mgcv: how select significant predictor vars when using gam(...select=TRUE) using automatic optimization
Jan, What mgcv version are you using, please? (Older versions have a poor p-value approximation when select=TRUE, but of course it's possible that you've managed to break the newer approximation as well) The 'select=TRUE' option adds a penalty to each smooth, to allow it to be penalized out of the model altogether via optimization of the smoothing parameter selection criterion. Usually it is better to use REML for smoothing parameter selection in this case using 'method="REML"' as an option to gam. This is because REML is less prone to undersmoothing than GCV. So 'select=TRUE' is not selecting on the basis of the p-values, themselves, but obviously this sort of discrepancy should not be happening. best, Simon
On 17/04/13 15:50, Jan Holstein wrote:
I have 11 possible predictor variables and use them to model quite a few target variables. In search for a consistent manner and possibly non-manual manner to identify the significant predictor vars out of the eleven I thought the option "select=T" might do. Example: (here only 4 pedictors) first is vanilla with "select=F"
fit1<-gam(target~s(mgs)+s(gsd)+s(mud)+s(ssCmax),family=quasi(link=log),data=wspe1,select=F) summary(fit1)
Family: quasi
Link function: log
Formula:
target ~ s(mgs) + s(gsd) + s(mud) + s(ssCmax)
Parametric coefficients:
Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) -34.57 20.47 -1.689 0.0913 .
---
Signif. codes: 0 ?***? 0.001 ?**? 0.01 ?*? 0.05 ?.? 0.1 ? ? 1
Approximate significance of smooth terms:
edf Ref.df F p-value
s(mgs) 2.335 2.623 0.260 0.829
s(gsd) 6.868 7.506 13.955 < 2e-16 ***
s(mud) 8.990 9.000 11.727 < 2e-16 ***
s(ssCmax) 6.770 6.978 6.664 7.68e-08 ***
---
Signif. codes: 0 ?***? 0.001 ?**? 0.01 ?*? 0.05 ?.? 0.1 ? ? 1
R-sq.(adj) = 0.402 Deviance explained = 40.4%
GCV score = 8.8563e+05 Scale est. = 8.8053e+05 n = 4511
then turn select=TRUE
fit2<-gam(target~s(mgs)+s(gsd)+s(mud)+s(ssCmax),family=quasi(link=log),data=wspe1,select=TRUE)
summary(fit2)
Family: quasi
Link function: log
Formula:
target ~ s(mgs) + s(gsd) + s(mud) + s(ssCmax)
Parametric coefficients:
Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) 0.1585 1.7439 0.091 0.928
Approximate significance of smooth terms:
edf Ref.df F p-value
s(mgs) 2.456 8 24.50 <2e-16 ***
s(gsd) 7.272 9 14.33 <2e-16 ***
s(mud) 7.678 9 20.38 <2e-16 ***
s(ssCmax) 6.556 9 14.36 <2e-16 ***
---
Signif. codes: 0 ?***? 0.001 ?**? 0.01 ?*? 0.05 ?.? 0.1 ? ? 1
R-sq.(adj) = 0.397 Deviance explained = 40%
GCV score = 8.9209e+05 Scale est. = 8.8715e+05 n = 4511
I seem to not fully understand how to work with "select".
The predictor "mgs" is obviously not significant, as seen from "fit"
(above), yet here it appears as significant. Why was it not dropped? How are
not-significant predictors are identified?
--
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Simon Wood, Mathematical Science, University of Bath BA2 7AY UK +44 (0)1225 386603 http://people.bath.ac.uk/sw283