A comparison of logistic regression methods for Ising model estimation

The Ising model has received significant attention in network psychometrics during the past decade. A popular estimation procedure is IsingFit, which uses nodewise l₁-regularized logistic regression along with the extended Bayesian information criterion to establish the edge weights for the network. In this paper, we report the results of a simulation study comparing IsingFit to two alternative approaches: (1) a nonregularized nodewise stepwise logistic regression method, and (2) a recently proposed global l₁-regularized logistic regression method that estimates all edge weights in a single stage, thus circumventing the need for nodewise estimation. MATLAB scripts for the methods are provided as supplemental material. The global l₁-regularized logistic regression method generally provided greater accuracy and sensitivity than IsingFit, at the expense of lower specificity and much greater computation time. The stepwise approach showed considerable promise. Relative to the l₁-regularized approaches, the stepwise method provided better average specificity for all experimental conditions, as well as comparable accuracy and sensitivity at the largest sample size.