In their article Ruscio et al. (Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, & Mahalchik, this issue) present a comparative study of some of the different variants of the "h" index. The study evaluates a total of 22 metrics, including the "h" index and "h"-type indices, as well as other conventional measures. The novelty of their work is to a large extent…

In his commentary, Foster (2010) made arguments at 2 levels, offering a broad critique of statistical or methodological approaches in developmental psychology in general together with critical comments that applied only to our recent article (Dogan, Stockdale, Widaman, & Conger, 2010). Certain criticisms by Foster aimed at the field as a whole…

This commentary appraises the 2009 special issue of "Language Assessment Quarterly" on "Cognitive Diagnosis and Q-matrices in Language Assessment." Despite a number of weaknesses, specifically in attempting inappropriately to retrofit a suite of proficiency tests to diagnostic purposes, the special issue is seen as a landmark in the development of…

The author discusses structural weakness of the psychometric paradigm, citing that psychometricians claim to be able to measure psychological attributes, presuming these attributes to be quantitative. The author contends, however, that evidence does not support the quantitative view, rendering such claims premature. This article is based upon…

This paper presents the author's response to commentaries by Eric Bredo, R. Burke Johnson, and Linda Tillman on his article "Positivist Dogmas, Rhetoric, and the Education Science Question." Each of the commentaries goes beyond merely characterizing and assessing the author's analysis to also suggest an alternative emphasis, if not an alternative…

In a recent study, G. Kuhn and Z. Dienes (2005) reported that participants previously exposed to a set of musical tunes generated by a biconditional grammar subsequently preferred new tunes that respected the grammar over new ungrammatical tunes. Because the study and test tunes did not share any chunks of adjacent intervals, this result may be…

This essay discusses the design of the quantitative component of the "Young People's Attitudes to Religious Diversity" project, conceived by Professor Robert Jackson within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, and presents some preliminary findings from the data. The quantitative component followed and built on the…

Inconsistencies within the literature result in teachers not having sufficient guidance to develop their humour use in support of learning without risking their professionalism. This article argues for more comprehensive evidence to guide teachers' use of humour, based on mixed methodological approaches. The case is also made for the Interpersonal…

In this commentary, we demonstrate how the potential outcomes framework can help understand the key identification assumptions underlying causal mediation analysis. We show that this framework can lead to the development of alternative research design and statistical analysis strategies applicable to the longitudinal data settings considered by…

Peter Wylie is a man of many contradictions: a statistician and a storyteller, an introvert who loves an audience, and a self-described data geek with a passion for his work and the people it helps. Wylie is one of the pioneers of predictive modeling, the statistical analysis that uses data to drive educational institutions and nonprofits toward…

In this response I discuss several points that Bruton made in his own response paper. I first argue that his main theme, that design factors should be emphasized over statistical analysis, has never been a genuine issue; it is two independent issues, and for each of them I have some concerns about his discussion. I then consider his comments on…

In Shadish (2010) and West and Thoemmes (2010), the authors contrasted 2 approaches to causality. The first originated in the psychology literature and is associated with work by Campbell (e.g., Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002), and the second has its roots in the statistics literature and is associated with work by Rubin (e.g., Rubin, 2006). In…

A recent issue of "International Journal of Research & Methods in Education" (IJRME) contained a challenging article by Stephen Gorard ["The Dubious Benefits of Multi-Level Modelling," "International Journal of Research & Method in Education," Vol. 30 (2), p221-236 (2007)] in which he attacks aspects of current practice in statistical modelling,…

Describing, explaining, and discussing various modern indices of scholarly impact as accomplished by Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, and Mahalchik (this issue) is highly commendable, as such measures get increasingly important in hiring and promotion decisions. The author agrees with almost all points made in the target article, except the…

Howe's (2009) critique of positivistic tendencies in the education research community is valuable and pertinent. His analysis is nonetheless one-sided, finding fault with one side of current divisions alone. In an effort to retain the good points of his analysis, the author first summarizes Howe's argument, interpreting it as a critique of hasty…