Within this "Adult Education Quarterly" ("AEQ") forum, the authors call for a dialogue and examination of research methods in the field of adult and continuing education. Using the article by Boeren as a starting point, the authors analyze both qualitative and quantitative research trends and advocate for more methodological…

In this commentary, the authors congratulate Professor Alberto Maydeu-Olivares on his article [EJ1023617: "Goodness-of-Fit Assessment of Item Response Theory Models, Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives," this issue] as it provides a much needed overview on the mathematical underpinnings of the theory behind the…

The focus article (Willoughby et al., 2014) (1) introduced the distinction between formative and reflective measurement and (2) proposed that performance-based executive function tasks may be better conceptualized from the perspective of formative rather than reflective measurement. This proposal stands in sharp contrast to conventional…

These authors congratulate Albert Maydeu-Olivares on his lucid and timely overview of goodness-of-fit assessment in IRT models, a field to which he himself has contributed considerably in the form of limited information statistics. In this commentary, Oberski and Vermunt focus on two aspects of model fit: (1) what causes there may be of misfit;…

Von Davier, Naemi, and Roberts (this issue) present a nice summary of the statistical ambiguity often encountered in making distinctions between qualitative and quantitative constructs. In this commentary, the author begins with two broad points. The first is that the mixture/factor arguments are most intriguing when firmly embedded in a…

This author has had the privilege of knowing Professor Maydeu-Olivares for almost a decade and although their paths cross only occasionally, such instances were always enjoyable and enlightening. Edwards states that Maydeu-Olivares' target article for this issue, ("Goodness-of-Fit Assessment of Item Response Theory Models") provides…

In this commentary, David Thissen states that "Goodness-of-fit assessment for IRT models is maturing; it has come a long way from zero." Thissen then references prior works on "goodness of fit" in the index of Lord and Novick's (1968) classic text; Yen (1984); Drasgow, Levine, Tsien, Williams, and Mead (1995); Chen and…

The notion that there is often no clear distinction between factorial and typological models (von Davier, Naemi, & Roberts, this issue) is sound. As von Davier et al. state, theory often indicates a preference between these models; however the statistical criteria by which these are delineated offer much less clarity. In many ways the procedure…

Fiedler and Kareev (2006) have claimed that taking a small sample of information (as opposed to a large one) can, in certain specific situations, lead to greater accuracy--beyond that gained by avoiding fatigue or overload. Specifically, they have argued that the propensity of small samples to provide more extreme evidence is sufficient to create…

In the focus article of this issue, von Davier, Naemi, and Roberts essentially coupled: (1) a short methodological review of structural similarities of latent variable models with discrete and continuous latent variables; and (2) 2 short empirical case studies that show how these models can be applied to real, rather than simulated, large-scale…

I discuss the recommendations and cautions in Steinley and Brusco's (2011) article on the use of finite models to cluster a data set. In their article, much use is made of comparison with the "K"-means procedure. As noted by researchers for over 30 years, the "K"-means procedure can be viewed as a special case of finite mixture modeling in which…

When the editors of this journal asked the author to provide his evaluation of the concept of "paradigms" and provide a commentary on Joseph Maxwell's article on the subject, he responded positively because he believes that too often important ideas are not clarified, discussed, and debated in the literature. In this article, he first defines some…

Von Davier et al. (this issue) describe two analyses that aim at determining whether the constructs measured with a number of observed items are categorical or continuous in nature. The issue of types versus traits has a long history and is relevant in many areas of behavioral research, including personality research, as emphasized by von Davier…

This response considers together simultaneously occurring discussions about causal inference in social work and allied health and social science disciplines. It places emphasis on scholarship that integrates the potential outcomes model with directed acyclic graphing techniques to extract core steps in causal inference. Although this scholarship…

Humphry's article, "The Role of the Unit in Physics and Psychometrics," offers fundamental clarifications of measurement concepts that Fisher hopes will find a wide audience. In particular, parameterizing discrimination while preserving statistical sufficiency will indeed provide greater flexibility in accounting "for the effects of empirical…