fit_gimme: GIMME: Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation

In idiographic: Person-Specific (Idiographic) and Heterogeneous Complex Networks

GIMME: Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation

Description

Estimates person-specific directed networks from intensive longitudinal data using the unified Structural Equation Modeling (uSEM) framework. Implements a data-driven search that identifies:

1. Group-level paths: Directed edges present for a majority (default 75\

2. Individual-level paths: Additional edges specific to each person, found after group paths are established.

Uses lavaan for SEM estimation and modification indices. Accepts a single data frame with an ID column (not CSV directories).

Usage

fit_gimme(
  data,
  vars,
  id,
  time = NULL,
  day = NULL,
  beep = NULL,
  min_obs = NULL,
  subject = NULL,
  ar = TRUE,
  standardize = FALSE,
  groupcutoff = 0.75,
  subcutoff = 0.75,
  paths = NULL,
  exogenous = NULL,
  hybrid = FALSE,
  VAR = FALSE,
  rmsea_cutoff = 0.05,
  srmr_cutoff = 0.05,
  nnfi_cutoff = 0.95,
  cfi_cutoff = 0.95,
  n_excellent = 2L,
  seed = NULL,
  group_correct = "Bonferroni Group",
  indiv_correct = "Bonferroni",
  alpha = 0.05,
  stop_crit = "model fit",
  subgroup = FALSE,
  outcome = NULL,
  conv_vars = NULL,
  mult_vars = NULL,
  lv_model = NULL,
  lasso_model_crit = NULL,
  ms_allow = FALSE,
  ordered = NULL,
  dir_prop_cutoff = 0,
  out = NULL,
  sep = NULL,
  header = NULL,
  plot = FALSE,
  sub_feature = "lag & contemp",
  sub_method = "Walktrap",
  sub_sim_thresh = "lowest",
  confirm_subgroup = NULL,
  conv_length = 16,
  conv_interval = 1,
  mean_center_mult = FALSE,
  diagnos = FALSE,
  ms_tol = 1e-05,
  lv_estimator = "miiv",
  lv_scores = "regression",
  lv_miiv_scaling = "first.indicator",
  lv_final_estimator = "miiv"
)

Arguments

data	A data.frame in long format with columns for person ID, time-varying variables, and optionally a time/beep column.
vars	Character vector of variable names to model.
id	Character string naming the person-ID column.
time	Character string naming the time/order column, or NULL. When provided, data is sorted by id then time before lagging.
day	Character string naming the day/session column, or NULL. When supplied, lag-1 pairs are formed only within the same (id, day) block, so a lag never crosses the overnight gap.
beep	Character string naming the measurement-occasion column, or NULL. Used (with day) to order observations when time is not given.
min_obs	Integer or NULL. Keep only subjects with at least this many observations (counts taken from data).
subject	Optional vector naming the exact subject(s) to analyse.
ar	Logical. If TRUE (default), autoregressive paths (each variable predicting itself at lag 1) are included as fixed paths.
standardize	Logical. If TRUE (default FALSE), variables are standardized per person before estimation. Note: the returned coefficient network ($coefs, $psi, $temporal_avg, $contemporaneous_avg, $group_paths) is unaffected because idiographic extracts the standardized lavaan solution (lavInspect(fit, "std")), which is invariant to input scaling. Only the scale-dependent $fit statistics (chisq, aic, bic) change.
groupcutoff	Numeric between 0 and 1. Proportion of individuals for whom a path must be significant to be added at group level. Default 0.75.
subcutoff	Numeric. Subgroup cutoff (default 0.75, matching gimme); only relevant to subgrouping, which is not implemented.
paths	Character vector of lavaan-syntax paths to force into the model (e.g., "V2~V1lag"). Default NULL.
exogenous	Character vector of variable names to treat as exogenous. Default NULL.
hybrid	Logical. If TRUE, also searches residual covariances. Default FALSE.
VAR	Logical. If TRUE, fit a standard VAR: only lagged directed paths are searched and contemporaneous relations are estimated as residual covariances (no directed contemporaneous paths). Matches gimme(VAR = TRUE). Default FALSE.
rmsea_cutoff	Numeric. RMSEA threshold for excellent fit (default 0.05).
srmr_cutoff	Numeric. SRMR threshold for excellent fit (default 0.05).
nnfi_cutoff	Numeric. NNFI/TLI threshold for excellent fit (default 0.95).
cfi_cutoff	Numeric. CFI threshold for excellent fit (default 0.95).
n_excellent	Integer. Number of fit indices that must be excellent to stop individual search. Default 2.
seed	Integer or NULL. Random seed for reproducibility.
group_correct	Group-level multiple-comparison correction. Use "Bonferroni Group" (the default) to divide alpha by the number of people, "Bonferroni Paths" to divide it by the number of eligible paths, "fdr" for Benjamini-Hochberg correction, or a single number in (0, 1) to set the group alpha directly. The legacy misspelling "Bonferoni Group" is accepted with a deprecation warning.
indiv_correct	Individual-level multiple-comparison correction. Use "Bonferroni" (the default) or "fdr".
alpha	Base significance level for group and individual searches. Default 0.05.
stop_crit	Individual-search stopping rule. "standard" stops when fit is adequate or no significant path remains; "model fit" (the default) keeps adding the largest-MI path, regardless of significance, until fit is adequate; and "significance" keeps adding significant paths even after fit is adequate.
subgroup	Logical. Subgrouping (S-GIMME) is not implemented; TRUE raises an error pointing to gimme::gimme(). Default FALSE.
outcome, conv_vars, mult_vars, lv_model, lasso_model_crit, ms_allow, ordered, dir_prop_cutoff	Accepted for gimme::gimme() API parity but not implemented (latent variable / fMRI-convolution / multiplied-term / LASSO / ordinal / multiple-solutions / directionality features). A non-default value raises an error pointing to gimme::gimme().
out, sep, header, plot	Accepted for gimme::gimme() API parity. idiographic reads a data.frame (not a CSV directory), so non-default out, sep, and header values emit a warning and have no effect. It returns an object you plot with plot_gimme(); plot = TRUE emits a message.
sub_feature, sub_method, sub_sim_thresh, confirm_subgroup, conv_length, conv_interval, mean_center_mult, diagnos, ms_tol, lv_estimator, lv_scores, lv_miiv_scaling, lv_final_estimator	Accepted for gimme::gimme() API parity. These configure the unsupported subgrouping / convolution / multiplied-term / multiple-solutions / latent-variable features and are inert here (their parent feature is guarded above).

Value

An S3 object of class "net_gimme" containing:

temporal

p x p matrix of group-level temporal (lagged) path counts – entry [i,j] = number of individuals with path j(t-1)->i(t).

contemporaneous

p x p matrix of group-level contemporaneous path counts – entry [i,j] = number of individuals with path j(t)->i(t).

coefs

List of per-person q x (q + p) coefficient matrices (q non-exogenous rows; columns = [lagged, contemporaneous]).

psi

List of per-person q x (q + p) standardized residual covariance matrices, with non-exogenous current variables in rows and c(lag_names, varnames) in columns, matching gimme::gimme()'s returned psi contract.

fit

Data frame of per-person fit indices (chisq, df, pvalue, rmsea, srmr, nnfi, cfi, bic, aic, logl, status).

path_counts

p x 2p matrix: how many individuals have each path.

paths

List of per-person character vectors of lavaan path syntax.

group_paths

Character vector of group-level paths found.

individual_paths

List of per-person character vectors of individual-level paths (beyond group).

syntax

List of per-person full lavaan syntax strings.

labels

Character vector of variable names.

n_subjects

Integer. Number of individuals.

n_obs

Integer vector. Time points per individual.

config

List of configuration parameters.

See Also

fit_mlvar, fit_graphical_var, as_netobject

Examples

# Create simple panel data (3 subjects, 4 variables, 50 time points).
set.seed(42)
n_sub <- 3; n_t <- 50; vars <- paste0("V", 1:4)
rows <- lapply(seq_len(n_sub), function(i) {
  d <- as.data.frame(matrix(rnorm(n_t * 4), ncol = 4))
  names(d) <- vars; d$id <- i; d
})
panel <- do.call(rbind, rows)
res <- fit_gimme(panel, vars = vars, id = "id")
print(res)

idiographic documentation built on Aug. 4, 2026, 1:07 a.m.