their consequences are not clearly understood. This paper provides a comprehensive study of the impact of discretization on both the CAR design process and the inferential results thereafter. We establish the asymptotic properties of both imbalance measures and treatment effect estimators under discretized and non-discretized settings. Practical recommendations are given on when and how discretization should be employed. We show that discretization in design is generally recommended, as it enhances robustness against model misspecification. However, if the true model is known, the most efficient strategy is to balance covariates according to that model in the design. The theoretical results are corroborated by extensive simulation studies and an empirical application to a diabetes trial dataset. Together, the results clarify the gains and losses of discretization in CAR and pave the way for learning impact of discretization to other designs and beyond.

stat.ME↗