Dear all,
some time ago we discussed testing for the phylogenetic signal in the
data with Pagel's lambda and marginally touched the issue of
estimating lambda while simultaneous;y running a regression.
So here is my question. As Marguerite pointed out (see below), it may
happen that both your dependent and independent trait have a high
lambda, but the lambda for both of them together is lower (or
different). How is this possible theoretically? if X has lambda=1, y
has lambda=1, why isn't the lambda of the regression not 1 too? This
happened to me a few times and I really cannot figure out why (sorry!)
On a related issue, say that your X and Y have both lambda=1
individually; what should you do while testing their regression? what
is your current thinking about estimating lambda while testing for the
regression? should this be done or not? It seems to me that while some
people do estimate lambda value of the 2 traits together in the
regression, others check the lambda for each trait separately and if
they do find a strong phylogenetic signal they proceed without further
estimating lambda during the regression analysis (which should imply
they use a lambda=1, right?).
Thanks,
Isabella
On 11 Apr 2008, at 20:45, Marguerite Butler wrote:
Just wanted to add a couple of more points:
1) From what you describe, I think you are fitting Pagel's lambda to
univariate models. But then you are comparing bivariate models. These
are not the same, in the sense that the best lambda for each variable
may not be the best one for them jointly.
--
Isabella Capellini, PhD
Research Associate
Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group
Department of Anthropology
Durham University
Dawson Building
South Road, Durham
DH1 3LE (U.K.)
phone: +44 (0)191 3343298
fax: +44 (0)191 3341618
http://www.dur.ac.uk/isabella.capellini/
http://www.dur.ac.uk/anthropology/staff/profiles/?id=2366
http://www.bu.edu/phylogeny/index.html
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