Mixed models are hard.
They’re abstract, they’re a little weird, and there is not a common vocabulary or notation for them.
But they’re also extremely important to understand because many data sets require their use.
Repeated measures ANOVA has too many limitations. It just doesn’t cut it any more.
One of the most difficult parts of fitting mixed models is figuring out which random effects to include in a model. And that’s hard to do if you don’t really understand what a random effect is or how it differs from a fixed effect. (more…)
As mixed models are becoming more widespread, there is a lot of confusion about when to use these more flexible but complicated models and when to use the much simpler and easier-to-understand repeated measures ANOVA.
One thing that makes the decision harder is sometimes the results are exactly the same from the two models and sometimes the results are (more…)
We often talk about nested factors in mixed models — students nested in classes, observations nested within subject.
But in all but the simplest designs, it’s not that straightforward. (more…)
One question I always get in my Repeated Measures Workshop is:
“Okay, now that I understand how to run a linear mixed model for my study, how do I write up the results?”
This is a great question.
There are many pieces of the linear mixed models output that are identical to those of any linear model–regression coefficients, F tests, means.
But there is also a lot that is new, like intraclass correlations and (more…)
