Plenary Addresses

Invited speakers will address conference-specific objectives by elaborating on the conference theme: Psychometrics: Applications, Training and the Need for Expertise.

Keynote Addresses

What is psychometrics?

Paul Holland, Ph.D. – June 26, 2008

Paul Holland holds the title of Frederic Lord Chair in Measurement and Statistics at Educational Testing Service (ETS), retired, and currently serves as an ETS consultant. He earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University and his career has focused on the application of statistics to the social sciences, including sociology, psychology and education. His work is mainly theoretical in nature and has made major contributions to areas such as causal modeling, test score equating, discrete data analysis and differential item functioning.

In his keynote address, Dr. Holland will attempt to give psychometrics an accurate definition, bringing to the forefront all of the subdisciplines within psychometrics, and highlighting the areas within psychology and education to which psychometric techniques can be applied.

Some neglected relationships between cognitive psychology and statistics: How people try to think using advanced statistical methods without realizing it.

David Rindskopf, Ph.D. – June 27, 2008

David Rindskopf holds a joint appointment as Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology and Psychology at the City University of New York. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from Iowa State University and his research interests include latent variable models, categorical data analysis, multilevel statistical models and methodological problems in social research and program evaluation. Dr. Rindskopf has been involved in an editorial capacity with several journals including Psychometrika, Psychological Bulletin and Psychological Methods.

Dr. Rindskopf’s keynote address will serve as an example of an underrepresented application of psychometrics, in particular how statistics and psychometrics can be used to measure the mind and everyday thinking.

Invited Addresses

Psychometric training at Fordham: A case study in recent trends.

Charles Lewis, Ph.D. – June 26, 2008

Charles Lewis is Professor and Program Director of the Psychometrics Program at Fordham University. He earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from Princeton University and has held faculty appointments at several universities. In addition to his appointment at Fordham University, Dr. Lewis is a Distinguished Presidential Appointee at ETS. He has made major contributions to the advancement of statistical and psychometric research, specifically to the areas of item response theory and Bayesian inference.

In Dr. Lewis’ invited address he will use Fordham’s curriculum, student population and faculty examples to discuss some of the challenges and strategies in building and maintaining a quantitative psychology program in the 21st century.

The current state of quantitative psychology: Dude, where’s my field?

Michael Edwards, Ph.D. – June 27, 2008

Michael Edwards is an Assistant Professor of Quantitative Psychology at The Ohio State University and a member of the APA Taskforce for Increasing the Number of Quantitative Psychologists. He earned his Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His recent research involves factor analysis, multidimensional item response theory, and measurement issues in the social sciences.

Dr. Edwards will address the need for effective quantitative training and skilled experts in psychometrics. His speech will include a review of the most recent results of the APA Taskforce for Increasing the Number of Quantitative Psychologists.