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Compute posterior predictive draws averaged across models. Weighting can be done in various ways, for instance using Akaike weights based on information criteria or marginal likelihoods.

Usage

# S3 method for class 'brmsfit'
pp_average(
  x,
  ...,
  weights = "stacking",
  method = "posterior_predict",
  ndraws = NULL,
  nsamples = NULL,
  summary = TRUE,
  probs = c(0.025, 0.975),
  robust = FALSE,
  model_names = NULL,
  control = list(),
  seed = NULL
)

pp_average(x, ...)

Arguments

x

A brmsfit object.

...

More brmsfit objects or further arguments passed to the underlying post-processing functions. In particular, see prepare_predictions for further supported arguments.

weights

Name of the criterion to compute weights from. Should be one of "loo", "waic", "kfold", "stacking" (current default), "bma", or "pseudobma". For the former three options, Akaike weights will be computed based on the information criterion values returned by the respective methods. For "stacking" and "pseudobma", method loo_model_weights will be used to obtain weights. For "bma", method post_prob will be used to compute Bayesian model averaging weights based on log marginal likelihood values (make sure to specify reasonable priors in this case). For some methods, weights may also be a numeric vector of pre-specified weights.

method

Method used to obtain predictions to average over. Should be one of "posterior_predict" (default), "posterior_epred", "posterior_linpred" or "predictive_error".

ndraws

Total number of posterior draws to use.

nsamples

Deprecated alias of ndraws.

summary

Should summary statistics (i.e. means, sds, and 95% intervals) be returned instead of the raw values? Default is TRUE.

probs

The percentiles to be computed by the quantile function. Only used if summary is TRUE.

robust

If FALSE (the default) the mean is used as the measure of central tendency and the standard deviation as the measure of variability. If TRUE, the median and the median absolute deviation (MAD) are applied instead. Only used if summary is TRUE.

model_names

If NULL (the default) will use model names derived from deparsing the call. Otherwise will use the passed values as model names.

control

Optional list of further arguments passed to the function specified in weights.

seed

A single numeric value passed to set.seed to make results reproducible.

Value

Same as the output of the method specified in argument method.

Details

Weights are computed with the model_weights method.

Examples

# \dontrun{
# model with 'treat' as predictor
fit1 <- brm(rating ~ treat + period + carry, data = inhaler)
#> Compiling Stan program...
#> Start sampling
#> 
#> SAMPLING FOR MODEL 'anon_model' NOW (CHAIN 1).
#> Chain 1: 
#> Chain 1: Gradient evaluation took 8e-06 seconds
#> Chain 1: 1000 transitions using 10 leapfrog steps per transition would take 0.08 seconds.
#> Chain 1: Adjust your expectations accordingly!
#> Chain 1: 
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#> Chain 1: 
#> Chain 1:  Elapsed Time: 0.035 seconds (Warm-up)
#> Chain 1:                0.034 seconds (Sampling)
#> Chain 1:                0.069 seconds (Total)
#> Chain 1: 
#> 
#> SAMPLING FOR MODEL 'anon_model' NOW (CHAIN 2).
#> Chain 2: 
#> Chain 2: Gradient evaluation took 5e-06 seconds
#> Chain 2: 1000 transitions using 10 leapfrog steps per transition would take 0.05 seconds.
#> Chain 2: Adjust your expectations accordingly!
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#> Chain 2: 
#> Chain 2:  Elapsed Time: 0.032 seconds (Warm-up)
#> Chain 2:                0.032 seconds (Sampling)
#> Chain 2:                0.064 seconds (Total)
#> Chain 2: 
#> 
#> SAMPLING FOR MODEL 'anon_model' NOW (CHAIN 3).
#> Chain 3: 
#> Chain 3: Gradient evaluation took 5e-06 seconds
#> Chain 3: 1000 transitions using 10 leapfrog steps per transition would take 0.05 seconds.
#> Chain 3: Adjust your expectations accordingly!
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#> Chain 3: 
#> Chain 3:  Elapsed Time: 0.037 seconds (Warm-up)
#> Chain 3:                0.031 seconds (Sampling)
#> Chain 3:                0.068 seconds (Total)
#> Chain 3: 
#> 
#> SAMPLING FOR MODEL 'anon_model' NOW (CHAIN 4).
#> Chain 4: 
#> Chain 4: Gradient evaluation took 5e-06 seconds
#> Chain 4: 1000 transitions using 10 leapfrog steps per transition would take 0.05 seconds.
#> Chain 4: Adjust your expectations accordingly!
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#> Chain 4: 
#> Chain 4:  Elapsed Time: 0.032 seconds (Warm-up)
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#> Chain 4:                0.063 seconds (Total)
#> Chain 4: 
summary(fit1)
#>  Family: gaussian 
#>   Links: mu = identity 
#> Formula: rating ~ treat + period + carry 
#>    Data: inhaler (Number of observations: 572) 
#>   Draws: 4 chains, each with iter = 2000; warmup = 1000; thin = 1;
#>          total post-warmup draws = 4000
#> 
#> Regression Coefficients:
#>           Estimate Est.Error l-95% CI u-95% CI Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> Intercept     1.43      0.03     1.38     1.48 1.00     4418     2815
#> treat        -0.25      0.07    -0.39    -0.11 1.00     3263     2831
#> period        0.05      0.05    -0.05     0.15 1.00     5002     2410
#> carry        -0.05      0.05    -0.14     0.06 1.00     3163     3061
#> 
#> Further Distributional Parameters:
#>       Estimate Est.Error l-95% CI u-95% CI Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> sigma     0.61      0.02     0.57     0.64 1.00     4497     3024
#> 
#> Draws were sampled using sampling(NUTS). For each parameter, Bulk_ESS
#> and Tail_ESS are effective sample size measures, and Rhat is the potential
#> scale reduction factor on split chains (at convergence, Rhat = 1).

# model without 'treat' as predictor
fit2 <- brm(rating ~ period + carry, data = inhaler)
#> Compiling Stan program...
#> Start sampling
#> 
#> SAMPLING FOR MODEL 'anon_model' NOW (CHAIN 1).
#> Chain 1: 
#> Chain 1: Gradient evaluation took 1.2e-05 seconds
#> Chain 1: 1000 transitions using 10 leapfrog steps per transition would take 0.12 seconds.
#> Chain 1: Adjust your expectations accordingly!
#> Chain 1: 
#> Chain 1: 
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#> Chain 1: 
#> Chain 1:  Elapsed Time: 0.027 seconds (Warm-up)
#> Chain 1:                0.023 seconds (Sampling)
#> Chain 1:                0.05 seconds (Total)
#> Chain 1: 
#> 
#> SAMPLING FOR MODEL 'anon_model' NOW (CHAIN 2).
#> Chain 2: 
#> Chain 2: Gradient evaluation took 5e-06 seconds
#> Chain 2: 1000 transitions using 10 leapfrog steps per transition would take 0.05 seconds.
#> Chain 2: Adjust your expectations accordingly!
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#> Chain 2: 
#> Chain 2:  Elapsed Time: 0.025 seconds (Warm-up)
#> Chain 2:                0.025 seconds (Sampling)
#> Chain 2:                0.05 seconds (Total)
#> Chain 2: 
#> 
#> SAMPLING FOR MODEL 'anon_model' NOW (CHAIN 3).
#> Chain 3: 
#> Chain 3: Gradient evaluation took 5e-06 seconds
#> Chain 3: 1000 transitions using 10 leapfrog steps per transition would take 0.05 seconds.
#> Chain 3: Adjust your expectations accordingly!
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#> Chain 3:  Elapsed Time: 0.025 seconds (Warm-up)
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#> Chain 3:                0.047 seconds (Total)
#> Chain 3: 
#> 
#> SAMPLING FOR MODEL 'anon_model' NOW (CHAIN 4).
#> Chain 4: 
#> Chain 4: Gradient evaluation took 5e-06 seconds
#> Chain 4: 1000 transitions using 10 leapfrog steps per transition would take 0.05 seconds.
#> Chain 4: Adjust your expectations accordingly!
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#> Chain 4:                0.047 seconds (Total)
#> Chain 4: 
summary(fit2)
#>  Family: gaussian 
#>   Links: mu = identity 
#> Formula: rating ~ period + carry 
#>    Data: inhaler (Number of observations: 572) 
#>   Draws: 4 chains, each with iter = 2000; warmup = 1000; thin = 1;
#>          total post-warmup draws = 4000
#> 
#> Regression Coefficients:
#>           Estimate Est.Error l-95% CI u-95% CI Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> Intercept     1.43      0.03     1.38     1.48 1.00     4222     3255
#> period        0.05      0.05    -0.05     0.15 1.00     4620     3015
#> carry        -0.17      0.04    -0.24    -0.10 1.00     4211     3201
#> 
#> Further Distributional Parameters:
#>       Estimate Est.Error l-95% CI u-95% CI Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> sigma     0.61      0.02     0.58     0.65 1.00     4746     3336
#> 
#> Draws were sampled using sampling(NUTS). For each parameter, Bulk_ESS
#> and Tail_ESS are effective sample size measures, and Rhat is the potential
#> scale reduction factor on split chains (at convergence, Rhat = 1).

# compute model-averaged predicted values
(df <- unique(inhaler[, c("treat", "period", "carry")]))
#>     treat period carry
#> 1     0.5    0.5     0
#> 60   -0.5    0.5     0
#> 287  -0.5   -0.5    -1
#> 346   0.5   -0.5     1
pp_average(fit1, fit2, newdata = df)
#>      Estimate Est.Error       Q2.5    Q97.5
#> [1,] 1.358672 0.6070908 0.15198368 2.552579
#> [2,] 1.569763 0.5967508 0.42874961 2.718496
#> [3,] 1.595366 0.6030301 0.43861540 2.753008
#> [4,] 1.243665 0.6173089 0.04691649 2.449578
#> attr(,"weights")
#>      fit1      fit2 
#> 0.8728755 0.1271245 
#> attr(,"ndraws")
#> fit1 fit2 
#> 3492  508 

# compute model-averaged fitted values
pp_average(fit1, fit2, method = "fitted", newdata = df)
#>      Estimate  Est.Error     Q2.5    Q97.5
#> [1,] 1.347118 0.06617608 1.230486 1.491578
#> [2,] 1.566682 0.06399981 1.428731 1.677093
#> [3,] 1.578447 0.05027763 1.479665 1.675007
#> [4,] 1.235921 0.05008774 1.138199 1.334041
#> attr(,"weights")
#>      fit1      fit2 
#> 0.8728755 0.1271245 
#> attr(,"ndraws")
#> fit1 fit2 
#> 3492  508 
# }