Dear all, I have a model with simple terms, quadratic effects, and interactions. I am wondering what to do when a variable is involved in a significant interaction and in a non-significant quadratic effect. Here is an example
d = data.frame(a=runif(20), b=runif(20)) d$y = d$a + d$b^2 So I create both an simple effect of a and a quadratic effect of b. m = lm(y ~ a + b + I(a^2) + I(b^2) + a:b, data=d) drop1(m) ... Df Sum of Sq RSS AIC <none> 0.000000 -1487.56 I(a^2) 1 0.000000 0.000000 -1482.04 I(b^2) 1 0.098444 0.098444 -96.28 a:b 1 0.000000 0.000000 -1488.37 Here R cleverly shows that I can drop a:b or any quadratic term (suggesting that they have equal marginality?) but not simple terms since they are marginal to the quadratic or the interaction terms. At this point the interaction is not significant so the situation is simple: drop a:b, then drop a^2 and then stop. Now let's add an interaction d[d$b > 0.5, "y"] = d[d$b > 0.5, "y"] + 0.01*d[d$b > 0.5, "a"] m = lm(y ~ a + b + I(a^2) + I(b^2) + a:b, data=d) summary(m) ... (Intercept) -3.275e-04 1.585e-03 -0.207 0.83932 a 9.988e-01 5.839e-03 171.070 < 2e-16 *** b -1.613e-04 5.492e-03 -0.029 0.97698 I(a^2) -6.515e-05 5.159e-03 -0.013 0.99010 I(b^2) 1.001e+00 4.892e-03 204.593 < 2e-16 *** a:b 1.191e-02 3.221e-03 3.698 0.00238 ** Now the interaction *is* significant, but a^2 still isn't. drop1() still suggests that I can remove either the interaction or the quadratic terms: drop1(m) ... Df Sum of Sq RSS AIC <none> 0.000033 -254.306 I(a^2) 1 0.000000 0.000033 -256.306 I(b^2) 1 0.098611 0.098644 -96.239 a:b 1 0.000032 0.000065 -242.674 However, this: http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/MASS3/Exegeses.pdf suggests that marginality rules between powers of variables might not be implemented (although they might have been since 2000). My question is: I am "allowed", according to marginality rules, to remove a^2? I have found plenty of information on how the coefficients corresponding to single terms change meaning when a quadratic term or an interation is involved, and why they should not be removed in most circumstances. I haven't found anything related to quadratic vs. interactions. Thanks in advance for your help. Sincerely, JiHO --- http://maururu.net ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.