Week 6: Bayesian Statistics

This week we will give a conceptual overview of Bayesian statistical methods as well as a walkthrough/diagnostics of a fitting a hierarchical model with JAGS.

If you'd like to follow along with the in-class walkthrough, install JAGS (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mcmc-jags/). Also have the "rjags" and "R2jags" packages installed in R.

Lecture:

Bayes_slides.pdf

JAGS Walkthrough:

forest_cover.csv data file for JAGS demonstration

jags_example_forestcover.R R code for JAGS demonstration

example_model.pdf equations matching the model

rasterplot.pdf 

Resources: 

JAGS Manuals

rjags Help PDF

Getting Started with JAGS and rjags: nice introductory blog post

JAGS NEWS: blog

Bayesian Task View on CRAN: lists and describes many R packages related to Bayesian statistics

The BUGS project: Evolution, critique and future directions: useful historical perspective on the broader BUGS project

John D. Cook's blog post on "Four Reasons to Use Bayesian Statistics"

John K. Kruschke's "Open Letter extolling the benefits of the bayesian approach"