In this article, we propose Bayesian analysis of mediation effects. Compared with conventional frequentist mediation analysis, the Bayesian approach has several advantages. First, it allows researchers to incorporate prior information into the mediation analysis, thus potentially improving the efficiency of estimates. Second, under the Bayesian…

Discussions of the foundations of perceptual inference have often centered on 2 governing principles, the likelihood principle and the simplicity principle. Historically, these principles have usually been seen as opposed, but contemporary statistical (e.g., Bayesian) theory tends to see them as consistent, because for a variety of reasons simpler…

The changes of learning environments and the advancement of learning theories have increasingly demanded for feedback that can describe learning progress trajectories. Effective assessment should be able to evaluate how learners acquire knowledge and develop problem solving skills. Additionally, it should identify what issues these learners have…

Existing methods for the analysis of ordinal-level data arising from judge ratings, such as the Multi-Facet Rasch model (MFRM, or the so-called Facets model) have been widely used in assessment in order to render fair examinee ability estimates in situations where the judges vary in their behavior or severity. However, this model makes certain…

We develop a Bayesian hierarchical model for the analysis of ordinal data from multirater ranking studies. The model for a rater's score includes four latent factors: one is a latent item trait determining the true order of items and the other three are the rater's performance characteristics, including bias, discrimination, and measurement error…

This paper addresses two Global Matching predictions in embedded-category designs: the within-category choice advantage in forced-choice recognition (superior discrimination for test choices comprising a same-category distractor); and the category length effect in forced-choice and old/new recognition (a loss in discriminability with increases in…

Background/Context: The establishment of community colleges in the American states stands as one of the most unique features of our system of postsecondary education. Four possible explanations have been suggested for the growth of community colleges. An economic perspective argues that the development of community colleges came about as a result…

A new process model of the interplay between memory and judgment processes was recently suggested, assuming that retrieval fluency--that is, the speed with which objects are recognized--will determine inferences concerning such objects in a single-cue fashion. This aspect of the fluency heuristic, an extension of the recognition heuristic, has…

Researchers often have expectations about the research outcomes in regard to inequality constraints between, e.g., group means. Consider the example of researchers who investigated the effects of inducing a negative emotional state in aggressive boys. It was expected that highly aggressive boys would, on average, score higher on aggressive…

The goal of this paper is to use Knowledge Tracing to augment the results obtained from an experiment that investigated the effects of practice schedules using an intelligent tutoring system for fractions. Specifically, this experiment compared different practice schedules of multiple representations of fractions: representations were presented to…

This case study examined the agreement between reported and actual use of coaching strategies based on home visit data collected on a diverse sample of providers and families. Paired videotape and contact note data of and from providers during home visits were collected over a six month period and analyzed using structured protocols. Results of…

In this paper we present a new methodology for detecting differential item functioning (DIF). We introduce a DIF model, called the random item mixture (RIM), that is based on a Rasch model with random item difficulties (besides the common random person abilities). In addition, a mixture model is assumed for the item difficulties such that the…

To better understand the statistical properties of the deterministic inputs, noisy "and" gate cognitive diagnosis (DINA) model, the impact of several factors on the quality of the item parameter estimates and classification accuracy was investigated. Results of the simulation study indicate that the fully Bayes approach is most accurate when the…

A fundamental issue for theories of human induction is to specify constraints on potential inferences. For inferences based on shared category membership, an analogy, and/or a relational schema, it appears that the basic goal of induction is to make accurate and goal-relevant inferences that are sensitive to uncertainty. People can use source…

In 3 experiments, the authors examined whether a single act of testimony can inform children's subsequent information seeking. In Experiment 1, participants saw one informant give a correct and another informant give an incorrect answer to a question, assessed who was "right" ("wrong"), and decided to whom to address a 2nd question. Adults and…