In a recent publication in the Journal of Intelligence, Dennis McFarland mischaracterized previous research using latent variable and psychometric network modeling to investigate the structure of intelligence. Misconceptions presented by McFarland are identified and discussed. We reiterate and clarify the goal of our previous research on network…

Meta-analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) are 2 of the most prominent statistical techniques employed in the behavioral, medical, and social sciences. They each have their own well-established research communities, terminologies, statistical models, software packages, and journals ("Research Synthesis Methods" and…

Aguirre-Urreta, Rönkkö, and Marakas' (2016) paper in "Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives" (hereafter referred to as ARM2016) is an important and timely piece of scholarship, in that it provides strong analytic support to the growing theoretical literature that questions the underlying ideas behind causal and…

The authors of the focus article describe an important issue related to the use and interpretation of causal indicators within the context of structural equation modeling (SEM). In the focus article, the authors illustrate with simulated data the effects of omitting a causal indicator. Since SEMs are used extensively in the social and behavioral…

In a series of articles and comments, Kenneth Bollen and his collaborators have incrementally refined an account of structural equation models that (a) model a latent variable as the effect of several observed variables and (b) carry an interpretation of the observed variables as, in some sense, measures of the latent variable that they cause.…

This article is a commentary on the Focus Article, "Interpretational Confounding or Confounded Interpretations of Causal Indicators?" and a commentary that was published in issue 12(4) 2014 of "Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research & Perspectives". The authors challenge two claims: (a) Bainter and Bollen argue that the…

The authors of the focus article in this issue have emphasized the continuing confusion among some researchers regarding various indicators used in structural equation models (SEMs). Their major claim is that causal indicators are not inherently unstable, and even if they are unstable they are at least not more unstable than other types of…

Recently, Tunmer and Chapman provided an alternative model of how decoding and listening comprehension affect reading comprehension that challenges the simple view of reading. They questioned the simple view's fundamental assumption that oral language comprehension and decoding make independent contributions to reading comprehension by arguing…

Musso et al. (2013) predict students' academic achievement with high accuracy one year in advance from cognitive and demographic variables, using artificial neural networks (ANNs). They conclude that ANNs have high potential for theoretical and practical improvements in learning sciences. ANNs are powerful statistical modelling tools but they can…

Latent variable structural equation modeling has become the analytic method of choice in many domains of research in psychology and allied social sciences. One important aspect of a latent variable model concerns the relations hypothesized to hold between latent variables and their indicators. The most common specification of structural equation…

Starting with Kenny and Judd ("Psychol. Bull." 96:201-210, 1984) several methods have been introduced for analyzing models with interaction terms. In all these methods more information from the data than just means and covariances is required. In this paper we also use more than just first- and second-order moments; however, we are aiming to…

In this commentary, David Thissen states that "Goodness-of-fit assessment for IRT models is maturing; it has come a long way from zero." Thissen then references prior works on "goodness of fit" in the index of Lord and Novick's (1968) classic text; Yen (1984); Drasgow, Levine, Tsien, Williams, and Mead (1995); Chen and…

Coefficient alpha is almost universally applied to assess reliability of scales in psychology. We argue that researchers should consider alternatives to coefficient alpha. Our preference is for structural equation modeling (SEM) estimates of reliability because they are informative and allow for an empirical evaluation of the assumptions…

This rejoinder discusses the general comments on how to use Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) wisely and how to get more people better trained in using Bayesian methods. Responses to specific comments cover how to handle sign switching, nonconvergence and nonidentification, and prior choices in latent variable models. Two new…

In "Towards a systemic theory of gifted education," A. Ziegler and S.N. Phillipson have proposed a systemic approach to gifted education. For this approach, they built a model that they call an "actiotope" model. As they explained in the article, an actiotope consists of the acting individual and the environment with which he or she interacts. The…