Robustness for general design mixed models using the t-distribution

摘要

The t-distribution allows the incorporation of outlier robustness into statistical models while retaining the elegance of likelihood-based inference. In this paper, we develop and implement a linear mixed model for the general design of the linear mixed model using the univariate t-distribution.This general design allows a considerably richer class of models to be fit than is possible with existing methods. Included in this class are semi-parametric regression and smoothing and spatial models.