Grouped and right-censored (GRC) counts have been used in a wide range of attitudinal and behavioural surveys yet they cannot be readily analyzed or assessed by conventional statistical models. This study develops a unified regression framework for the design and optimality of GRC counts in surveys. To process infinitely many grouping schemes for…

Researchers have become increasingly interested in response times to survey items as a measure of cognitive effort. We used machine learning to develop a prediction model of response times based on 41 attributes of survey items (e.g., question length, response format, linguistic features) collected in a large, general population sample. The…

Place-based initiatives often use resident surveys to inform and evaluate interventions. Sampling based on well-defined sampling frames is important but challenging for initiatives that target subpopulations. Databases that enumerate total population counts can produce overinclusive sampling frames, resulting in costly outreach to ineligible…

Causal search algorithms have been effectively applied in different fields including biology, genetics, climate science, medicine, and neuroscience. However, there have been scant applications of these methods in social and behavioral sciences. This article provides an illustrative example of how causal search algorithms can shed light on…

Presents a technique for developing a knowledge-base of information to use in an expert system. Proposed approach employs a popular machine-learning algorithm along with a method for forming a finite number of features or conjuncts of at most n primitive attributes. Illustrates this procedure by examining qualitative information represented in a…

The first of three articles that develop a framework for county-based prevention-resource-allocation algorithms based on the aggravated need for substance-abuse-prevention services estimated at the county level. Algorithm development is based on (1) statewide student drug survey, and (2) a set of social indicators routinely published by agencies…

Reports on a survey measuring the performance of a merging algorithm used to generate the now-defunct ULM (Union List of Monographs) file for ALEPH, Israel's research library network. Discusses automatic detection and merging of duplicate bibliographic records, problems created by lack of a standard for Hebrew spelling, and methods for measuring…