Matrix or data frame containing the explanatory variables. Manifest variables must contain only integer values, and must be coded with consecutive values from 1 to the maximum number of outcomes for each variable. All missing values should be entered as NA.
grouping
A factor specifying the class for each observation; if not specified, the first column of 'data' is taken. The class must be coded by integer values with consecutive values from 1 to the maximum number of classes.
formula
Formula of the form 'groups ~ x1 + x2 + ...'.
data
Data frame from which variables specified in formula are to be taken.
prior
The prior probabilities of class membership. If unspecified, the class proportions for the training set are used. If present, the probabilities should be specified in the order of the factor levels.
probs.start
A list of matrices (per variable) of response probabilities θ_{mkdr} to be used as the starting values for the estimation algorithm. Each matrix in the list corresponds to one manifest variable, with one row for each latent class, and one column for each outcome. The default is NULL, producing random starting values. Note that if nrep>1, then any user-specified probs.start values are only used in the first of the nrep attempts.
wmk.start
A matrix of starting values for the parameter w_{mk} (see details). The default is NULL, producing random starting values. Note that if nrep>1, then any user-specified wmk.start values are only used in the first of the nrep attempts.
nrep
Number of times to estimate the model, using different random values of probs.start. The default is one. Setting nrep>1 automates the search for the global – rather than just a local – maximum of the log-likelihood function. cclcda2 uses the parameter estimates corresponding to the model with the greatest log-likelihood.
m
The number of subclasses. Can be either a vector containing the number of subclasses per class or a number of subclasses for all classes. Default is m=3.
maxiter
The maximum number of iterations through which the estimation algorithm will cycle.
tol
A tolerance value for judging when convergence has been reached. When the one-iteration change in the estimated log-likelihood is less than tol, the estimation algorithm stops updating and considers the maximum log-likelihood to have been found.
subset
An index vector specifying the cases to be used in the training sample.
na.rm
Logical, for how cclcda2 handles cases with missing values on the manifest variables. If TRUE, those cases are removed (listwise deleted) before estimating the model. If FALSE, cases with missing values are retained. Cases with missing covariates are always removed. The default is TRUE.
...
Further arguments to be passed to cclcda2.default.
Details
The cclcda2-function performs a Common Components Latent Class Discriminant Analysis 2 (CCLCDA2). The class conditional model to estimate is
where m is the latent subclass index, d is the variable index and r is the observation index. The variable x_{dr} is 1 if the variable d of this observation is r.
This Latent Class Modell will be estimated. The class conditional mixing proportions w_{mk} and the parameters theta_{mdr} are computed in every step of the EM-Algorithm.
The LCA uses the assumption of local independence to estimate a mixture model of latent multi-way tables, the number of which (m) is specified by the user. Estimated parameters include the latent-class-conditional response probabilities for each manifest variable theta_{mdr} and the class conditional mixing proportions w_{mk} denoting population share of observations corresponding to each latent multi-way table per class.
Posterior class probabilities can be estimated with the predict method.
Value
A list of class cclcda2 containing the following components:
call
The (matched) function call.
lca.theta
The estimated class conditional response probabilities of the LCA given as a list of matrices like probs.start.
lca.w
The estimated mixing proportions of the LCA.
lca.wmk
The estimated class conditional mixing proportions of the LCA.
prior
Prior probabilites.
m
Number of latent subclasses.
r
Number of different responses per variable.
k
Number of classes.
d
Number of variables.
aic
Value of the AIC for each class conditional Latent Class Model.
bic
Value of the BIC for each class conditional Latent Class Model.
Gsq
The likelihood ratio/deviance statistic for each class conditional model.
Chisq
The Pearson Chi-square goodness of fit statistic for fitted vs. observed multiway tables for each class conditional model.
entropy
Value of the weighted entropy as described below.
gini
Value of the weighted Gini coefficient as described below.
chi.stat
Value of the Chi-square test statistik of the test of latent class membership and class membership as described below.
chi.p
P Value of the Chi-square of the test of latent class membership and class membership as described below.
Note
If the number of latent classes per class is unknown a model selection must be accomplished to determine the value of m. For this goal there are some model selection criteria implemented. The AIC, BIC, likelihood ratio statistic and the Chi-square goodness of fit statistic are taken from the poLCA-function (see poLCA).
Additionally cclcda2 provides quality criteria which should give insight into the model's classification potential. These criteria are similar to the splitting criteria of classification trees. The impurity measures are
– Weighted entropy: The weighted entropy is given by