Distribution Lab
Normal Β· Gamma Β· Beta Β· Poisson Β· Binomial Β· GLM preparation
Β© Dr. Rainer DΓΌsing Β· Interactive Tools by Claude
Distribution Lab β€” Explore probability distributions interactively.  Β·  21 distributions Β· Adjust parameters Β· Show moments Β· brms roles & parametrisation Β· Lockable x-axis Β· Ordinal models
Normal
Y ~ Normal(ΞΌ, Οƒ)
Parameters
Show moments
Relationships between distributions
LEGEND: Limit / special case Constructed from CONTINUOUS UNBOUNDED Normal Y ~ N(ΞΌ, Οƒ) Student-t t(Ξ½, ΞΌ, Οƒ) Ξ½ β†’ ∞ Skew-Normal SN(ΞΎ, Ο‰, Ξ±) Ξ± = 0 χ²(k) = Z₁² + Zβ‚‚Β² + … + Zβ‚–Β² (Zα΅’ ~ N(0,1)) CONTINUOUS POSITIVE Exponential Exp(Ξ») Gamma Ξ“(Ξ±, Ξ²) Ξ±=1 Inv. Gaussian IG(ΞΌ, Ξ») ExGaussian ExG(ΞΌ, Οƒ, Ξ²) = N(ΞΌ,Οƒ) βŠ• Exp(Ξ²) F-Distribution F(d₁, dβ‚‚) ChiΒ² χ²(k) χ²/χ² = Ξ“(k/2, Β½) Log-Normal LN(ΞΌ, Οƒ) BOUNDED [0,1] Beta Beta(Ξ±, Ξ²) Beta(1,1) = Uniform[0,1] + Zero β†’ ZI-Beta + 0 and 1 β†’ ZOIB COUNT DATA (DISCRETE) Poisson Pois(Ξ») Neg. Binomial NB(ΞΌ, Ο†) Ο† β†’ ∞ Binomial Bin(n, p) nβ†’βˆž, pβ†’0 Bernoulli Bern(p) = Bin(1,p) Beta-Binomial BetaBin(n, ΞΌ, Ο†) Ο† β†’ ∞ p ~ Beta Normal = limit of Student-t (Ξ½β†’βˆž), Gamma (Ξ±β†’βˆž) and Binomial (nβ†’βˆž, pβ†’0) Bold = central distribution; dashed = ExGaussian (technically unbounded, constructed from Normal + Exponential) Source: Ben Lambert, A Student's Guide to Bayesian Statistics (2018), p. 225
Help β€” Distribution Lab
Overview
Distribution Lab shows 18 probability distributions interactively β€” as preparation for GLMs and Bayesian models in brms. Which distribution fits which data? For each distribution: description, use cases, parameter explanation, brms usage and technical details.
Navigation
Category tabs (top) select the distribution group.
Distribution buttons below select the specific distribution.
Sliders on the left adjust parameters in real time.
Lock x-axis
X lock button (topbar): Freezes the x-axis so that when changing parameters (e.g. ΞΌ or Οƒ) the shape change is directly visible β€” instead of the axis rescaling. Resets automatically when switching distributions.
Distribution relationships
⊞ Relations button opens an overview map of all distributions and their connections: special cases, limits, constructions. Orientation in the distribution zoo.
Moments
Mean (blue), Median (green), Mode (orange) as vertical dashed lines. Each moment independently toggleable.
brms parametrisation
For Gamma and Beta: toggle between brms (ΞΌ, Ο†) and classical (Ξ±, Ξ²). Automatic conversion. The brms parametrisation is more intuitive: you set the mean directly.

The "Usage in brms" section shows for each distribution: as likelihood (family syntax, link) and as prior (prior() syntax) β€” including typical parametrisations.
Mixed distributions
ZI-Beta and ZOIB: point masses at 0/1 as red bars, Beta component as curve.
Discrete distributions
Bar chart of the PMF. Mode = tallest bar.