Paul De Boeck
Biographic Data
| ID | 199712 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul De Boeck |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | De Boeck |
| SIGNATURE | DE BOECK P |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0884-2582 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 131 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Accelerating Psychological Science With Metastudies
A metastudy is a set of many tiny studies (microstudies) created from a much larger collection of possibilities. Metastudies can yield many of the benefits of time-consuming replications and meta-analyses but more efficiently and with greater attention to generalizability and the causal effects of moderators. Statistical precision and power are higher than in studies with the same total sample size but with fewer conditions and more participants …
Controlling speed in component skills of reading improves the explanation of reading comprehension
Efficiency in reading component skills is crucial for reading comprehension, as efficient subprocesses do not extensively consume limited cognitive resources, making them available for comprehension processes. Cognitive efficiency is typically measured with speeded tests of relatively easy items. Observed responses and response times indicate the latent variables of ability and speed. Interpreting only ability or speed as efficiency may be mislea…
The trees and the forest
We agree with Arocha that the common and exclusive focus on aggregate results of psychological studies creates problems. While a paradigm shift toward idiographic approaches or control theory might help, we argue that traditional approaches can accomplish more if measures of variability are taken seriously. We discuss three kinds of studies: within-person treatment studies, questionnaire-based studies, and replication studies. For each of these, …
Educational assessment issues in linguistically diverse contexts
Fair educational assessment in linguistically diverse contexts poses new challenges which call for the need to evaluate the impact of context-related language factors on student performance. Based on data from the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, this research analyses the effect of different factors on a mathematics achievement test. Using generalised linear mixed models, the results explain differences in achievement among student groups b…
Perceived crisis and reforms
An overview and discussion is made of the perceived replication crisis in terms of end problems, explanations, and remedies. Following a discussion of a published large-scale replication study and a review of the meta-analysis literature, we come to the conclusion that many effects are small and that on average the variance of the effects is roughly 10% to 25% of the population variance, most likely because of context dependencies. The proposed e…
On the Interpretation and Use of Mediation
Mediation analysis has become a very popular approach in psychology, and it is one that is associated with multiple perspectives that are often at odds, often implicitly. Explicitly discussing these perspectives and their motivations, advantages, and disadvantages can help to provide clarity to conversations and research regarding the use and refinement of mediation models. We discuss five such pairs of perspectives on mediation analysis, their a…
Redefine statistical significance
Hidden Markov Item Response Theory Models for Responses and Response Times
Current approaches to model responses and response times to psychometric tests solely focus on between-subject differences in speed and ability. Within subjects, speed and ability are assumed to be constants. Violations of this assumption are generally absorbed in the residual of the model. As a result, within-subject departures from the between-subject speed and ability level remain undetected. These departures may be of interest to the research…
Type I Error Inflation in DIF Identification With Mantel–Haenszel
It is known that sum score-based methods for the identification of differential item functioning (DIF), such as the Mantel–Haenszel (MH) approach, can be affected by Type I error inflation in the absence of any DIF effect. This may happen when the items differ in discrimination and when there is item impact. On the other hand, outlier DIF methods have been developed that are robust against this Type I error inflation, although they are still base…
Functionally Unidimensional Item Response Models for Multivariate Binary Data
The problem of fitting unidimensional item response models to potentially multidimensional data has been extensively studied. The focus of this article is on response data that have a strong dimension but also contain minor nuisance dimensions. Fitting a unidimensional model to such multidimensional data is believed to result in ability estimates that represent a combination of the major and minor dimensions. We conjecture that the underlying dim…
Contextualized Personality Questionnaires
For structural equation models (SEMs) with categorical data, correlated measurement residuals are not easily implemented. The problem lies mainly in the absence of a categorical analogue to the multivariate normal distribution and the absence of closed form formulas in SEMs for categorical data. We present a novel technique to handle measurement residuals that keeps the attractive SEM mainframe intact yet adds flexibility in dependence modeling w…
A Robust Outlier Approach to Prevent Type I Error Inflation in Differential Item Functioning
The identification of differential item functioning (DIF) is often performed by means of statistical approaches that consider the raw scores as proxies for the ability trait level. One of the most popular approaches, the Mantel–Haenszel (MH) method, belongs to this category. However, replacing the ability level by the simple raw score is a source of potential Type I error inflation, not only in the presence of DIF but also when DIF is absent and …
Identification of Differential Item Functioning in Multiple-Group Settings
We focus on the identification of differential item functioning (DIF) when more than two groups of examinees are considered. We propose to consider items as elements of a multivariate space, where DIF items are outlying elements. Following this approach, the situation of multiple groups is a quite natural case. A robust statistics technique is proposed to identify DIF items as outliers in the multivariate space. For low dimensionalities, up to 2-…
Between-Group Differences and Taxometrics
In psychological research it can be of interest to differentiate between the categorical (taxonic) vs dimensional (nontaxonic) nature of phenomena, for example in the field of psychopathology. For categorical (taxonic) structures a further differentiation is possible: between categorical structures with dimensional equivalence and a substantial main effect, and structures without dimensional equivalence (independent of the main effect). Previous …
Untying the Gordian Knot of Guilt and Shame
In this study, the structure of guilt and shame reactions are investigated in three cultural groups (Peru, Hungary, and Belgium) using two newly constructed scenario-based inventories. Results show that it is possible to distinguish between a structure of guilt and shame reactions based on person variation and a structure based on situation variation. Moreover, both the person-based and the situation-based structures of shame and guilt are very s…
Explanatory Item Response Models
A Componential IRT Model for Guilt
Componential IRT models are often used to investigate the process structure of a cognitive task in terms of its components. Although not yet used for emotions, these models are also helpful to investigate the process structure of emotions. We investigated the process structure of guilt with the OPLM-MIRID, a particular type of componential IRT model. Based on a first exploratory study, we selected 3 components that can be considered partial guilt…
The appraisal basis of anger
The nature of the association between anger and 5 appraisal-action tendency components--goal obstacle, other accountability, unfairness, control, and antagonism--was examined in terms of specificity, necessity, and sufficiency. In 2 studies, participants described recently experienced unpleasant situations in which 1 of the appraisal-action tendency components was present or absent and indicated which emotions they had experienced. The results sh…
Measuring needs with the Thematic Apperception Test
Three apperception theories that explain how people respond to Thematic Apperception Test cards are proposed: a simple apperception theory, an apperception theory with a dynamic component, and an apperception theory with 2 types of responses. Each theory is translated into an item response theory model and is applied to need for achievement (nAch) data. The analysis indicates that the best fitting model is provided by the apperception theory with…
Confirmatory Analyses of Componential Test Structure Using Multidimensional Item Response Theory
The componential structure of synonym tasks is investigated using confirmatory multidimensional two-parameter IRT models. It was hypothesized that an open synonym task is decomposable into generating synonym candidates and evaluating these candidate words with respect to their synonymy with the stimulus word. Two subtasks were constructed to identify these two components. Different confirmatory models were estimated both with TESTMAP and with NOH…
An Implicit Theory of Intelligence‐Related Mental Activities
Mental act verbs are used to study implicit theories of intelligence as represented by mental activities. First, the multidimensional structure of the verbs was studied using a sorting task. The resulting structure was interpreted primarily in terms of three properties: a working property that refers to the operational aspect of information processing (and that is closely related to depth of a cognitive activity), a judgment property, and a creat…
A comparison of one free-format and two fixed-format self-report personality assessment methods
On the evaluative factor in the trait scales of Peabody's study of trait inferences
Redefine statistical significance
Measuring needs with the Thematic Apperception Test
Three apperception theories that explain how people respond to Thematic Apperception Test cards are proposed: a simple apperception theory, an apperception theory with a dynamic component, and an apperception theory with 2 types of responses. Each theory is translated into an item response theory model and is applied to need for achievement (nAch) data. The analysis indicates that the best fitting model is provided by the apperception theory with…
Educational assessment issues in linguistically diverse contexts
Fair educational assessment in linguistically diverse contexts poses new challenges which call for the need to evaluate the impact of context-related language factors on student performance. Based on data from the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, this research analyses the effect of different factors on a mathematics achievement test. Using generalised linear mixed models, the results explain differences in achievement among student groups b…
Untying the Gordian Knot of Guilt and Shame
In this study, the structure of guilt and shame reactions are investigated in three cultural groups (Peru, Hungary, and Belgium) using two newly constructed scenario-based inventories. Results show that it is possible to distinguish between a structure of guilt and shame reactions based on person variation and a structure based on situation variation. Moreover, both the person-based and the situation-based structures of shame and guilt are very s…
Perceived crisis and reforms
An overview and discussion is made of the perceived replication crisis in terms of end problems, explanations, and remedies. Following a discussion of a published large-scale replication study and a review of the meta-analysis literature, we come to the conclusion that many effects are small and that on average the variance of the effects is roughly 10% to 25% of the population variance, most likely because of context dependencies. The proposed e…
On the evaluative factor in the trait scales of Peabody's study of trait inferences
On the evaluative factor in the trait scales of Peabody's study of trait inferences
A comparison of one free-format and two fixed-format self-report personality assessment methods
An Implicit Theory of Intelligence‐Related Mental Activities
Mental act verbs are used to study implicit theories of intelligence as represented by mental activities. First, the multidimensional structure of the verbs was studied using a sorting task. The resulting structure was interpreted primarily in terms of three properties: a working property that refers to the operational aspect of information processing (and that is closely related to depth of a cognitive activity), a judgment property, and a creat…
Confirmatory Analyses of Componential Test Structure Using Multidimensional Item Response Theory
The componential structure of synonym tasks is investigated using confirmatory multidimensional two-parameter IRT models. It was hypothesized that an open synonym task is decomposable into generating synonym candidates and evaluating these candidate words with respect to their synonymy with the stimulus word. Two subtasks were constructed to identify these two components. Different confirmatory models were estimated both with TESTMAP and with NOH…
Measuring needs with the Thematic Apperception Test
Three apperception theories that explain how people respond to Thematic Apperception Test cards are proposed: a simple apperception theory, an apperception theory with a dynamic component, and an apperception theory with 2 types of responses. Each theory is translated into an item response theory model and is applied to need for achievement (nAch) data. The analysis indicates that the best fitting model is provided by the apperception theory with…
A Componential IRT Model for Guilt
Componential IRT models are often used to investigate the process structure of a cognitive task in terms of its components. Although not yet used for emotions, these models are also helpful to investigate the process structure of emotions. We investigated the process structure of guilt with the OPLM-MIRID, a particular type of componential IRT model. Based on a first exploratory study, we selected 3 components that can be considered partial guilt…
The appraisal basis of anger
The nature of the association between anger and 5 appraisal-action tendency components--goal obstacle, other accountability, unfairness, control, and antagonism--was examined in terms of specificity, necessity, and sufficiency. In 2 studies, participants described recently experienced unpleasant situations in which 1 of the appraisal-action tendency components was present or absent and indicated which emotions they had experienced. The results sh…
Explanatory Item Response Models
Untying the Gordian Knot of Guilt and Shame
In this study, the structure of guilt and shame reactions are investigated in three cultural groups (Peru, Hungary, and Belgium) using two newly constructed scenario-based inventories. Results show that it is possible to distinguish between a structure of guilt and shame reactions based on person variation and a structure based on situation variation. Moreover, both the person-based and the situation-based structures of shame and guilt are very s…
Between-Group Differences and Taxometrics
In psychological research it can be of interest to differentiate between the categorical (taxonic) vs dimensional (nontaxonic) nature of phenomena, for example in the field of psychopathology. For categorical (taxonic) structures a further differentiation is possible: between categorical structures with dimensional equivalence and a substantial main effect, and structures without dimensional equivalence (independent of the main effect). Previous …
Identification of Differential Item Functioning in Multiple-Group Settings
We focus on the identification of differential item functioning (DIF) when more than two groups of examinees are considered. We propose to consider items as elements of a multivariate space, where DIF items are outlying elements. Following this approach, the situation of multiple groups is a quite natural case. A robust statistics technique is proposed to identify DIF items as outliers in the multivariate space. For low dimensionalities, up to 2-…
A Robust Outlier Approach to Prevent Type I Error Inflation in Differential Item Functioning
The identification of differential item functioning (DIF) is often performed by means of statistical approaches that consider the raw scores as proxies for the ability trait level. One of the most popular approaches, the Mantel–Haenszel (MH) method, belongs to this category. However, replacing the ability level by the simple raw score is a source of potential Type I error inflation, not only in the presence of DIF but also when DIF is absent and …
Functionally Unidimensional Item Response Models for Multivariate Binary Data
The problem of fitting unidimensional item response models to potentially multidimensional data has been extensively studied. The focus of this article is on response data that have a strong dimension but also contain minor nuisance dimensions. Fitting a unidimensional model to such multidimensional data is believed to result in ability estimates that represent a combination of the major and minor dimensions. We conjecture that the underlying dim…
Contextualized Personality Questionnaires
For structural equation models (SEMs) with categorical data, correlated measurement residuals are not easily implemented. The problem lies mainly in the absence of a categorical analogue to the multivariate normal distribution and the absence of closed form formulas in SEMs for categorical data. We present a novel technique to handle measurement residuals that keeps the attractive SEM mainframe intact yet adds flexibility in dependence modeling w…
Type I Error Inflation in DIF Identification With Mantel–Haenszel
It is known that sum score-based methods for the identification of differential item functioning (DIF), such as the Mantel–Haenszel (MH) approach, can be affected by Type I error inflation in the absence of any DIF effect. This may happen when the items differ in discrimination and when there is item impact. On the other hand, outlier DIF methods have been developed that are robust against this Type I error inflation, although they are still base…
Hidden Markov Item Response Theory Models for Responses and Response Times
Current approaches to model responses and response times to psychometric tests solely focus on between-subject differences in speed and ability. Within subjects, speed and ability are assumed to be constants. Violations of this assumption are generally absorbed in the residual of the model. As a result, within-subject departures from the between-subject speed and ability level remain undetected. These departures may be of interest to the research…
On the Interpretation and Use of Mediation
Mediation analysis has become a very popular approach in psychology, and it is one that is associated with multiple perspectives that are often at odds, often implicitly. Explicitly discussing these perspectives and their motivations, advantages, and disadvantages can help to provide clarity to conversations and research regarding the use and refinement of mediation models. We discuss five such pairs of perspectives on mediation analysis, their a…
Redefine statistical significance
Perceived crisis and reforms
An overview and discussion is made of the perceived replication crisis in terms of end problems, explanations, and remedies. Following a discussion of a published large-scale replication study and a review of the meta-analysis literature, we come to the conclusion that many effects are small and that on average the variance of the effects is roughly 10% to 25% of the population variance, most likely because of context dependencies. The proposed e…
Educational assessment issues in linguistically diverse contexts
Fair educational assessment in linguistically diverse contexts poses new challenges which call for the need to evaluate the impact of context-related language factors on student performance. Based on data from the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, this research analyses the effect of different factors on a mathematics achievement test. Using generalised linear mixed models, the results explain differences in achievement among student groups b…
Controlling speed in component skills of reading improves the explanation of reading comprehension
Efficiency in reading component skills is crucial for reading comprehension, as efficient subprocesses do not extensively consume limited cognitive resources, making them available for comprehension processes. Cognitive efficiency is typically measured with speeded tests of relatively easy items. Observed responses and response times indicate the latent variables of ability and speed. Interpreting only ability or speed as efficiency may be mislea…
The trees and the forest
We agree with Arocha that the common and exclusive focus on aggregate results of psychological studies creates problems. While a paradigm shift toward idiographic approaches or control theory might help, we argue that traditional approaches can accomplish more if measures of variability are taken seriously. We discuss three kinds of studies: within-person treatment studies, questionnaire-based studies, and replication studies. For each of these, …
Accelerating Psychological Science With Metastudies
A metastudy is a set of many tiny studies (microstudies) created from a much larger collection of possibilities. Metastudies can yield many of the benefits of time-consuming replications and meta-analyses but more efficiently and with greater attention to generalizability and the causal effects of moderators. Statistical precision and power are higher than in studies with the same total sample size but with fewer conditions and more participants …
Psychology (21 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Mathematics (11 works) · Cognitive psychology (10 works) · Statistics (9 works) · Advanced Statistical Modeling Techniques (7 works) · Econometrics (7 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works)