Presents a nine-step process for designing simulation games for use by real-world clients in actual policymaking situations. For example, this design model could be used to produce a game for railroad company executives needing to explore the probable impact of railroad deregulation on its operation. (LLS)

Estimating ability parameters in latent trait models in general, and in the Rasch model in particular is almost always hampered by noise in the data. In this study several alternative formulations which attempt to deal with these problems without a reparameterization are tested through a Monte Carlo simulation. (Author/JKS)

To design a game, you must understand completely the system you are simulating. Four stages of design are described and illustrated by a case study of the design of the game BLOOD MONEY. (Author)

The use of finite intersection tests (FIT) to unify methods for simultaneous inference and to test orthogonal contrasts is discussed. Multiple comparison procedures that combine FIT with sequential hypothesis testing are illustrated, and a simulation strategy is presented to generate values needed for FIT methods. (SLD)

Describes a molecular dynamics simulator that employs ping-pong balls as the atoms or molecules and is suitable for either large lecture halls or small classrooms. Discusses its use in illustrating many of the fundamental concepts related to molecular motion and dynamics and providing a three-dimensional perspective of molecular motion. (JRH)

Demonstrated, through simulation, that stationary autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models may be fitted readily when T>N, using normal theory raw maximum likelihood structural equation modeling. Also provides some illustrations based on real data. (SLD)

Varied the number of items and categories per item to explore the effects on estimation of item parameters in the nominal response model. Simulation results show that increasing the number of items had little effect on item parameter recovery, but increasing the number of categories increased the error variance of the parameter estimates. (SLD)

Conducted simulations to explore methods for comparing bivariate distributions corresponding to two independent groups, all of which are based on Tukey's "depth," a generalization of the notion of ranks to multivariate data. Discusses steps needed to control Type I error. (SLD)

Used Johnson's transformation (N. Johnson, 1978) with approximate test statistics to test the homogeneity of simple linear regression slopes in the presence of nonnormality and Type I, Type II or complete heteroscedasticity. Computer simulations show that the proposed techniques can control Type I error under various circumstances. (SLD)

Examined the degree of variation in the accuracy of classifying student performance proficiency-level scores with changes in the number of proficiency levels and the measurement accuracy. Simulation results show the limitations of interpretability of single indexes that are intended to represent classification accuracy. Suggests ways to estimate…

Proposed a method for extending the Bollen-Stine bootstrap model (K. Bollen and R. Stine, 1992) fit to structural equation models with missing data. Developed a Statistical Analysis System macro program to implement this procedure, and assessed its usefulness in a simulation. The new method yielded model rejection rates close to the nominal 5%…

Used computer simulation methods to examine the sensitivity of model fit criteria to misspecification of the first-level error structure in two-level models of change and to examine the impact of misspecification estimates on the variance parameters, estimates of the fixed effects, and tests of the fixed effects. Discusses problems caused by…

Studied the multiplicative gamma model for reading speed originally proposed by G. Rasch (1960/1980). Simulation results suggest that Rasch's extended multiplicative gamma model, if reasonably descriptive, allows for a simple and elegant analysis of test and item response times. (SLD)

Proposed two new indices to detect answer copying on a multiple choice test and conducted a simulation study to investigate the usefulness of both indexes. Discusses conditions under which the proposed indexes can be useful. (SLD)

Illustrates how commonly available structural equation modeling programs can be used to conduct some basic matrix manipulations and generate multivariate normal data with given means and positive definite covariance matrix. Demonstrates the outlined procedure. (SLD)