Skip to main content
Log in

On the impact of contaminations in graphical Gaussian models

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Statistical Methods and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of some kinds of contaminant on model selection in graphical Gaussian models. We investigate four different kinds of contaminants, in order to consider the effect of gross errors, model deviations, and model misspecification. The aim of the work is to assess against which kinds of contaminant a model selection procedure for graphical Gaussian models has a more robust behavior. The analysis is based on simulated data. The simulation study shows that relatively few contaminated observations in even just one of the variables can have a significant impact on correct model selection, especially when the contaminated variable is a node in a separating set of the graph.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson TW (1984) An introduction to multivariate statistical analysis. Wiley, New York

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Azzalini A, Capitanio A (1999) Statistical applications of the multivariate skew-normal distribution. J R Stat Soc Ser B 61(3):579–602

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Azzalini A, Della Valle A (1996) The multivariate skew-normal distribution. Biometrika 83:715–726

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Capitanio A, Azzalini A, Stanghellini E (2003) Graphical models for skew-normal variates. Scand J Stat 30(1):129–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cox DR, Wermuth N (1996) Multivariate dependencies Models, analysis and interpretation. Chapman and Hall, London

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Dawid AP (1979) Conditional independence in statistical theory (with discussion). J R Stat Soc Ser B 41:1–31

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Dempster AM (1972) Covariance selection. Biometrics 28:157–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drton M, Perlman MD (2004) A SINful approach to Gaussian graphical model selection, available in http://www.stat.washington.edu/drton/Papers/2005statsci.pdf

  • Edwards D (2000) Introduction to graphical modelling, 2nd edn. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards D (1995) Introduction to graphical modelling. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Grunert da Fonseca V, Fieller NRJ (2006) Distorion in statistical inference: the distinction between data contamination and model deviation. Metrika 63:169–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhnt S, Becker C (2003) Sensitivity of graphical modeling against contamination. In: Schader M, Gaul W, Vichi M (eds), Between data science and applied data analysis. Springer, Berlin Heildberg New York, pp. 279–287

    Google Scholar 

  • Lauritzen SL (1996) Graphical models. Oxford Science, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Mardia KV, Kent JT, Bibby JM (1979) Multivariate Analysis. Academic London

  • Roverato A, Whittaker J (1996) Standard errors for the parameters of graphical Gaussian models. Stat Comput 6:297–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Šidák Z (1967) Rectangular confidence regions for the means of multivariate normal distributions. J Am Stat Assoc 62:626–633

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker JL (1990) Graphical models in applied multivariate statistics. New York, Wiley

    MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna Gottard.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gottard, A., Pacillo, S. On the impact of contaminations in graphical Gaussian models. Stat. Meth. & Appl. 15, 343–354 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10260-006-0041-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10260-006-0041-5

Keywords

Navigation