This study proposes a Bayesian method for diagnostic classification models (DCMs) for a partially known Q-matrix setting between exploratory and confirmatory DCMs. This Q-matrix setting is practical and useful because test experts have pre-knowledge of the Q-matrix but cannot readily specify it completely. The proposed method employs priors for…

Network models of the WAIS-IV based on regularized partial correlation matrices have been reported to outperform latent variable models based on uncorrected correlation matrices. The present study sought to compare network and latent variable models using both partial and uncorrected correlation matrices with both types of models. The results show…

Many individuals with autism experience challenges using language in social contexts (i.e., pragmatic language). Characterizing and understanding pragmatic variability is important to inform intervention strategies and the etiology of communication challenges in autism; however, current manual coding-based methods are often time and labor…

Millions of adults in the United States lack the necessary literacy skills for most living wage jobs. For students from adult learning classes, we used a lexical decision task to measure their knowledge of words and we used a decision-making model (Ratcliff's, 1978, diffusion model) to abstract the mechanisms underlying their performance from…

U.S. Supreme Court justices and other federal judges are, effectively, appointed for life, with no built-in check on their cognitive functioning as they approach old age. There is about a century of research on aging and intelligence that shows the vulnerability of processing speed, fluid reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory to…

Researchers and data analysts are sometimes faced with the problem of very small samples, where the number of variables approaches or exceeds the overall sample size; i.e. high dimensional data. In such cases, standard statistical models such as regression or analysis of variance cannot be used, either because the resulting parameter estimates…

In surveying the literature on assessment of cognitive abilities in adults and children, it is easy to assume that the proliferation of test batteries and terminology reflects a poverty of unifying models. However, the lack of recognition accorded good models of cognitive abilities may reflect inattention to theoretical development and injudicious…

The goal of the current project was to examine whether engaging in social activity may moderate or mediate the relation between age and cognitive functioning. A large age range sample of adults performed a variety of cognitive tests and completed a social activities questionnaire. Results did not support the moderator hypothesis, as age…

According to the most widely accepted Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence measurement, each subtest score of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Adults (3rd ed.; WAIS-III) should reflect both 1st- and 2nd-order factors (i.e., 4 or 5 broad abilities and 1 general factor). To disentangle the contribution of each factor, we applied a…

Studied the factors underlying the aging effects seen on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Adults-Revised (WAIS-R) and the scale's third edition (WAIS-III) using the French standardization samples of 1,104 for the WAIS-III and 1,000 for the WAIS-R. Results show that the observed decline in scores for both tests cannot be fully explained with a…

Two samples of adult subjects of reasonably average intelligence were given IQ tests and a series of reaction time tests using 0, 1, 2, and 3 lists of information in a Hick paradigm. (Author/LMO)