[R-lang] Re: lmer: Significant fixed effect only when random slopeisincluded

J. Vogels J.Vogels@uvt.nl
Thu May 12 02:45:36 PDT 2011


The condition means are as follows (1=pronoun; 0=no pronoun):



     a          b          c          d          e          f

  0 0.12765957 0.11956522 0.91304348 0.86046512 0.74725275 0.77528090

  1 0.87234043 0.88043478 0.08695652 0.13953488 0.25274725 0.22471910



so many of them around 90%. Would that be a problem?



The subject-by-condition means are not very informative, because each subject has only 2 responses per condition. So the means here are either 0%, 50%, or 100%.

Starting with the model with the full fixed effects structure and the random slope for cAGVIS, a likelihood-ratio test indicates that removing the interaction term between the fixed effects does not result in a significant difference (p=.096). A second test shows that further removing cAGVIS results in a difference in fit that does not reach the .05 significance level either (p=.056). However, comparing a model with only cAGTOP as predictor to the first model does give a significant result (p=.031), suggesting that cAGVIS has some influence.



@Ian & Daniel: I used the anova() function in R to do model comparisons. When the model did not converge, I started by removing the interaction terms for the random slopes, first in the item effects, then in the subject effects, as suggested by Florian Jaeger in his blog. Next, I tried either removing cAGVIS or cAGTOP, again first for the items. The first model that converged had by-subjects random slopes for cAGVIS and cAGTOP, and no by-items random slopes.



Jorrig







> -----Original Message-----

> From: ling-r-lang-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:ling-r-lang-l-

> bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Levy, Roger

> Sent: woensdag 11 mei 2011 20:17

> To: ling-r-lang-l@mailman.ucsd.edu

> Subject: [R-lang] Re: lmer: Significant fixed effect only when random

> slopeisincluded

>

> Just as a brief follow-up: since this is categorical data, given the

> magnitudes of some of the coefficients in question I would indeed worry

> a bit.  It looks like some condition means may be close to 100%, but

> that different subjects may have really dramatically different behavior

> and that this factor may dominate everything else. Also, getting close

> to 100% can mess with the Z statistic.  What do your condition-mean and

> subject-by-condition mean tables look like?  And what do likelihood-

> ratio tests for your fixed effects tell you in these models?  You may

> be fine and the random-slope model you included in your first message

> may indeed be a good one for interpreting your data, but eyeballing

> these tables would be useful as well.

>

> Roger

>

>

> On May 11, 2011, at 6:04 AM, Finlayson, Ian wrote:

>

> > What was the random effect structure of this first converging model?

> As I said earlier the significant interaction seems fine (as does your

> explanation), but I'm just curious about how you carried out backward

> stepwise elimination when the full model didn't converge.

> >

> > Ian

> >

> >

> > From: ling-r-lang-l-bounces+ifinlayson=qmu.ac.uk@mailman.ucsd.edu

> [mailto:ling-r-lang-l-bounces+ifinlayson=qmu.ac.uk@mailman.ucsd.edu] On

> Behalf Of Jorrig Vogels

> > Sent: 11 May 2011 11:56

> > To: ling-r-lang-l@mailman.ucsd.edu

> > Subject: [R-lang] Re: lmer: Significant fixed effect only when random

> slopeisincluded

> >

> > Hello Ian,

> >

> > In the full model, I included random slopes for cAGTOP and cAGVIS and

> their interaction for both subjects and items. However, this did not

> converge. The first model that converged showed a significant

> interaction between cAGTOP1 and cAGVIS, but not between cAGTOP2 and

> AGVIS.

> >

> > Jorrig

> >

> >

> > From: Finlayson, Ian

> > Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 12:36 PM

> > To: Jorrig Vogels ; ling-r-lang-l@mailman.ucsd.edu

> > Subject: RE: [R-lang] lmer: Significant fixed effect only when random

> slope isincluded

> >

> > Hello,

> >

> > I assume that you only have one random slope because the removal of

> the other two (cAGTOP, and its interaction with cAGVIS) didn't

> significantly harm fit. Were the fixed effects for the interaction

> significant in the full model?

> >

> > FWIW, I have seen this happen before and it seems perfectly

> reasonable to me that an effect may only become significant after

> controlling for some of the noise.

> >

> > Ian

> >

> > From: ling-r-lang-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:ling-r-lang-l-

> bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Jorrig Vogels

> > Sent: 11 May 2011 10:50

> > To: ling-r-lang-l@mailman.ucsd.edu

> > Subject: [R-lang] lmer: Significant fixed effect only when random

> slope isincluded

> >

> > Dear R users,

> >

> > I have a logit mixed model with two categorical predictors (two types

> of salience measures) and a categorical dependent variable (pronoun

> used Y/N). One predictor has 2 levels, and the other has 3. I centered

> the 2-level predictor, and transformed the 3-level predictor into two

> binary predictors using contrast (sum) coding. I determined the random-

> effects structure by starting from a full model, and eliminating step

> by step all terms without a significant contribution to the model.

> >

> > In the final model, I end up with random intercepts for subjects and

> items, and a by-subject random slope for my 2-level predictor. In this

> model, I get significant interactions between the fixed factors, which

> I had not expected to be significant by just looking at the data.

> Removing the random slope from the model completely eliminates these

> interactions, but model comparison suggests the random slope should be

> included. I have attached the two model summaries below.

> >

> > Now my question is: is it normal to find such a large influence of

> random effects on the fixed effects structure? How do I know the

> interaction effects are not spurious? And what exactly do these

> findings mean? Participants varied greatly in their reaction to

> predictor B, but when this variation is accounted for, predictor B

> affects pronoun use, but differently for each level of predictor A?

> >

> >

> > Jorrig Vogels

> > PhD candidate

> > Tilburg Univ., Netherlands

> >

> > ================================================================

> >

> > Model with random slope:

> >

> > Generalized linear mixed model fit by the Laplace approximation

> > Formula: PRO ~ cAGTOP * cAGVIS + (1 + cAGVIS | SUBJ) + (1 | ITEM)

> >    Data: vislingag

> >    AIC   BIC logLik deviance

> > 318.4 361.4 -149.2    298.4

> > Random effects:

> > Groups Name        Variance Std.Dev. Corr

> > SUBJ   (Intercept) 49.6457  7.0460

> >         cAGVIS      21.8342  4.6727   0.663

> > ITEM   (Intercept)  1.3205  1.1491

> > Number of obs: 544, groups: SUBJ, 48; ITEM, 12

> >

> > Fixed effects:

> >                Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)

> > (Intercept)      -2.578      1.217  -2.117  0.03422 *

> > cAGTOP1          -6.627      0.913  -7.259 3.90e-13 ***

> > cAGTOP2           9.868      1.502   6.569 5.05e-11 ***

> > cAGVIS           -1.699      1.008  -1.685  0.09207 .

> > cAGTOP1:cAGVIS   -3.223      1.170  -2.755  0.00587 **

> > cAGTOP2:cAGVIS    3.120      1.371   2.275  0.02289 *

> > ---

> > Signif. codes:  0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

> >

> > Correlation of Fixed Effects:

> >             (Intr) cAGTOP1 cAGTOP2 cAGVIS cAGTOP1:

> > cAGTOP1      0.075

> > cAGTOP2     -0.041 -0.867

> > cAGVIS       0.535  0.108  -0.059

> > cAGTOP1:AGV  0.074  0.562  -0.346   0.128

> > cAGTOP2:AGV -0.049 -0.480   0.528  -0.054 -0.668

> >

> >

> > Model without random slope:

> >

> > Generalized linear mixed model fit by the Laplace approximation

> > Formula: PRO ~ cAGTOP * cAGVIS + (1 | SUBJ) + (1 | ITEM)

> >    Data: vislingag

> >    AIC   BIC logLik deviance

> > 324.3 358.7 -154.2    308.3

> > Random effects:

> > Groups Name        Variance Std.Dev.

> > SUBJ   (Intercept) 21.63217 4.65104

> > ITEM   (Intercept)  0.61539 0.78447

> > Number of obs: 544, groups: SUBJ, 48; ITEM, 12

> >

> > Fixed effects:

> >                Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)

> > (Intercept)    -1.41142    0.77639  -1.818   0.0691 .

> > cAGTOP1        -4.59707    0.52139  -8.817   <2e-16 ***

> > cAGTOP2         7.13115    0.84489   8.440   <2e-16 ***

> > cAGVIS         -0.35538    0.40416  -0.879   0.3792

> > cAGTOP1:cAGVIS -0.59940    0.58255  -1.029   0.3035

> > cAGTOP2:cAGVIS -0.08268    0.56682  -0.146   0.8840

> > ---

> > Signif. codes:  0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

> >

> > Correlation of Fixed Effects:

> >             (Intr) cAGTOP1 cAGTOP2 cAGVIS cAGTOP1:

> > cAGTOP1      0.070

> > cAGTOP2     -0.040 -0.867

> > cAGVIS       0.000  0.061  -0.036

> > cAGTOP1:AGV  0.038  0.082  -0.012   0.102

> > cAGTOP2:AGV -0.020  0.008  -0.037   0.037 -0.575

>

> --

>

> Roger Levy                      Email: rlevy@ucsd.edu

> Assistant Professor             Phone: 858-534-7219

> Department of Linguistics       Fax:   858-534-4789

> UC San Diego                    Web:   http://idiom.ucsd.edu/~rlevy

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>


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