Topic models are mathematical and statistical models used to analyze textual data. The objective of topic models is to gain information about the latent semantic space of a set of related textual data. The semantic space of a set of textual data contains the relationship between documents and words and how they are used. Topic models are becoming…

In recent years, there has been some dispute over the appropriate way to model decision making in professional sports leagues. In particular, Szymanski and Kesenne (2004) argue that formulating the decision-making problem in a noncooperative game leads to radically different conclusions about the nature of competition in sports leagues. The author…

In this article, a case-deletion procedure is proposed to detect influential observations in a nonlinear structural equation model. The key idea is to develop the diagnostic measures based on the conditional expectation of the complete-data log-likelihood function in the EM algorithm. An one-step pseudo approximation is proposed to reduce the…

This article describes how the arrival rate and service time distribution of a queue were investigated, and how a subsequent random-number simulation of the queue was carried out. (MM)

Another Rasch approach to the measurement of change, the multidimensional random coefficient multinomial logit model (MRCML), is proposed. The MRCML model can be applied to polytomous items and the investigation of variations in item difficulties. Some simulation studies demonstrate good parameter recovery for the MRCML model under various testing…

A new approach to deriving human performance measures and criteria for use in automatically evaluating trainee performance is described. Ultimately, this approach will allow automatic measurement of pilot performance in a flight simulator or from recorded in-flight data. An efficient method of representing performance data within a computer is…

These results indicate that in deciding on the data-gathering design to be used in seeking norm information, attention should be given to item characteristics and test length with particular attention paid to the range of biserial correlations between item response and ability. (Author)

The validity of inferences based on achievement test scores is dependent on the amount of effort that examinees put forth while taking the test. With low-stakes tests, for which this problem is particularly prevalent, there is a consequent need for psychometric models that can take into account different levels of examinee effort. This article…

Learning hierarchies are networks of prerequisite relationships of instructional objectives. Seven measures of the validity of learning hierarchies were compared for their ability to identify correctly- and incorrectly-ordered hierarchies. A computer simulation model was used to generate stochastic data of known underlying structure. Analysis of…

This article proposes an item response theory (IRT) approach to constructing and scoring multidimensional pairwise preference items. Individual statements are administered and calibrated using a unidimensional single-stimulus model. Tests are created by combining multidimensional items with a small number of unidimensional pairings needed to…

An article was published in the December 1985 issue of this journal that used LISREL to investigate the relationship between family medicine residents' moral reasoning and their clinical performance (Sheehan). The data from that study are reanalyzed to illustrate the importance of considering alternative structural equation models in evaluation…

The four main approaches to measuring treatment effects in schools; raw gain, residual gain, covariance, and true scores; were compared. A simulation study showed true score analysis produced a large number of Type-I errors. When corrected for this error, this method showed the least power of the four. This outcome was clearly the result of the…

Bayesian estimation procedures are summarized and numerically illustrated by means of simulation methods. Procedures of data generation for simulation purposes are also delineated and computationally demonstrated. The logistic model basic to the Bayesian estimation procedures is shown to be explicit with respect to the probability distribution…

TAILOR is a computer program that uses the implied orders concept as the basis for computerized adaptive testing. The basic characteristics of TAILOR, which does not involve pretesting, are reviewed here and two studies of it are reported. One is a Monte Carlo simulation based on the four-parameter Birnbaum model and the other uses a matrix of…

Three and one-half years of research on computerized ability testing are summarized. The original objectives of the research were: (1) to develop and implement the stratified computer-based ability test; (2) to compare, on psychometric criteria, the various approaches to computer-based ability testing, including the stratified computerized test,…