[R] Nonnormal Residuals and GAMs

[COLLINL at pitt.edu]

>>> The default functional link for mgcv::gam is "log", so I doubt that
>> your theoretical understanding applies to GAM's in general. When Simon
>> Wood wrote his book on GAMs his first chapter was on linear models, his
>> second chapter was on generalized lienar models at which point he had
>> written over 100 pages, and only then did he "introduce" GAMs. I think
>> you need to follow the same progression, and this forum is not the
>> correct one for statistics education. Perhaps pose your follow-up
>> questions to CrossValidated.com
>>
>> David, thank you for your advice, has the default changed for mgcv::gam?
>> Based upon the help pages for the version I have (1.7-27) I had thought
>> that the default family was gaussian() with link "identity".
>>
>> In any event I will look again at Simon Woods' book and consider
>> CrossValidated in the future.
>
> I may have gotten this wrong by only referring to my memory. I'm not able
> to tell by looking at either         ?mgcv::gam or ?gam::gam pages where I
> picked up this notion.

Ok, thanks.