Howard Wainer
Biographic Data
| ID | 174838 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Howard Wainer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Howard |
| FAMILY NAME | Wainer |
| SIGNATURE | WAINER H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Chicago |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 94 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 35 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Testing and the Paradoxes of Fairness
How can admissions officers, employers, and scholarship committees maximize the accuracy of prediction of individual performance while minimizing adverse impact due to group differences? Testing offers a straightforward solution to the first half of this problem. Tests are the best way to predict how someone will perform in school, in the military, in medicine, or while controlling airline traffic and flying a plane. Tests are also useful beyond …
Drawing Inferences From Self-selected Samples
This volume contains a collection of essays and discussions which serve as an introduction and guide to current research in the area of drawing inferences from self-selected samples. This topic is of direct interest to a professional audience of survey researchers, pollsters, market researchers, policymakers, statisticians, demographers, economists, and sociologists. The essays themselves and their associated critical discussions are clear and ca…
Statistical Graphics
Do Adjusted Subscores Lack Validity? Don’t Blame the Messenger
There are several techniques that increase the precision of subscores by borrowing information from other parts of the test. These techniques have been criticized on validity grounds in several of the recent publications. In this note, the authors question the argument used in these publications and suggest both inherent limits to the validity argument and empirical issues worth examining
Testlet Response Theory and Its Applications
Picturing the Uncertain World
A Psychometric Cicada
Shopping for Colleges When What We Know Ain't
The cost of attending a 4-yr. private university can easily top $150,000, making education one of the most expensive purchases we make. Unfortunately, the sorts of informed opinions and objective comparisons that are widely available for other large consumer purchases, like automobiles, are lacking in education. Instead we must make due with ad hoc indexes like that published annually by U.S. News and World Report. A recent alternative to this in…
Shaping Up the Practice of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing
Recent criticisms of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) have appeared in education and psychology research journals (e.g., Cohen, 1990 , 1994 ; Kupfersmid, 1988 ; Rosenthal, 1991 ; Rosnow & Rosenthal, 1989; Shaver, 1985 ; Sohn, 2000 ; Thompson, 1994 , 1997 ; see also Research in the Schools [1998]). In this article we discuss these criticisms for both current use of NHST and plausible future use. We suggest that the historical use of suc…
Computerized Adaptive Testing
This celebrated primer presents an introduction to all of the key ingredients in understanding computerized adaptive testing technology, test development, statistics, and mental test theory. Based on years of research, this accessible book educates the novice and serves as a compendium of state-of-the-art information for professionals interested in computerized testing in the areas of education, psychology, and other related social sciences. A hy…
How Reliable are Toefl Scores
The reliability of scores on four forms of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was estimated using a hybrid IRT model. It was found that there was very little difference between their overall reliability when the testlet items were assumed to be independent and when their dependence was modeled. A larger difference in reliability was found when test sections were analyzed individually. Then we found as much as a 40% overestimate in …
"Does Spending Money on Education Help? A Reaction to the Heritage Foundation and the "Wall Street Journal
Research news And Comments
Understanding Graphs and Tables
Quantitative phenomena can be displayed effectively in a variety of ways, but to do so requires an understanding of both the structure of the phenomena and the limitations of candidate display formats. This article (a) re-counts three historic instances of the vital role data displays played in important discoveries, (b) provides three levels of information that form the basis of a theory of display to help us better measure both display quality …
Prologue. How the Following Article Came to Be
Prologue—How the Following Article Came to Be
A sI look out onto this bright and cheerful autumn day, I find it hard to believe that it has already been more than two years since I was approached by Dick Jaeger to give a talk on graphics at the Chicago AERA meeting. Although strong evidence existed at the time to suggest that I was asked primarily because John Tukey was unavailable, I was pleased to have the opportunity and prepared my talk with great enthusiasm
Adjusting for differential base rates
When the responses of 2 or more groups to the relative effects of some stimulus are compared, it is often important to adjust statistically the estimates of those effects for baseline differences among those groups. This is often the case in experiments on heart rate for animals of different ages. How should such adjustment be done? Among the competing methodologies are (a) subtract the base rate, (b) divide by the base rate, and (c) covary out t…
How accurately can we assess changes in minority performance on the SAT
How accurately can we assess changes in minority performance on the SAT
Minority advances in test performance
Minority advances in test performance
Influence-enhanced scatterplots
Influence-enhanced scatterplots
On the sensitivity of regression and regressors
Measuring the Effects of a Liberal Arts Education on the Perception of Poetry
Ten poems of relatively obscure origin dealing with the relationship of a poet to his mistress were read and scored for perceived similarity by freshmen and senior engineering and literature majors. The resulting similarity matrices were analyzed using Carroll and Chang’s (1970) INDSCAL. The structure of the poetry is discussed as are the relative positions of the four subject groups in the person space. Implications of the methodology are discus…
Hereditary and environmental determinants of growth in height in a longitudinal sample of children and youth of Guatemalan and European ancestry
The effects of hereditary and environmental factors upon the growth in stature of children living in Guatemala City has been studied. Heights at yearly examinations were fitted, by individual, to a double logistic curve in samples of Guatemalan and European children attending a private school in Guatemala City. These two samples differed genetically yet shared the same environment. Their growth was compared, by a multivariate analysis of the para…
Estimating coefficients in linear models
It is proved that under very general circumstances coefficients in multiple regression models can be replaced with equal weights with almost no loss in accuracy on the original data sample. It is then shown that these equal weights will have greater robustness than least squares regression coefficients. The implications for problems of prediction are discussed. In the two decades since Meehl's (1954) book on the respective accuracy of clinical ve…
Adjusting for differential base rates
When the responses of 2 or more groups to the relative effects of some stimulus are compared, it is often important to adjust statistically the estimates of those effects for baseline differences among those groups. This is often the case in experiments on heart rate for animals of different ages. How should such adjustment be done? Among the competing methodologies are (a) subtract the base rate, (b) divide by the base rate, and (c) covary out t…
Understanding Graphs and Tables
Quantitative phenomena can be displayed effectively in a variety of ways, but to do so requires an understanding of both the structure of the phenomena and the limitations of candidate display formats. This article (a) re-counts three historic instances of the vital role data displays played in important discoveries, (b) provides three levels of information that form the basis of a theory of display to help us better measure both display quality …
Shaping Up the Practice of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing
Recent criticisms of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) have appeared in education and psychology research journals (e.g., Cohen, 1990 , 1994 ; Kupfersmid, 1988 ; Rosenthal, 1991 ; Rosnow & Rosenthal, 1989; Shaver, 1985 ; Sohn, 2000 ; Thompson, 1994 , 1997 ; see also Research in the Schools [1998]). In this article we discuss these criticisms for both current use of NHST and plausible future use. We suggest that the historical use of suc…
On the sensitivity of regression and regressors
A Psychometric Cicada
"Does Spending Money on Education Help? A Reaction to the Heritage Foundation and the "Wall Street Journal
Prologue—How the Following Article Came to Be
A sI look out onto this bright and cheerful autumn day, I find it hard to believe that it has already been more than two years since I was approached by Dick Jaeger to give a talk on graphics at the Chicago AERA meeting. Although strong evidence existed at the time to suggest that I was asked primarily because John Tukey was unavailable, I was pleased to have the opportunity and prepared my talk with great enthusiasm
The Dimensions of De Maupassant
Determining with accuracy and precision the dimensions a reader perceives in a work of literature-and whether those dimensions are completely personal or common to other readers-is of great interest to the literary critic, the publisher, and, of course, the teacher: To the critic because such dimensions (form, content, plot, tone, thought, images, etc.) would reveal much about the work of art, to the publisher because they would reveal much about…
Personality and Group Impression Formation as a Function of the Amount of Overlap in Evaluative Meaning of the Stimulus Elements
Anderson's Personality-Trait Words Rated by Men and Women as a Function of Stimulus Sex
Anderson's personality-trait words were rated for likeableness on a 101-point scale by 30 male and 30 female undergraduates instructed to regard the stimuli as characterizing either a man or a woman. Although the pooled means correlated highly with Anderson's mean ratings, inspection of the separate stimuli showed numerous appreciable rating differences attributable to Ss' sex and sex of stimulus. Eliminating such stimuli resulted in a list of 14…
Personality and Group Impression Formation as a Function of the Amount of Overlap in Evaluative Meaning of the Stimulus Elements
Some Methodological Notes on Gluskinos and Wainer
The development of multidimensional scaling as a well defined procedure (Shepard, 1962; Kruskal, 1964) has led to the examination of many phenomena which heretofore were left untouched. Many problems which seem to have a multidimensional solution are still examined through unidimensional or non-analytic procedures because of the great difficulty in gathering data for any number of stimuli greater than about 15 or 20. This difficulty exists to a g…
Notes and Comments
A Multidimensional Analysis of School Satisfaction
(Herzberg, et al., 1959) has probably generated more research than any other theory of motivation and has found many adherents in manage-ment circles. Recently the theory has come under considerable criticism as being bound by his critical-incident methodology (House and
On Style in College Textbooks
The Dimensions of De Maupassant
Determining with accuracy and precision the dimensions a reader perceives in a work of literature-and whether those dimensions are completely personal or common to other readers-is of great interest to the literary critic, the publisher, and, of course, the teacher: To the critic because such dimensions (form, content, plot, tone, thought, images, etc.) would reveal much about the work of art, to the publisher because they would reveal much about…
A double logistic comparison of growth patterns of normal children and children with Down's syndrome
A double logistic model was used to compare six parameters of growth in standing height of 31 children with Down's syndrome with 136 children from the California Guidance Study. Multivariate analysis of variance of the growth data showed that while there were significant differences in all six parameters favouring the normal over the Down's children, there were no significant differences with respect to error of fit. Multivariate analysis with fi…
Individual growth in stature
Patterns of growth in stature of subjects from the four major U.S. longitudinal growth studies are compared by means of a two-component model for individual growth. Problems inherent in the comparison of data from independent growth studies, such as those arising from different methods of sampling subjects and scheduling measurements and the occurrence of atypical subjects, are considered and solutions are offered. Statistical tests of the indivi…
Hereditary and environmental determinants of growth in height in a longitudinal sample of children and youth of Guatemalan and European ancestry
The effects of hereditary and environmental factors upon the growth in stature of children living in Guatemala City has been studied. Heights at yearly examinations were fitted, by individual, to a double logistic curve in samples of Guatemalan and European children attending a private school in Guatemala City. These two samples differed genetically yet shared the same environment. Their growth was compared, by a multivariate analysis of the para…
Estimating coefficients in linear models
It is proved that under very general circumstances coefficients in multiple regression models can be replaced with equal weights with almost no loss in accuracy on the original data sample. It is then shown that these equal weights will have greater robustness than least squares regression coefficients. The implications for problems of prediction are discussed. In the two decades since Meehl's (1954) book on the respective accuracy of clinical ve…
Measuring the Effects of a Liberal Arts Education on the Perception of Poetry
Ten poems of relatively obscure origin dealing with the relationship of a poet to his mistress were read and scored for perceived similarity by freshmen and senior engineering and literature majors. The resulting similarity matrices were analyzed using Carroll and Chang’s (1970) INDSCAL. The structure of the poetry is discussed as are the relative positions of the four subject groups in the person space. Implications of the methodology are discus…
On the sensitivity of regression and regressors
Influence-enhanced scatterplots
Influence-enhanced scatterplots
Minority advances in test performance
Minority advances in test performance
How accurately can we assess changes in minority performance on the SAT
How accurately can we assess changes in minority performance on the SAT
Adjusting for differential base rates
When the responses of 2 or more groups to the relative effects of some stimulus are compared, it is often important to adjust statistically the estimates of those effects for baseline differences among those groups. This is often the case in experiments on heart rate for animals of different ages. How should such adjustment be done? Among the competing methodologies are (a) subtract the base rate, (b) divide by the base rate, and (c) covary out t…
Understanding Graphs and Tables
Quantitative phenomena can be displayed effectively in a variety of ways, but to do so requires an understanding of both the structure of the phenomena and the limitations of candidate display formats. This article (a) re-counts three historic instances of the vital role data displays played in important discoveries, (b) provides three levels of information that form the basis of a theory of display to help us better measure both display quality …
Prologue. How the Following Article Came to Be
Prologue—How the Following Article Came to Be
A sI look out onto this bright and cheerful autumn day, I find it hard to believe that it has already been more than two years since I was approached by Dick Jaeger to give a talk on graphics at the Chicago AERA meeting. Although strong evidence existed at the time to suggest that I was asked primarily because John Tukey was unavailable, I was pleased to have the opportunity and prepared my talk with great enthusiasm
"Does Spending Money on Education Help? A Reaction to the Heritage Foundation and the "Wall Street Journal
Research news And Comments
Psychology (30 works) · Mathematics education (14 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Mathematics (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Statistics (11 works) · Econometrics (10 works) · Psychometric Methodologies and Testing (7 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Advanced Statistical Methods and Models (5 works)