Linear regression with a single predictor

Lecture 15

2024-06-06

Goals

  • Modeling with a single predictor
  • Model parameters, estimates, and error terms
  • Interpreting slopes and intercepts

Setup

library(tidyverse)
library(tidymodels)
library(fivethirtyeight) # for the fandango dataset

Correlation vs. causation

Spurious correlations

Spurious correlations

Linear regression with a single predictor

Data prep

  • Rename Rotten Tomatoes columns as critics and audience
  • Rename the dataset as movie_scores
movie_scores <- fandango |>
  rename(
    critics = rottentomatoes, 
    audience = rottentomatoes_user
  )

Data overview

movie_scores |>
  select(critics, audience)
# A tibble: 146 × 2
   critics audience
     <int>    <int>
 1      74       86
 2      85       80
 3      80       90
 4      18       84
 5      14       28
 6      63       62
 7      42       53
 8      86       64
 9      99       82
10      89       87
# ℹ 136 more rows

Data visualization

Regression model

A regression model is a function that describes the relationship between the outcome, \(Y\), and the predictor, \(X\).

\[\begin{aligned} Y &= \color{black}{\textbf{Model}} + \text{Error} \\[8pt] &= \color{black}{\mathbf{f(X)}} + \epsilon \\[8pt] &= \color{black}{\boldsymbol{\mu_{Y|X}}} + \epsilon \end{aligned}\]

Regression model

\[ \begin{aligned} Y &= \color{#325b74}{\textbf{Model}} + \text{Error} \\[8pt] &= \color{#325b74}{\mathbf{f(X)}} + \epsilon \\[8pt] &= \color{#325b74}{\boldsymbol{\mu_{Y|X}}} + \epsilon \end{aligned} \]

Simple linear regression

Use simple linear regression to model the relationship between a quantitative outcome (\(Y\)) and a single quantitative predictor (\(X\)): \[\Large{Y = \beta_0 + \beta_1 X + \epsilon}\]

  • \(\beta_1\): True slope of the relationship between \(X\) and \(Y\)
  • \(\beta_0\): True intercept of the relationship between \(X\) and \(Y\)
  • \(\epsilon\): Error (residual)

Simple linear regression

\[\Large{\hat{Y} = b_0 + b_1 X}\]

  • \(b_1\): Estimated slope of the relationship between \(X\) and \(Y\)
  • \(b_0\): Estimated intercept of the relationship between \(X\) and \(Y\)
  • No error term!

Choosing values for \(b_1\) and \(b_0\)

Residuals

\[\text{residual} = \text{observed} - \text{predicted} = y - \hat{y}\]

Least squares line

  • The residual for the \(i^{th}\) observation is

\[e_i = \text{observed} - \text{predicted} = y_i - \hat{y}_i\]

  • The sum of squared residuals is

\[e^2_1 + e^2_2 + \dots + e^2_n\]

  • The least squares line is the one that minimizes the sum of squared residuals

Least squares line

movies_fit <- linear_reg() |>
  fit(audience ~ critics, data = movie_scores)

tidy(movies_fit)
# A tibble: 2 × 5
  term        estimate std.error statistic  p.value
  <chr>          <dbl>     <dbl>     <dbl>    <dbl>
1 (Intercept)   32.3      2.34        13.8 4.03e-28
2 critics        0.519    0.0345      15.0 2.70e-31

Slope and intercept

Properties of least squares regression

  • The regression line goes through the center of mass point (the coordinates corresponding to average \(X\) and average \(Y\)): \(b_0 = \bar{Y} - b_1~\bar{X}\)

  • Slope has the same sign as the correlation coefficient: \(b_1 = r \frac{s_Y}{s_X}\)

  • Sum of the residuals is zero: \(\sum_{i = 1}^n \epsilon_i = 0\)

  • Residuals and \(X\) values are uncorrelated

Interpreting the slope

The slope of the model for predicting audience score from critics score is 0.519. Which of the following is the best interpretation of this value?

  1. For every one point increase in the critics score, the audience score goes up by 0.519 points, on average.
  2. For every one point increase in the critics score, we expect the audience score to be higher by 0.519 points, on average.
  3. For every one point increase in the critics score, the audience score goes up by 0.519 points.
  4. For every one point increase in the audience score, the critics score goes up by 0.519 points, on average.

Interpreting slope & intercept

\[\widehat{\text{audience}} = 32.3 + 0.519 \times \text{critics}\]

  • Slope: For every one point increase in the critics score, we expect the audience score to be higher by 0.519 points, on average.
  • Intercept: If the critics score is 0 points, we expect the audience score to be 32.3 points.

Is the intercept meaningful?

✅ The intercept is meaningful in context of the data if

  • the predictor can feasibly take values equal to or near zero or
  • the predictor has values near zero in the observed data

🛑 Otherwise, it might not be meaningful!

Application exercise

Application exercise: ae-11-penguins-modeling

  • Go back to your project called ae.
  • If there are any uncommitted files, commit them, and push.
  • Pull, and then work on ae-11-penguins-modeling.qmd.

🔗 sta199-summer24.github.io  ·  ❓ Ask on Ed