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glmer error (maxstephalfit) PIRLS step-halvings failed to reduce deviance in pwrssUpdate)

On 16-02-19 01:37 PM, moses selebatso wrote:
When using `lme4` to fit GLMMs with link functions that do not 
automatically constrain the response to the allowable range of the 
distributional family (e.g. binomial models with a log link, where the 
estimated probability can be >1, or inverse-Gamma models, where the 
estimated mean can be negative), it is not unusual to get the error
```
PIRLS step-halvings failed to reduce deviance in pwrssUpdate
```
This occurs because `lme4` doesn't do anything to constrain the 
predicted values, so `NaN` values pop up, which aren't handled 
gracefully. If possible, switch to a link function to one that 
constrains the response (e.g. logit link for binomial or log link for 
Gamma).

===============

This also serves as an advertisement for the updated version of the GLMM 
FAQ, which I have rewritten in R markdown and am in the process of 
moving from wikidot.com to Github. For the rendered HTML, see

https://rawgit.com/bbolker/mixedmodels-misc/master/glmmFAQ.html

For the source, see 
https://github.com/bbolker/mixedmodels-misc/blob/master/glmmFAQ.rmd

Suggestions and corrections (particularly in the form of pull requests, 
but also in the form of issues 
<https://github.com/bbolker/mixedmodels-misc/issues>) welcome ...