Quantitude

In this week's episode Patrick and Greg discuss Cattell's data box and try to better understand what it is, what it is not, and how we might make use of this in practice. Along the way they also discuss illegal knives, baseball cards, the Cubs and the Mariners, bicentennial quarters, how to load a dishwasher, horrible people, anal retentive friends, Flat Stanley, Dungeons & Dragons, pricing yourself out of business, n...

In this week's episode, Patrick and Greg talk about person-centered methods versus variable-centered methods with the punch line being that the historically contentious distinction between these two is unnecessary, unhelpful, and even counter-productive. Along the way they also mention lost luggage, Sabena Air t-shirts, the Inquisition, honey badger Americans, Fredrik Backman, punch lines, a frayed knot, the Keanu Reeves of st...

In this week's episode Greg and Patrick explore the surprisingly tricky topic of multiple choice items: how to write them, how not to write them, and giving a well written test the respect it deserves. Along the way they also discuss recognizing emotions, laying down 50 feet of rubber, glass animals, rewriting your kid's test, self-righteousness, Dora the Explorer, the Magna Carta, accidentally becoming a better teacher, ...

In this week's episode Patrick and Greg talk about different ways of assessing inter-rater agreement and reliability among two or more raters and the importance of doing so. Along the way they also discuss the summer Olympics, underdogs, monologue face-offs, Quincy Wilson, Boomers, the Soviet judge, biopsy subjectivity, the secret to college admissions reliability, skipping conference dinners, ripping a dive, Patrick's si...

In this week's episode, the first of Season 6, Greg and Patrick visit with Dr. Ethan McCormick, an Assistant Professor of Educational Statistics and Data Science in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. After catching up on Ethan's international adventures they discuss his recent work on using growth factors as predictors of distal outcomes and how pretty much everything he expected to find came out exact...

In this week’s episode, our 150th and the last of season 5, Greg and Patrick hear from five people at different stages of their academic journey, who share some of their concerns about a career in academia. Along the way we also mention: deathscrolling, Patrick’s fuzzy blanket, slow motion ballerina, Twix, academia infomercial, Twitter admins, micromanaging, pilot training, young Turks at the gate, stupid shit like this, chalk hold...

In this week's episode Patrick and Greg somehow manage to tie together pretending to be sick with game shows with zombies with conspiracy boards to explore the remarkable inter-relations among probability distributions, starting with the Bernoulli and biting their way through the binomial, z, t, chi-square, F, and beyond. Along the way they also discuss having a 122 degree temperature, playing with mercury, daytime TV, Paul Ly...

In this week's episode Greg and Patrick talk about both structural equation modeling and directed acyclic graphs, or DAGs, where they are similar and where they are different, and try to provide a Rosetta Stone for translating back and forth between the two. Along the way they also discuss pop, garage sales, thinking about excessive thought, roly-polies, potato bugs, been to the cinema, sweet tea, smiley face sub-i, poop hat, ...

In this week's episode Patrick and Greg explore the incredibly cool topic of survival analysis, which is a set of techniques that allows for powerful tests of predictors of the amount of time to experiencing an event; yet these models are not often used in many areas of study. Along the way they also discuss the date of your death, running with scissors, Patrick's Audi A8, because she's dead, say my name, the good gu...

In this week's episode, Greg and Patrick talk about the challenges of combining confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel data, and the underappreciated but absolutely critical role that theory plays in choosing the proper model for your constructs. Along the way they also discuss learning in a second language, torn meniscuseseses, concert C trumpets, nosy neighbors, forts of equations, artillery commanders, saluting cadets,...

In this week's episode Greg and Patrick discuss the assessment of global vs. local model fit and they argue that although global measures of fit can be useful, carefully assessing local fit may be of much greater importance in practice. Along the way the also discuss cheap beach house rentals, misplaced sand dunes, Mrs. Lincoln, the child catcher, hushpuppies, cockroach feces, academia as community theater, spikes and smoodges...

In this week's episode Patrick and Greg provide an introduction to the Item Response Theory model: what it is, how it relates to traditional factor analysis, and how this modem approach improves upon some of the limitations of classical test theory.  Along the way they also mention weinerness, memorizing Latin for punishment, eggszampke, in ether words, ITR, switching a and b, I’m not defensive - you are, why biostatisticians ...

In this week’s episode, Patrick and Greg play with some of the basics of probability in the context of some classic, fun, and often counterintuitive examples.  Along the way they also discuss arguments with relatives, a feel for the roulette wheel, Xeroxing your butt, “The coin has spoken.”, Quantitude BooqQlub, the Bellagio Fountains, Clooney and Pitt look-alikes, the Flippier, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Monty Hall, Ferraris an...

In this week's episode Greg and Patrick are honored to visit with Yi Feng, a quantitative methodologist at UCLA, as she helps them understand classification and regression tree analysis. She describes the various ways in which these models can be used, and how these can serve to inform both prediction and explanation. Along the way they also discuss looking pensive, drunken 3-way interactions, Stephen Hawking, parlor tricks, C...

In this week's episode Greg and Patrick talk about Simpson’s Paradox: what it is, examples of where it occurs in real life, and why we might not really need to think about it as a paradox at all.  Along the way they also discuss Apple Vision, The Simpsons predicting the future, sitting too close to the TV, low levels of radiation, Paul the octopus, Blinky, shtuff, duck duck duck, Jonathan the tortoise, batting averages, bad at...

In this week's episode Greg and Patrick take a walk down memory lane to rediscover classical test theory,  although they revisit this through the lens of modern latent variable models. They describe how these classical methods are actually highly restricted latent measurement models and they explore how these restrictions can be relaxed and even tested. Along the way they also discuss weird dates, free Tupperware, yellow fatty...

In this week's episode Patrick and Greg launch a new occasional series called Stuff You Should Know. The topic for today is regression to the mean: what the heck is it, how does it arise in every day life, and what can we do about it. Along the way they also discuss the space-time continuum, Kai Ryssdal, inflation, witches of MacBeth, the hidden curriculum, oh dang, sh*t (ummm...STUFF) you should know, SAT prep courses, the tr...

In this week's episode Greg and Patrick talk about confidence intervals: symmetric and asymmetric, asymptotic and bootstrapped, how to interpret them, and how not to interpret them. Along the way they also mention tire pressure gauge mysteries, conference travel reimbursement, phases of the moon, gyroscopic effects, baseball walk-of-shame, why people hate us, settling out of court, confidence tricks, Mack JcArdle, Shakespearea...

In this week's episode Patrick and Greg have great fun talking about meta-analysis with Paschal Sheeran, a social psychologist from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He describes what meta-analysis is, what it offers, and how to apply it in your own work. Along the way they also discuss taking off into the north vs the south, flipping people off, being subtle, metaphysics, say my name, most effective tactic avai...