Suggests that forecasting the usable life of new audiovisual equipment by standard statistical techniques is error prone and often misleading. Claims that Markov analysis allows the user to obtain a clear indication of the typical progression of equipment from being new to be being no longer economically repairable. (RS)

Demonstrates Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques that are well-suited to complex models with Item Response Theory (IRT) assumptions. Develops an MCMC methodology that can be routinely implemented to fit normal IRT models, and compares the approach to approaches based on Gibbs sampling. Contains 64 references. (SLD)

This study proposes a probabilistic model for automatically extracting English noun phrases for indexing or information retrieval. The technique is based on a Markov model, whose initial parameters are estimated by a phrase lookup program with a phrase dictionary, then optimized by a set of maximum entropy parameters. (Author/LRW)

A family of finite mixture distribution models is presented that allows specification of basically different developmental processes in distinct latent subpopulations. These models are introduced within the framework of mixed latent Markov chains with multiple indicators per occasion, and they are illustrated with empirical data on therapeutic…

Bayesian network models offer a large degree of flexibility for modeling dependence among observables (item outcome variables) from the same task that may be dependent. This paper explores four design patterns for modeling locally dependent observations from the same task: (1) No context--Ignore dependence among observables; (2) Compensatory…

A Bayesian approach to the evaluation of person fit in item response theory (IRT) models is presented. In a posterior predictive check, the observed value on a discrepancy variable is positioned in its posterior distribution. In a Bayesian framework, a Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure can be used to generate samples of the posterior distribution…

Discusses users' search behavior and decision making in data mining and information retrieval. Describes iterative information seeking as a Markov process during which users advance through states of nodes; and explains how the information system records the decision as weights, allowing the incorporation of users' decisions into the Markov…

Developed Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedures to perform Bayesian inference, model checking, and model comparison in heterogeneous factor analysis. Tested the approach with synthetic data and data from a consumption emotion study involving 54 consumers. Results show that traditional psychometric methods cannot fully capture the heterogeneity in…

Van de Pol and Langeheine (1990) presented a general framework for Markov modeling of repeatedly measured discrete data. We discuss analogical single indicator models for normally distributed responses. In contrast to discrete models, which have been studied extensively, analogical continuous response models have hardly been considered. These…

There is an increasing use of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms for fitting statistical models in psychometrics, especially in situations where the traditional estimation techniques are very difficult to apply. One of the disadvantages of using an MCMC algorithm is that it is not straightforward to determine the convergence of the…

Item families, which are groups of related items, are becoming increasingly popular in complex educational assessments. For example, in automatic item generation (AIG) systems, a test may consist of multiple items generated from each of a number of item models. Item calibration or scoring for such an assessment requires fitting models that can…

A structural multilevel model is presented in which some of the variables cannot be observed directly but are measured using tests or questionnaires. Observed dichotomous or ordinal politicos response data serve to measure the latent variables using an item response theory model. The latent variables can be defined at any level of the multilevel…

In some areas of measurement item parameters should not be modeled as fixed but as random. Examples of such areas are: item sampling, computerized item generation, measurement with substantial estimation error in the item parameter estimates, and grouping of items under a common stimulus or in a common context. A hierarchical version of the…

The accuracy of Gibbs sampling, a Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure, was considered for estimation of item and ability parameters under the two-parameter logistic model. Memory test data were analyzed to illustrate the Gibbs sampling procedure. Simulated data sets were analyzed using Gibbs sampling and the marginal Bayesian method. The marginal…

Introduces a new technique for estimating the parameters of models with continuous latent data. To streamline presentation of this Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, the Rasch model is used. Also introduces a new sampling-based Bayesian technique, the DA-T-Gibbs sampler. (SLD)