This week we will look at how to construct Metropolis and Hastings samplers for sampling from awkward distributions, and how to carry out a basic analysis of the output.
First read carefully through the following examples, trying them
out as you go along, then tackle the
exercises below.
Try out the R code for the simple Metropolis example. See how
different choices of alpha affect the mixing of the chain. The
example used alpha=1 which isn't too bad. Try
alpha=200 - this gives a chain which is far too
"hot". Very few candidate points are accepted, but when they
are, they often represent quite considerable moves within the
sample space. Also try alpha=0.1 - this gives a chain
which is far too "cold". Most candidates are accepted, but
they represent rather conservative moves within the sample
space.
2.
As we have seen, high acceptance probabilities tend to
mean that the chain is too cold, whereas very low acceptance
probabilities correspond to chains which are too hot. Modify
the R function so that it records and then prints the
overall acceptance rate of the chain, as well as returning the vector of
simulated values. "Tune" the Metropolis sampler by finding a
value of alpha which results in an acceptance
probability of around 0.3.
3.
Try out the R code for the Metropolis-Hastings
independence sampler. Try it for different shape and scale
parameters. In particular, try it for a=0.1,
b=0.01. Notice how there is a bit of a problem with the
sampler getting "stuck" at very small and very large
values. Again, modify the code to keep track of acceptance
probabilities. When does the sampling scheme do worst? How
might you modify this sampling scheme
to be more efficient?
4. (for postgrads)
Get the C code for the two samplers
compiled and loaded into R. Make sure you get similar results
(but faster) using the compiled code.
