Tukey's Range Test - Order of Comparisons

Order of Comparisons

If there are a set of means (A, B, C, D), which can be ranked in the order A > B > C > D, not all possible comparisons need be tested using Tukey's test. To avoid redundancy, one starts by comparing the largest mean (A) with the smallest mean (D). If the q_s value for the comparison of means A and D is less than the q value from the distribution, the null hypothesis is not rejected, and the means are said have no statistically significant difference between them. Since there is no difference between the two means that have the largest difference, comparing any two means that have a smaller difference is assured to yield the same conclusion (if sample sizes are identical). As a result, no other comparisons need to be made.

Overall, it is important when employing Tukey's test to always start by comparing the largest mean to the smallest mean, and then the largest mean with the next smallest, etc., until the largest mean has been compared to all other means (or until no difference is found). After this, compare the second largest mean with the smallest mean, and then the next smallest, and so on. Once again, if two means are found to have no statistically significant difference, do not compare any of the means between them.