Method to transform fixed effect parameter estimates back on to the response scale [after glmer() with family=Gamma(link = "log")] ??
pj Paul Johnson http://pj.freefaculty.org
On Jul 16, 2015 12:43 AM, "Daniel Newman" <dan.newman86 at gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: Method to transform fixed effect parameter estimates back on to the response scale [after glmer() with family=Gamma(link = "log")] ?? Dear lme4 experts, I am using lme4 to model human reaction-time (RT; in milliseconds) responses. My model includes both nested and fully crossed random intercepts, and fixed effect ?predictor? factors. lmer() seems to work quite well for this, and is nice since I can use the fixed effect parameter estimates (beta and Std.Errors) for interpretation to say that for every unit of the ?predictor? that changes, we expect a change of ~beta units in RT on the response scale (milliseconds). Pretty happy with the results?.BUT? glmer() may be the better option since the response distribution has a positive skew with no zero values (typical RT distribution), and glmer() allows the same model specification as my lmer() model, except using family=Gamma(link = "log") to account for the skewed response
distribution.
This seems to work well and gives very similar results to the equivalent lmer() model, but with somewhat improved residual plots, so I guess the glmer() with family=Gamma(link = "log") is a more valid approach since it explicitly accounts for the shape of response distribution.
Similar predicted values for inputs? That only sense in which you should compare.
PROBLEM: Is there a way to transform the fixed effect parameter estimates and Std.Errors from the glmer() with family=Gamma(link = "log"), back to the response scale (i.e. back to RT in milliseconds). It would be nice/aid interpretation to say that for every unit of the ?predictor? that changes, we expect a change of ~beta units on the response scale.
No, don't back transform params. Yes do run predict() and use that to explore input _> output mapping. Specify newdata carefully to see what you want. Run plotSlopes in my package "rockchalk" to see what I mean. That works on lm and glm, did not consider extend to glmer, but ought to. All we need is draw one line per group.
Thank you so much for your time!!
Cheers
Dan
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