psis {loo} | R Documentation

## Pareto smoothed importance sampling (PSIS)

### Description

Implementation of Pareto smoothed importance sampling (PSIS), a method for stabilizing importance ratios. The version of PSIS implemented here corresponds to the algorithm presented in Vehtari, Gelman and Gabry (2017b). For PSIS diagnostics see the pareto-k-diagnostic page.

### Usage

    psis(log_ratios, ...)

    ## S3 method for class 'array'
    psis(log_ratios, ..., r_eff = NULL,
      cores = getOption("mc.cores", 1))

    ## S3 method for class 'matrix'
    psis(log_ratios, ..., r_eff = NULL,
      cores = getOption("mc.cores", 1))

    ## Default S3 method:
    psis(log_ratios, ..., r_eff = NULL)

    ## S3 method for class 'psis'
    weights(object, ..., log = TRUE, normalize = TRUE)

    is.psis(x)

### Arguments

`log_ratios` | An array, matrix, or vector of importance ratios on the log scale (for PSIS-LOO these are negative log-likelihood values). See the Methods (by class) section below for a detailed description of how to specify the inputs for each method.
`...` | Arguments passed on to the various methods.
`r_eff` | Vector of relative effective sample size estimates containing one element per observation. The values provided should be the relative effective sample sizes of `1/exp(log_ratios)` (i.e., `1/ratios`). This is related to the relative efficiency of estimating the normalizing term in self-normalizing importance sampling. If `r_eff` is not provided then the reported PSIS effective sample sizes and Monte Carlo error estimates will be over-optimistic. See the `relative_eff` helper function for computing `r_eff`. If using `psis` with draws of the `log_ratios` not obtained from MCMC then the warning message thrown when not specifying `r_eff` can be disabled by setting `r_eff` to `NA`.
`cores` | The number of cores to use for parallelization. This defaults to the option `mc.cores` which can be set for an entire R session by `options(mc.cores = NUMBER)`. The old option `loo.cores` is now deprecated but will be given precedence over `mc.cores` until `loo.cores` is removed in a future release. As of version 2.0.0 the default is now 1 core if `mc.cores` is not set, but we recommend using as many (or close to as many) cores as possible. Note for Windows 10 users: it is recommended to avoid using the `.Rprofile` file to set `mc.cores` (using the `cores` argument or setting `mc.cores` interactively or in a script is fine).
`object` | For the `weights` method, an object returned by `psis` (a list with class `"psis"`).
`log` | For the `weights` method, should the weights be returned on the log scale? Defaults to `TRUE`.
`normalize` | For the `weights` method, should the weights be normalized? Defaults to `TRUE`.
`x` | For `is.psis`, an object to check.

### Value

The `psis` methods return an object of class `"psis"`, which is a named list with the following components:

`log_weights`

  Vector or matrix of smoothed (and truncated) but unnormalized log weights. To get normalized weights use the `weights` method provided for objects of class `"psis"`.

`diagnostics`

  A named list containing two vectors:

  - `pareto_k`: Estimates of the shape parameter k of the generalized Pareto distribution. See the `pareto-k-diagnostic` page for details.

  - `n_eff`: PSIS effective sample size estimates.

Objects of class `"psis"` also have the following `attributes`:

`norm_const_log`

  Vector of precomputed values of `colLogSumExps(log_weights)` that are used internally by the `weights` method to normalize the log weights.

`tail_len`

  Vector of tail lengths used for fitting the generalized Pareto distribution.

`r_eff`

  If specified, the user's `r_eff` argument.

`dims`

  Integer vector of length 2 containing `S` (posterior sample size) and `N` (number of observations).

The `weights` method returns an object with the same dimensions as the `log_weights` component of the `"psis"` object. The `normalize` and `log` arguments control whether the returned weights are normalized and whether or not to return them on the log scale.

### Methods (by class)

- `array`: An I by C by N array, where I is the number of MCMC iterations per chain, C is the number of chains, and N is the number of data points.

- `matrix`: An S by N matrix, where S is the size of the posterior sample (with all chains merged) and N is the number of data points.

- `default`: A vector of length S (posterior sample size).

### References

Vehtari, A., Gelman, A., and Gabry, J. (2017a). Practical Bayesian model evaluation using leave-one-out cross-validation and WAIC. Statistics and Computing. 27(5), 1413–1432. doi:10.1007/s11222-016-9696-4. ( journal, preprint arXiv:1507.04544).

Vehtari, A., Gelman, A., and Gabry, J. (2017b). Pareto smoothed importance sampling. arXiv preprint: http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.02646/

### See Also

- `loo` for approximate LOO-CV using PSIS.

- `pareto-k-diagnostic` for PSIS diagnostics.

### Examples

    log_ratios <- -1 * example_loglik_array()
    r_eff <- relative_eff(exp(-log_ratios))
    psis_result <- psis(log_ratios, r_eff = r_eff)
    str(psis_result)
    plot(psis_result)

    # extract smoothed weights
    lw <- weights(psis_result) # default args are log=TRUE, normalize=TRUE
    ulw <- weights(psis_result, normalize=FALSE) # unnormalized log-weights

    w <- weights(psis_result, log=FALSE) # normalized weights (not log-weights)
    uw <- weights(psis_result, log=FALSE, normalize = FALSE) # unnormalized weights

[Package loo version 2.1.0 Index]