Doing less but getting more: Improving forced-choice measures with Item Response Theory

Forced-choice tests, despite being resistant to response biases and showing good operational validities, have psychometric problems if scored traditionally. These questionnaires are generally longer than their normative counterparts, and more cognitively challenging. The OPQ32i was shortened and re-scored using the latest advances in IRT. One item was removed out of each block, making the completion quicker and less cognitively complex. The shortened version (OPQ32r) shows good reliability, equivalent or better validity than the full ipsative version, and produces scale scores with normative properties. Results suggest that the IRT methodology can significantly improve efficiency of existing forced-choice measures so that test takers can do less (complete shorter and easier questionnaire) and test users can get more (bias-resistant instrument of superior psychometric quality)

Intermarrriage in the U.S. 50 Years After Loving v. Virginia

In 2015, 17% of all U.S. newlyweds had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, marking more than a fivefold increase since 1967, when 3% of newlyweds were intermarried, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. In that year, the U.S. Supreme Court in the Loving v. Virginia case ruled that marriage across racial lines was legal throughout the country. Until this ruling, interracial marriages were forbidden in many states

Visualising Music with Impromptu

This paper discusses our experiments with a method of creating visual representations of music using a graphical library for Impromptu that emulates and builds on Logo’s turtle graphics. We explore the potential and limitations of this library for visualising music, and describe some ways in which this simple system can be utilised to assist the musician by revealing musical structure are demonstrated

Shorter Personality Questionnaires—A User's Guide Part 1

In this two part series, James Bywater and Anna Brown summarise some of the issues involved in determining the correct length of assessment in a personality questionnaire (PQ). In the first instalment they discuss the general issues that test designers face, and in the second they cover some more modern solutions to these, with associated disadvantages. It is aimed at practitioners rather than hard core psychometricians and can not be exhaustive. However wherever possible it attempts to distil out practical messages for the audience

Doing less but getting more: Improving forced-choice measures with IRT.

Multidimensional forced-choice (MFC) questionnaires typically show good validities and are resistant to impression management effects. However, they yield ipsative data, which distorts scale relationships and makes comparisons between people problematic. Depressed reliability estimates also led developers to create tests of potentially excessive length. We apply an IRT Preference Model to make more efficient use of information in existing MFC questionnaires. OPQ32i used for selection and assessment internationally is examined using this approach. The latent scores recovered from a much reduced number of MFC items are superior to the full test?s ipsative scores, and comparable to unbiased normative scores

Foreground removal for Square Kilometre Array observations of the Epoch of Reionization with the Correlated Component Analysis

We apply the Correlated Component Analysis (CCA) method on simulated data of the Square Kilometre Array, with the aim of accurately cleaning the 21 cm reionization signal from diffuse foreground contamination. The CCA has been developed for the Cosmic Microwave Background, but the application of the Fourier-domain implementation of this method to the reionization signal is straightforward. The CCA is a parametric method to estimate the frequency behaviour of the foregrounds from the data by using second-order statistics. We test its performance on foreground simulations of increasing complexity, designed to challenge the parametric models adopted. We also drop the assumption of spectral smoothness that most of the methods rely upon. We are able to clean effectively the simulated data across the explored frequency range (100-200 MHz) for all the foreground simulations. This shows that the CCA method is very promising for EoR component separation.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted by MNRA

Mapping the Latino Population, By State, County and City

This report examines the geographic distribution and demographic characteristics of the U.S. Hispanic population in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the nation's more than 3,000 counties, and the 60 largest metropolitan area populations by Hispanic population. The data for this report are derived from the 2011 American Community Survey (1% IPUMS), the 2000 Census (5% IPUMS), and U.S. Census Bureau county population datasets.Accompanying this report are demographic and economic profiles of the Hispanic population in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia; a database documenting the Hispanic population in the nation's counties; and demographic and economic profiles of the Hispanic population in the 60 metropolitan areas with the largest Hispanic populations. Also accompanying this report is an interactive map showing key characteristics in each state and the District of Columbia; interactive maps showing the size, share and growth in the Hispanic population in each of the nation's counties between 1980 and 2011; an interactive map and table showing the 60 largest metropolitan areas by Hispanic population and a table showing the largest population and shares for the ten largest Hispanic origin groups -- Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, Colombians, Hondurans, Ecuadorians and Peruvians

Perfectionism cognitions are multidimensional: A reply to Flett and Hewitt (2014)

We reply to Flett and Hewitt’s (2014) commentary on our findings (Stoeber, Kobori, & Brown, 2014) focusing on the multidimensionality of the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory (PCI) and the question of whether the Multidimensional Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory (MPCI) represents an alternative to the PCI. In addition, we reiterate the importance of considering suppression effects when examining different dimensions of perfectionism and, in concluding, invite researchers to join forces to further advance the assessment of multidimensional perfectionism cognitions