Computational creativity, the generation of new, unimagined ideas or artifacts by a machine that are deemed creative by people, can be applied in the culinary domain to create novel and flavorful dishes. In fact, we have done so successfully using a combinatorial algorithm for recipe generation combined with statistical models for recipe ranking…

Equating methods make use of an appropriate transformation function to map the scores of one test form into the scale of another so that scores are comparable and can be used interchangeably. The equating literature shows that the ways of judging the success of an equating (i.e., the score transformation) might differ depending on the adopted…

When constructing multiple test forms, the number of items and the total test difficulty are often equivalent. Not all test developers match the number of items and/or average item difficulty within subcontent areas. In this simulation study, six test forms were constructed having an equal number of items and average item difficulty overall.…

The impact of response styles such as extreme response style (ERS) on trait estimation has long been a matter of concern to researchers and practitioners. This simulation study investigated three methods that have been proposed for the correction of trait estimates for ERS effects: (a) mixed Rasch models, (b) multidimensional item response models,…

Over the last decade, video games designed to teach academic content have multiplied. Students can learn about Newtonian physics from a game or prep for entry into the army. An emphasis on the instructionist approach to gaming, however, has overshadowed the constructionist approach, in which students learn by designing their own games themselves.…

The maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) of the ability parameter of an item response theory model with known item parameters was proved to be asymptotically normally distributed under a set of regularity conditions for tests involving dichotomous items and a unidimensional ability parameter (Klauer, 1990; Lord, 1983). This article first considers…

Giraffes face unique challenges for drinking due to their long necks. In this article we use evidence from videos, size estimates, and elementary fluid mechanics to make a strong case for a plunger pump mechanism moving water up from their lips to their shoulders.

Erasure analysis is the study of the pattern or quantity of erasures on multiple-choice paper-and-pencil examinations, to determine whether erasures were made post-testing for the purpose of unfairly increasing students' scores. This study examined the erasure data from over 1.4 million exams, taken by more than 600,000 students. Three…

This paper presents a comparison of three approaches to the teaching of probability to demonstrate how the truth table of elementary mathematical logic can be used to teach the calculations of conditional probabilities. Students are typically introduced to the topic of conditional probabilities--especially the ones that involve Bayes' rule--with…

Thematic analysis is frequently used to analyse qualitative data in psychology, healthcare, social research and beyond. An important stage in planning a study is determining how large a sample size may be required, however current guidelines for thematic analysis are varied, ranging from around 2 to over 400 and it is unclear how to choose a value…

Two problems at two different abstraction levels of computational biology are studied. At the molecular level, efficient pattern matching algorithms in DNA sequences are presented. For gene order data, an efficient data structure is presented capable of storing all gene re-orderings in a systematic manner. A common characteristic of presented…

It has been illustrated several times how the built-in acceleration sensors of smartphones can be used gainfully for quantitative experiments in school and university settings (see the overview in Ref. 1 ). The physical issues in that case are manifold and apply, for example, to free fall, radial acceleration, several pendula, or the exploitation…

Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is a useful tool when analyzing data collected from groups. There are many decisions to be made when constructing and estimating a model in HLM including which estimation technique to use. Three of the estimation techniques available when analyzing data with HLM are maximum likelihood, restricted maximum…

Being able to estimate quantity is important in everyday life and for success in the STEM disciplines. However, people have difficulty reasoning about magnitudes outside of human perception (e.g., nanoseconds, geologic time). This study examines patterns of estimation errors across temporal and spatial magnitudes at large scales. We evaluated the…

Calculating Laplace transforms from the definition often requires tedious integrations. This paper provides an integration-free technique for calculating Laplace transforms of many familiar functions. It also shows how the technique can be applied to probability theory.