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AIC / BIC vs P-Values in lmer

Hi Andrew,

Thanks very much for this, however, does this mean that the problems with interpreting the AIC value as explained by Phillip Dixon still apply?
If so is there a work around using binomial data in lmer?

Thanks

Chris
On 5 Aug 2010, at 14:22, Crowe, Andrew wrote:
Chris/Ben

The lack of effect of the REML parameter is simply explained by the fact you are fitting a binomial model.  This causes the lmer call to default to a glmer call in which the REML parameter is ignored.  I also note that you are specifying order/family in the random term, which I assume are the taxanomic definitions of family and order.  As family is completey nested in order so that order:family is as unique as family, no additional variance is explained by order over family so I believe that you should just be able to specify (1|family) for your random intercept.

Regards

Andrew

Dr Andrew Crowe

Lancaster Environment Centre
Lancaster University
Lancaster    LA1 4YQ
UK

________________________________

From: r-sig-ecology-bounces at r-project.org on behalf of Chris Mcowen
Sent: Thu 05/08/2010 2:04 PM
To: Ben Bolker
Cc: r-sig-ecology at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R-sig-eco] AIC / BIC vs P-Values in lmer



I have just tried it with REML=FALSE and once again there is no difference in the AIC/BIC values between the two models? I have given two examples this time but have tried it with 10 models with no difference.

Thanks,
Chris


1

MODEL WITH REML=FALSE
Generalized linear mixed model fit by the Laplace approximation
Formula: threatornot ~ 1 + (1 | order/family) + seasonality + pollendispersal +      breedingsystem * fruit + habit + lifeform + woodyness
 AIC  BIC logLik deviance
1399 1479 -683.6     1367
Random effects:
Groups       Name        Variance Std.Dev.
family:order (Intercept) 0.27526  0.52466
order        (Intercept) 0.00000  0.00000
Number of obs: 1116, groups: family:order, 43; order, 9

Fixed effects:
                       Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)  
(Intercept)             0.384574   0.734960   0.523  0.60079  
seasonality2           -1.127996   0.353013  -3.195  0.00140 **
pollendispersal2        0.693255   0.314600   2.204  0.02755 *
breedingsystem2         0.761067   0.493404   1.542  0.12296  
breedingsystem3         1.226269   0.557236   2.201  0.02776 *
fruit2                  1.047648   0.616723   1.699  0.08937 .
habit2                 -1.146334   0.551682  -2.078  0.03772 *
habit3                 -0.731207   0.872805  -0.838  0.40216  
habit4                 -0.190900   0.551427  -0.346  0.72920  
lifeform2              -0.295342   0.182667  -1.617  0.10592  
lifeform3              -0.376204   0.501825  -0.750  0.45345  
woodyness2              0.006274   0.390241   0.016  0.98717  
breedingsystem2:fruit2 -1.273811   0.651011  -1.957  0.05039 .
breedingsystem3:fruit2 -1.633424   0.744563  -2.194  0.02825 *


MODEL WITHOUT REML=FALSE

model126 <- lmer(threatornot~1+(1|order/family) + seasonality + pollendispersal +  breedingsystem*fruit + habit + lifeform +  woodyness, family=binomial)

Generalized linear mixed model fit by the Laplace approximation
Formula: threatornot ~ 1 + (1 | order/family) + seasonality + pollendispersal +      breedingsystem * fruit + habit + lifeform + woodyness
 AIC  BIC logLik deviance
1399 1479 -683.6     1367
Random effects:
Groups       Name        Variance Std.Dev.
family:order (Intercept) 0.27526  0.52466
order        (Intercept) 0.00000  0.00000
Number of obs: 1116, groups: family:order, 43; order, 9

Fixed effects:
                       Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)  
(Intercept)             0.384574   0.734960   0.523  0.60079  
seasonality2           -1.127996   0.353013  -3.195  0.00140 **
pollendispersal2        0.693255   0.314600   2.204  0.02755 *
breedingsystem2         0.761067   0.493404   1.542  0.12296  
breedingsystem3         1.226269   0.557236   2.201  0.02776 *
fruit2                  1.047648   0.616723   1.699  0.08937 .
habit2                 -1.146334   0.551682  -2.078  0.03772 *
habit3                 -0.731207   0.872805  -0.838  0.40216  
habit4                 -0.190900   0.551427  -0.346  0.72920  
lifeform2              -0.295342   0.182667  -1.617  0.10592  
lifeform3              -0.376204   0.501825  -0.750  0.45345  
woodyness2              0.006274   0.390241   0.016  0.98717  
breedingsystem2:fruit2 -1.273811   0.651011  -1.957  0.05039 .
breedingsystem3:fruit2 -1.633424   0.744563  -2.194  0.02825 *

2

MODEL WITH REML=FALSE
Generalized linear mixed model fit by the Laplace approximation
Formula: threatornot ~ 1 + (1 | order/family) + seasonality + woodyness
 AIC  BIC logLik deviance
1395 1420 -692.6     1385
Random effects:
Groups       Name        Variance Std.Dev.
family:order (Intercept) 0.49348  0.70248
order        (Intercept) 0.00000  0.00000
Number of obs: 1116, groups: family:order, 43; order, 9

Fixed effects:
            Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)   
(Intercept)    0.6034     0.4227   1.427  0.15346   
seasonality2  -1.1421     0.3453  -3.308  0.00094 ***
woodyness2     0.5113     0.2559   1.998  0.04572 * 

MODEL WITHOUT REML=FALSE
model03 <- lmer(threatornot~1+(1|order/family) + seasonality + woodyness, family=binomial)
Generalized linear mixed model fit by the Laplace approximation
Formula: threatornot ~ 1 + (1 | order/family) + seasonality + woodyness
 AIC  BIC logLik deviance
1395 1420 -692.6     1385
Random effects:
Groups       Name        Variance Std.Dev.
family:order (Intercept) 0.49348  0.70248
order        (Intercept) 0.00000  0.00000
Number of obs: 1116, groups: family:order, 43; order, 9

Fixed effects:
            Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)   
(Intercept)    0.6034     0.4227   1.427  0.15346   
seasonality2  -1.1421     0.3453  -3.308  0.00094 ***
woodyness2     0.5113     0.2559   1.998  0.04572 *
On 5 Aug 2010, at 13:51, Ben Bolker wrote:
Chris Mcowen <chrismcowen at ...> writes:
papers using lmer to calculate the
however the AIC / BIC values are
Try REML=FALSE instead ... ?  (You may have 'F' set to a value
in your workspace.)  Otherwise I would find it very odd that the
results are identical.

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