fixed effect

Multilevel, Hierarchical, and Mixed Models–Questions about Terminology

October 11th, 2019 by

Multilevel models and Mixed Models are generally the same thing. In our recent webinar on the basics of mixed models, Random Intercept and Random Slope Models, we had a number of questions about terminology that I’m going to answer here.

If you want to see the full recording of the webinar, get it here. It’s free.

Q: Is this different from multi-level modeling?

A: No. I don’t really know the history of why we have the different names, but the difference in multilevel modeling (more…)


Member Training: Meta-analysis

October 31st, 2018 by

Meta-analysis is the quantitative pooling of data from multiple studies. Meta-analysis done well has many strengths, including statistical power, precision in effect size estimates, and providing a summary of individual studies.

But not all meta-analyses are done well. The three threats to the validity of a meta-analytic finding are heterogeneity of study results, publication bias, and poor individual study quality.

(more…)


What Are Nested Models?

July 28th, 2017 by

Pretty much all of the common statistical models we use, with the exception of OLS Linear Models, use Maximum Likelihood estimation.

This includes favorites like:

That’s a lot of models.

If you’ve ever learned any of these, you’ve heard that some of the statistics that compare model fit in competing models require (more…)


Mixed Models: Can you specify a predictor as both fixed and random?

February 16th, 2016 by

One of the most confusing things about mixed models arises from the way it’s coded in most statistical software.  Of the ones I’ve used, only HLM sets it up differently and so this doesn’t apply.

But for the rest of them—SPSS, SAS, R’s lme and lmer, and Stata, the basic syntax requires the same pieces of information.

1.       The dependent variable

2.       The predictor variables for which to calculate fixed effects and whether those (more…)