Question

What is the difference between a polynomial regression and a hierarchical regression?

Answer 1

Hierarchical regression is a method to show if variables of our interest explain a significant amount of variance in our Dependent Variable after accounting for all other variables. This is a framework that compares various models, rather than a statistical method that finds predictor equations.

Whereas, polynomial regression is a form of regression analysis, in which the dependent variable is modelled as a n-th degree polynomial in the independent variable; It is used to achieve nonlinear smoothing of the curve.