Extracts the model modification indices from the MODEL MODIFICATION INDICES section of one or more Mplus output files. If the target is a directory, all .out files therein will be parsed and a single list will be returned, where the list elements are named by the output file name. Returned parameters typically include the pairwise relationships between variables to be freed, the change in model chi-square (M.I.), and the expected parameter change (E.P.C.).

extractModIndices(target = getwd(), recursive = FALSE, filefilter)

Arguments

target

the directory containing Mplus output files (.out) to parse OR the single output file to be parsed. May be a full path, relative path, or a filename within the working directory. Defaults to the current working directory. Example: “C:/Users/Michael/Mplus Runs”

recursive

optional. If TRUE, parse all models nested in subdirectories within target. Defaults to FALSE.

filefilter

a Perl regular expression (PCRE-compatible) specifying particular output files to be parsed within directory. See regex or http://www.pcre.org/pcre.txt for details about regular expression syntax.

Value

If target is a single file, a data.frame containing modification results for the target output file will be returned. If target is a directory, a list will be returned, where each element contains a data.frame of the modification indices for a single file, and the top-level elements are named after the corresponding output file name. The basic data.frame containing the MODEL MODIFICATION INDICES section of outfile. Variables include

modV1

The first variable in the pair to be freed according to the M.I.

operator

The suggested relationship between modV1 and modV2 (e.g., WITH for freeing the covariance between modV1 and modV2)

modV2

The first variable in the pair to be freed according to the M.I.

MI

The decrease in model chi-square if the specified relationship is freely estimated

EPC

The expected parameter estimate between modV1 and modV2 if freed.

Std_EPC

The EPC value standardized using the variances of the continuous latent variables.

StdYX_EPC

The EPC value standardized using the variances of the continuous latent variables as well as the variances of the background and/or outcome variables.

See also

Author

Michael Hallquist

Examples

if (FALSE) { ex3.14 <- extractModIndices( "C:/Program Files/Mplus/Mplus Examples/User's Guide Examples/ex3.14.out") }