Trend analysis consists of testing one or more components of trend.
These components are tested using specific comparisons. The graph shown on the right shows that running time decreased as magnitude of reward increased. A test of the linear component of trend is a test of whether this decrease in running time is significant. If there were a perfectly linear relationship between magnitude of reward and running time, then no components of trend other than the linear would be present. Running time decreases four seconds as the number of pellets increases from two to four, two seconds as the number of pellets increases from four to six, and only one second as the number of pellets increases form six to eight.