Rick Wicklin, PhD, is a distinguished researcher in computational statistics at SAS and is a principal developer of SAS/IML software. His areas of expertise include computational statistics, simulation, statistical graphics, and modern methods in statistical data analysis. Rick is author of the books Statistical Programming with SAS/IML Software and Simulating Data with SAS.
M estimation is a robust regression technique that assigns a weight to each observation based on the magnitude of the residual for that observation. Large residuals are downweighted (assigned weights less than 1) whereas observations with small residuals are given weights close to 1. By iterating the reweighting and fitting
An early method for robust regression was iteratively reweighted least-squares regression (Huber, 1964). This is an iterative procedure in which each observation is assigned a weight. Initially, all weights are 1. The method fits a least-squares model to the weighted data and uses the size of the residuals to determine
A common question on SAS discussion forums is how to randomly assign observations to groups. An application of this problem is assigning patients to cohorts in a clinical trial. For example, you might have 137 patients that you want to randomly assign to three groups: a control group, a group
Many modern statistical techniques incorporate randomness: simulation, bootstrapping, random forests, and so forth. To use the technique, you need to specify a seed value, which determines pseudorandom numbers that are used in the algorithm. Consequently, the seed value also determines the results of the algorithm. In theory, if you know
I have previously blogged about ways to perform balanced bootstrap resampling in SAS. I recently learned about an easier way: Since SAS/STAT 14.2 (SAS 9.4M4), the SURVEYSELECT procedure has supported balanced bootstrap sampling. This article reviews balanced bootstrap sampling and shows how to use the METHOD=BALBOOT option in PROC SURVEYSELECT
In categorical data analysis, it is common to analyze tables of counts. For example, a researcher might gather data for 18 boys and 12 girls who apply for a summer enrichment program. The researcher might be interested in whether the proportion of boys that are admitted is different from the
Did you know that there is a mathematical formula that simplifies finding the derivative of a determinant? You can compute the derivative of a determinant of an n x n matrix by using the sum of n other determinants. The n determinants are for matrices that are equal to the original matrix
In The Essential Guide to Bootstrapping in SAS, I note that there are many SAS procedures that support bootstrap estimates without requiring the analyst to write a program. I have previously written about using bootstrap options in the TTEST procedure. This article discusses the NLIN procedure, which can fit nonlinear
Recently, I wrote about Bartlett's test for sphericity. The purpose of this hypothesis test is to determine whether the variables in the data are uncorrelated. It works by testing whether the sample correlation matrix is close to the identity matrix. Often statistics textbooks or articles include a statement such as
When you have many correlated variables, principal component analysis (PCA) is a classical technique to reduce the dimensionality of the problem. The PCA finds a smaller dimensional linear subspace that explains most of the variability in the data. There are many statistical tools that help you decide how many principal
