Statistics — Page 3
Explore statistical methods, their assumptions, interpretation and limitations.
Research field
Method family
Dichotic Listening
The Dichotic Listening Task is an auditory measure of selective attention and hemispheric lateralization. Different speech stimuli (words, digits, or syllables) are presented simultaneously to each ear via headphones. Participants attend to...
Dictator Game
The Dictator Game is a simple economic decision task measuring generosity and prosocial behavior. One player (dictator) receives money and unilaterally decides how to allocate it between themselves and an anonymous second player (recipient)...
Differential Item Functioning
Differential item functioning identifies test or survey items that behave differently for examinees from different groups — such as gender, ethnicity, or language background — after controlling for the underlying ability or trait being meas...
Discriminant Validity
Discriminant validity is evidence that a latent construct is empirically distinct from other constructs it should differ from. Originating in Campbell and Fiske's multitrait-multimethod framework (1959), it is a core component of construct...
Drift Diffusion Model
The Drift Diffusion Model (DDM) is a mathematical framework for understanding rapid binary decision-making by modeling the accumulation of evidence over time as a random walk with drift. Developed by Roger Ratcliff in the 1970s, it predicts...
EFA for Scale Development
Exploratory Factor Analysis for Scale Development is the psychometric application of EFA in which an item pool is administered and the resulting response data are analysed to discover the latent factor structure underlying the items. Origin...
Experiences in Close Relationships Scale
The Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) scale, developed by Brennan, Clark, and Shaver in 1998, is the most widely used self-report measure of adult romantic attachment. The authors factor-analyzed essentially all existing English-lang...
Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling
Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) is a hybrid approach that combines exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path modeling, developed by Asparouhov and Muthén (2009). ESEM relaxes restrict...
Eye-Tracking Analysis
Eye-tracking analysis is a method for recording and quantifying eye movements and gaze patterns during visual tasks, providing direct measures of visual attention, comprehension, and cognitive processing. Advancing from mechanical devices t...
Fear Conditioning
Fear conditioning is a classical (Pavlovian) learning paradigm in which a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS—e.g., a tone or image) is repeatedly paired with an aversive outcome (unconditioned stimulus, US—e.g., mild electric shock...
Fuzzy ANOVA
Fuzzy ANOVA extends classical analysis of variance to fuzzy data where observations and group memberships are imprecise or uncertain. Developed by Viertl and others, Fuzzy ANOVA tests whether fuzzy-valued groups differ significantly while a...
Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is a set-theoretic method developed by Charles Ragin in the early 2000s that combines the configurational logic of qualitative case studies with the mathematical rigor of fuzzy sets. It bri...
G-Theory
Generalizability Theory, developed by Lee J. Cronbach and colleagues in the 1960s and formalised by Brennan (2001), is an ANOVA-based framework that extends Classical Test Theory by decomposing observed score variance into multiple, separat...
GRM
The Graded Response Model is an item response theory model developed by Fumiko Samejima in 1969 for ordered polytomous items such as Likert-type scales. It estimates both the discriminating power of each item and a set of threshold paramete...
Generalizability Theory
Generalizability Theory is a psychometric framework that decomposes observed score variance into multiple sources — persons, items, raters, occasions, and their interactions — using analysis of variance. It replaces the single reliability c...
Ideological Constraint Analysis
Ideological constraint analysis measures the degree to which an individual's or a public's political attitudes hang together in a coherent, predictable structure, the extent to which knowing a person's position on one issue lets you predict...
Implicit Association Test
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a computerized measure designed to detect automatic associations between concepts in memory, such as implicit attitudes toward social groups or implicit self-concepts. Introduced by Greenwald, McGhee,...
Implicit Theories Measure
The implicit theories measure, developed by Dweck, Chiu, and Hong in 1995, assesses people's lay beliefs about whether human attributes are fixed or malleable -- the distinction popularized as fixed versus growth mindset. Respondents rate a...
Interrater Reliability
Interrater reliability quantifies the degree to which two or more independent raters produce consistent scores when evaluating the same individuals or products. The family encompasses Cohen's kappa, introduced in 1960 for categorical judgme...
Iowa Gambling Task
The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a laboratory analog of real-world decision-making that measures how individuals make risky choices when outcomes are uncertain. Participants select cards from four decks, each offering different patterns of r...
Item Analysis
Item analysis is the foundational psychometric procedure for evaluating the quality of individual test or scale items within the Classical Test Theory (CTT) framework, as systematised by Allen and Yen (1979) and Crocker and Algina (1986). I...
Item Response Theory
Item response theory models the probability that a respondent answers an item correctly (or endorses it) as a function of the respondent's latent trait level and the item's own statistical properties — difficulty, discrimination, and guessi...
Latent Profile Analysis
Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) is a person-centered finite mixture modeling technique that identifies unobserved subgroups — called profiles — within a population based on patterns of scores across multiple continuous indicators. Rooted in L...
Latent Transition Analysis
Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) is a method for studying transitions between latent classes over time, developed by Collins and Lanza (2010). LTA combines latent class analysis (grouping individuals into classes) with Markovian transition...