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Bayesian analysis of heterogeneous residual variance in canine behaviour

Friday, August 22, 2014
Posters (The Westin Bayshore)
Stéphanie M van den Berg , University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
Inga Schwabe , University of Twente, Enchede, Netherlands
Freddy Fikse , Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
Henri CM Heuven , University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Cees AW Glas , University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
Abstract Text:    Non-additive effects like for instance genotype-environment interactions and genetically structured heterogeneity of residual variance are notoriously dependent on scale: many statistical non-additive phenomena disappear after a careful choice of transformation of the phenotypic values. Particularly for behavioural measures, scale is a delicate matter. We present a novel Bayesian approach that assesses heterogeneity in environmental variance as a function of genetic effects, where the scale is defined by a psychometric model based on item-response theory. This makes analysis results independent of what items are in a particular test version. We apply the method to fearful behaviour in dogs and compare results with the more usual sum score approach. 

Keywords:

dog

scale effects

sensitivity