Susan R Frankenberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 91643 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Susan R Frankenberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Susan R |
| FAMILY NAME | Frankenberg |
| SIGNATURE | FRANKENBERG S R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8888-4450 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 157 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
What Should Be Typical about the Way We Calculate Typicality
The probability of correct classification, and ultimately identification, lies at the heart of forensic anthropological analyses. To this end, practitioners rely on a variety of ways to assess the error or uncertainty of their estimates, including the use of statistically based analytical packages such as FORDISC. This article addresses typicality probabilities and specifically examines issues and assumptions with calculating F-statistic typicali…
Prior Probabilities and the Age Threshold Problem
Dental development has been used to assess whether an individual may be below or above an age that serves as a legal threshold. This study used development of the first and second mandibular molars from a large sample of individuals (N = 2,676) to examine the age threshold for minimum age of criminal responsibility. A bivariate ordered probit model was applied to dental scores following the Moorrees et al. (1963) system, with the addition of a cr…
Multivariate ordinal probit analysis in the skeletal assessment of sex
Regional/Site Museums
Typicality and Predictive Distributions in Discriminant Function Analysis
While discriminant function analysis is an inherently Bayesian method, researchers attempting to estimate ancestry in human skeletal samples often follow discriminant function analysis with the calculation of frequentist-based typicalities for assigning group membership. Such an approach is problematic because it fails to account for admixture and for variation in why individuals may be classified as outliers or nonmembers of particular groups. T…
Typicality and Predictive Distributions in Discriminant Function Analysis
While discriminant function analysis is an inherently Bayesian method, researchers attempting to estimate ancestry in human skeletal samples often follow discriminant function analysis with the calculation of frequentist-based typicalities for assigning group membership. Such an approach is problematic because it fails to account for admixture and for variation in why individuals may be classifijied as outliers or nonmembers of particular groups.…
Optimal trait scoring for age estimation
OBJECTIVES: Little attention has been paid to questions about the applicability of parametric models to age estimation data and the related problem of how to adjust trait scoring in light of potential deviations from particular parametric models. This article addresses this deficit. METHODS: A Lagrange multiplier goodness-of-fit test is applied to two datasets to address the question of whether or not attainment ages for stages are log-normally d…
Bayes in biological anthropology
In this article, we both contend and illustrate that biological anthropologists, particularly in the Americas, often think like Bayesians but act like frequentists when it comes to analyzing a wide variety of data. In other words, while our research goals and perspectives are rooted in probabilistic thinking and rest on prior knowledge, we often proceed to use statistical hypothesis tests and confidence interval methods unrelated (or tenuously re…
Reply to comments by Jackes
Deconstructing death in paleodemography
In 1992 in this Journal (Konigsberg and Frankenberg [1992] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 89: 235–256), we wrote about the use of maximum likelihood methods for the “estimation of age structure in anthropological demography.” More specifically, we presented a particular method (the “iterated age‐length key”) from the fisheries literature and suggested that the method could be used in human and primate demography and paleodemography as well. In our paper…
Geomorphic setting and stratigraphy of Cotiga Mound, Mingo County, West Virginia
Cotiga Mound, a 2100-year-old Woodland burial mound, was constructed on a mid-Holocene terrace along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. The terrace is the only stable, level landscape in the area. The intact nature of the terrace soil horizons indicated that little if any of the mound materials were taken from the terrace surface in the immediate vicinity of the mound. The mound was constructed of silty material and contained basket-loading mac…
Paleodemography
As Kim Hill 1 recently noted in Evolutionary Anthropology , humans are unique among the hominoids with regard to the length of their lives, as well as other elements in the individual life histories. The evolutionary details that modified a basic pongid life history into a hominid one remain obscure, but aspects of recent human demographic history are assailable. Study of the last 10,000 years or so is an important part of ongoing anthropological…
Estimation of age structure in anthropological demography
The past decade has produced considerable debate over the feasibility of paleodemographic research, with much attention focusing on the question of reliability of age estimates. We show here that in cases where age is estimated rather than known, the traditional method of assigning individuals to age classes will produce biased estimates of age structure. We demonstrate the effect of this bias both mathematically and by computer simulation, and s…
Skeletal biological distance studies in American Physical Anthropology
Biological distance analysis, the dominant type of skeletal biological research during the 19th century, has become less visible in recent years. Although the proportion of American Journal of Physical Anthropology articles and published abstracts focusing on biodistance has remained fairly constant over the three decades between 1955 and 1985, the proportion of biodistance contributions relative to other skeletal biology studies has decreased. E…
Estimation of age structure in anthropological demography
The past decade has produced considerable debate over the feasibility of paleodemographic research, with much attention focusing on the question of reliability of age estimates. We show here that in cases where age is estimated rather than known, the traditional method of assigning individuals to age classes will produce biased estimates of age structure. We demonstrate the effect of this bias both mathematically and by computer simulation, and s…
Skeletal biological distance studies in American Physical Anthropology
Biological distance analysis, the dominant type of skeletal biological research during the 19th century, has become less visible in recent years. Although the proportion of American Journal of Physical Anthropology articles and published abstracts focusing on biodistance has remained fairly constant over the three decades between 1955 and 1985, the proportion of biodistance contributions relative to other skeletal biology studies has decreased. E…
Deconstructing death in paleodemography
In 1992 in this Journal (Konigsberg and Frankenberg [1992] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 89: 235–256), we wrote about the use of maximum likelihood methods for the “estimation of age structure in anthropological demography.” More specifically, we presented a particular method (the “iterated age‐length key”) from the fisheries literature and suggested that the method could be used in human and primate demography and paleodemography as well. In our paper…
Bayes in biological anthropology
In this article, we both contend and illustrate that biological anthropologists, particularly in the Americas, often think like Bayesians but act like frequentists when it comes to analyzing a wide variety of data. In other words, while our research goals and perspectives are rooted in probabilistic thinking and rest on prior knowledge, we often proceed to use statistical hypothesis tests and confidence interval methods unrelated (or tenuously re…
Optimal trait scoring for age estimation
OBJECTIVES: Little attention has been paid to questions about the applicability of parametric models to age estimation data and the related problem of how to adjust trait scoring in light of potential deviations from particular parametric models. This article addresses this deficit. METHODS: A Lagrange multiplier goodness-of-fit test is applied to two datasets to address the question of whether or not attainment ages for stages are log-normally d…
Multivariate ordinal probit analysis in the skeletal assessment of sex
Skeletal biological distance studies in American Physical Anthropology
Biological distance analysis, the dominant type of skeletal biological research during the 19th century, has become less visible in recent years. Although the proportion of American Journal of Physical Anthropology articles and published abstracts focusing on biodistance has remained fairly constant over the three decades between 1955 and 1985, the proportion of biodistance contributions relative to other skeletal biology studies has decreased. E…
Estimation of age structure in anthropological demography
The past decade has produced considerable debate over the feasibility of paleodemographic research, with much attention focusing on the question of reliability of age estimates. We show here that in cases where age is estimated rather than known, the traditional method of assigning individuals to age classes will produce biased estimates of age structure. We demonstrate the effect of this bias both mathematically and by computer simulation, and s…
Paleodemography
As Kim Hill 1 recently noted in Evolutionary Anthropology , humans are unique among the hominoids with regard to the length of their lives, as well as other elements in the individual life histories. The evolutionary details that modified a basic pongid life history into a hominid one remain obscure, but aspects of recent human demographic history are assailable. Study of the last 10,000 years or so is an important part of ongoing anthropological…
Geomorphic setting and stratigraphy of Cotiga Mound, Mingo County, West Virginia
Cotiga Mound, a 2100-year-old Woodland burial mound, was constructed on a mid-Holocene terrace along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. The terrace is the only stable, level landscape in the area. The intact nature of the terrace soil horizons indicated that little if any of the mound materials were taken from the terrace surface in the immediate vicinity of the mound. The mound was constructed of silty material and contained basket-loading mac…
Deconstructing death in paleodemography
In 1992 in this Journal (Konigsberg and Frankenberg [1992] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 89: 235–256), we wrote about the use of maximum likelihood methods for the “estimation of age structure in anthropological demography.” More specifically, we presented a particular method (the “iterated age‐length key”) from the fisheries literature and suggested that the method could be used in human and primate demography and paleodemography as well. In our paper…
Reply to comments by Jackes
Bayes in biological anthropology
In this article, we both contend and illustrate that biological anthropologists, particularly in the Americas, often think like Bayesians but act like frequentists when it comes to analyzing a wide variety of data. In other words, while our research goals and perspectives are rooted in probabilistic thinking and rest on prior knowledge, we often proceed to use statistical hypothesis tests and confidence interval methods unrelated (or tenuously re…
Optimal trait scoring for age estimation
OBJECTIVES: Little attention has been paid to questions about the applicability of parametric models to age estimation data and the related problem of how to adjust trait scoring in light of potential deviations from particular parametric models. This article addresses this deficit. METHODS: A Lagrange multiplier goodness-of-fit test is applied to two datasets to address the question of whether or not attainment ages for stages are log-normally d…
Regional/Site Museums
Typicality and Predictive Distributions in Discriminant Function Analysis
While discriminant function analysis is an inherently Bayesian method, researchers attempting to estimate ancestry in human skeletal samples often follow discriminant function analysis with the calculation of frequentist-based typicalities for assigning group membership. Such an approach is problematic because it fails to account for admixture and for variation in why individuals may be classified as outliers or nonmembers of particular groups. T…
Typicality and Predictive Distributions in Discriminant Function Analysis
While discriminant function analysis is an inherently Bayesian method, researchers attempting to estimate ancestry in human skeletal samples often follow discriminant function analysis with the calculation of frequentist-based typicalities for assigning group membership. Such an approach is problematic because it fails to account for admixture and for variation in why individuals may be classifijied as outliers or nonmembers of particular groups.…
Multivariate ordinal probit analysis in the skeletal assessment of sex
Prior Probabilities and the Age Threshold Problem
Dental development has been used to assess whether an individual may be below or above an age that serves as a legal threshold. This study used development of the first and second mandibular molars from a large sample of individuals (N = 2,676) to examine the age threshold for minimum age of criminal responsibility. A bivariate ordered probit model was applied to dental scores following the Moorrees et al. (1963) system, with the addition of a cr…
What Should Be Typical about the Way We Calculate Typicality
The probability of correct classification, and ultimately identification, lies at the heart of forensic anthropological analyses. To this end, practitioners rely on a variety of ways to assess the error or uncertainty of their estimates, including the use of statistically based analytical packages such as FORDISC. This article addresses typicality probabilities and specifically examines issues and assumptions with calculating F-statistic typicali…
Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (11 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Statistics (7 works) · Forensic and Genetic Research (6 works) · Biology (5 works) · Demography (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Archaeology (4 works)