> this subject is very intersting for me. I'm using mgcv 0.8-9 with R > version 1.7.1. i didn't know that there was an another gam version with > package library(gam). Someone can tell me the basics differences between > them? I look for an help page on google but i only find "mgcv" help > pages.
- I think you'd need to move to a newer version of R in order to use package gam, but that would also let you use a much more recent version of package mgcv. - package gam is based very closely on the GAM approach presented in Hastie and Tibshirani's "Generalized Additive Models" book. Estimation is by back-fitting and model selection is based on step-wise regression methods based on approximate distributional results. A particular strength of this approach is that local regression smoothers (`lo()' terms) can be included in GAM models. - gam in package mgcv represents GAMs using penalized regression splines. Estimation is by direct penalized likelihood maximization with integrated smoothness estimation via GCV or related criteria (there is also an alternative `gamm' function based on a mixed model approach). Strengths of the this approach are that s() terms can be functions of more than one variable and that tensor product smooths are available via te() terms - these are useful when different degrees of smoothness are appropriate relative to different arguments of a smooth. Here's an attempt at a summary of the differences: Estimation: gam::gam based on backfitting, mgcv::gam based on direct penalized likelihood maximization (with smoothness estimation integrated) Model selection: package(gam) based on stepwise regression methods. mgcv::gam based on integrated GCV estimation of degree of smoothness. Smooth terms: gam::gam can represent smooth terms using a very wide range of scatterplot smoothers incuding loess, which is built in. mgcv::gam is restricted to smoothers that can be represented using basis functions and an associated ``wiggliness'' penalty, but these include low rank thin plate spline smoothers and tensor product smoothers for smooths of more than one variable. Both packages provide interfaces for adding new classes of smoother. Uncertainty estimation: since mgcv GAMs explicitly estimate coefficients for each smooth term, it is fairly straightforward to obtain a covariance matrix for the model coefficients, which makes further variance calcualtions easy. For example predictions with standard errors are easily obtained for predictions made with new prediction data. The backfitting approach makes variance calculation more difficult (e.g. at present s.e.s are not available from gam::predict.gam with new data) Interface: both packages are based on Trevor Hastie's Chapter 7 of Chambers and Hastie. Since Trevor H. wrote package(gam) it's a closer implementation than package(mgcv). Basically, if you want integrated smoothness selection, an underlying parametric representation, or want smooth interactions in your models then mgcv is probably worth a try (but I would say that). If you want to use local regression smoothers and/or prefer the stepwise selection approach then package gam is for you. Simon _____________________________________________________________________ > Simon Wood [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.stats.gla.ac.uk/~simon/ >> Department of Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ >>> Direct telephone: (0)141 330 4530 Fax: (0)141 330 4814 ______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
