Quantitude

In this week’s episode, Patrick and Greg play with some of the basics of probability in the context of some classic, fun, and often counterintuitive examples.  Along the way they also discuss arguments with relatives, a feel for the roulette wheel, Xeroxing your butt, “The coin has spoken.”, Quantitude BooqQlub, the Bellagio Fountains, Clooney and Pitt look-alikes, the Flippier, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Monty Hall, Ferraris and goats, the birthday problem, how to carve an elephant, and pick-6 lotteries. 

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In this week's episode Greg and Patrick are honored to visit with Yi Feng, a quantitative methodologist at UCLA, as she helps them understand classification and regression tree analysis. She describes the various ways in which these models can be used, and how these can serve to inform both prediction and explanation. Along the way they also discuss looking pensive, drunken 3-way interactions, Stephen Hawking, parlor tricks, Cartman, validation, dragon boats, anxiety, spam filters, hair loss, audio visualizations, overused tree analogies, rainbows & unicorns, rain in Los Angeles, and Moneyball.

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In this week's episode Greg and Patrick talk about Simpson’s Paradox: what it is, examples of where it occurs in real life, and why we might not really need to think about it as a paradox at all.  Along the way they also discuss Apple Vision, The Simpsons predicting the future, sitting too close to the TV, low levels of radiation, Paul the octopus, Blinky, shtuff, duck duck duck, Jonathan the tortoise, batting averages, bad at fractions, Cal Berkeley admissions, GDP and happiness, exercise and heart attacks, and Double Super Secret whatever.

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In this week's episode Greg and Patrick take a walk down memory lane to rediscover classical test theory,  although they revisit this through the lens of modern latent variable models. They describe how these classical methods are actually highly restricted latent measurement models and they explore how these restrictions can be relaxed and even tested. Along the way they also discuss weird dates, free Tupperware, yellow fatty beans, advice cookies, in bed, scalloped tiles, scales at NASA, important footnotes, working in your garden, being buck naked, Dark Side of the Moon, squarshing, deserving variance, and when the cops show up.

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In this week's episode Patrick and Greg launch a new occasional series called Stuff You Should Know. The topic for today is regression to the mean: what the heck is it, how does it arise in every day life, and what can we do about it. Along the way they also discuss the space-time continuum, Kai Ryssdal, inflation, witches of MacBeth, the hidden curriculum, oh dang, sh*t (ummm...STUFF) you should know, SAT prep courses, the triumph of mediocrity, angstroms, blobs. reinventing history, and being patronizing. 

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In this week's episode Greg and Patrick talk about confidence intervals: symmetric and asymmetric, asymptotic and bootstrapped, how to interpret them, and how not to interpret them. Along the way they also mention tire pressure gauge mysteries, conference travel reimbursement, phases of the moon, gyroscopic effects, baseball walk-of-shame, why people hate us, settling out of court, confidence tricks, Mack JcArdle, Shakespearean means, lipstick on a pig, the cat rating scale, the Miller's Tale, hot pokers, inverse hyperbolic tangents (duh), and Quantitude out-takes. 

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In this week's episode Patrick and Greg have great fun talking about meta-analysis with Paschal Sheeran, a social psychologist from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He describes what meta-analysis is, what it offers, and how to apply it in your own work. Along the way they also discuss taking off into the north vs the south, flipping people off, being subtle, metaphysics, say my name, most effective tactic available, fleeing Ireland, struggling to fit in, falling off a bus, taking the piss out of your own work, opposable thumbs, descriptive descriptions, sleepwalking reviewers, the wild west, the importance of cake, living the dream, and the five stages of meta-analysis. 

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In this week's episode, marking the fifth Quantitude Holiday Celebration, Greg and Patrick argue about their favorite holiday movies, including whether Die Hard counts as one or not; they then proceed to discuss several statistical ideas that also seem to Die Hard. Along the way they talk about so much gibberish that we don't even bother listing it here.

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In this week's episode Greg and Patrick explore alternative parameterizations of the SEM-based latent curve model to capture various forms of nonlinearity, some that are approximations and others that are exact. Along the way they also discuss Swifties, remastering your life, bull testicles, the world's worst RA job, Yerkes-Dodson law, show a little ankle, the St. Louis Arch, bachelorette parties, deck screws, DIY-ing a model, being a little too quiet, complete nonsense, blasting your pecs, haters gonna hate, the worst day ever, Frankenspline's monster, being left off at the third floor, and looking for a new cohost. 

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In today’s episode Greg and Patrick talk about regularization, which includes ridge, LASSO, and elastic net procedures for variable selection within the general linear model and beyond. Along the way they also mention Bowdlerizing, The Family Shakespeare, disturbance in the force, McNeish on his bike, Spandex, C’mon guys wait up, the altar of unbiasedness, Curranizing, shooting arrows, stepwise goat rodeo, volume knobs, Hancockizing, always angry, getting slapped, betting a chicken, mission from God, hypothetico-deductive porpoising, and letting go of truth (which you can’t handle anyway).

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In today’s episode, Greg and Patrick dig into Confirmatory Composite Analysis, a very clever way to get formative factors and their causal indicators into the traditional structural equation modeling framework, along with any other latent factors and their effect indicators that might already be in the model. Along the way they also mention full-contact Wordle, being grounded, spelling bees, state capitals, definitions of leadership, a many ways, rabbit or duck, set of steak knives, canonical correlation vs. Homer Simpson, secret sauce, Quantitude Word of the Day, Who’s a good boy?, the man behind the curtain, Penn and Tellering, a new symbol, Beavis, and car stereo wiring diagrams.

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In today’s episode, Patrick and Greg talk about the challenge of having causal indicators of formative factors within an analytical framework that is historically dominated by effect indicators and latent factors — and the critical importance of getting your arrows right. Along the way they also mention: self help books, habits, Hagrid and the giants, When Arrows Attack, The Handbook of SEM, the evil eye factor, defining your terms, the meaning of IS, minority reports, putting your fist through the office wall, lawyering, being deposed, How does it know?, doubling down, and bad JFK impressions. 

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In today’s episode, Patrick and Greg talk about fun extensions to the basic confirmatory factor model, including higher order models, bifactor or residualized models, and multitrait-multimethod models. Along the way they also mention microscope lab, burning ants, substitute teaching, Cool or Creepy?, Monet, Clueless, haystacks, hotdogs, What are you thinking?, pennies and pounds, party like it’s 1904, potluck freeloaders, lips and a**holes, promiscuous models, and shock absorbers. 

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In this week’s episode Greg and Patrick take advantage of the recent expiration of a statute of limitations that legally allows them to talk about the multilevel model: what it is, when we might use it, and extremely cool extensions that it allows. Along the way they also discuss hostile federal judges, McNeish, airing of grievances, Gauss and Markov’s corpses, Sesame Street, distributional baguettes, naivete, sentient GLMs, two pencil necks, Thor’s Hammer, Willy Sutton, Siren’s Song, peer groups of two, fighting good for an old guy, crazy town cool, 50 ducks, conceding a battle, and blushing corpses.

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In this week's episode Patrick and Greg enlist the help of six quantitative methodological scholars, who share a wide variety of fertile ground for quantitative research, which should be useful for students seeking dissertation topics as well as anyone interested in active methodological areas. Along the way they also mentioned: Kill Bill, The Waltons (with corpses), taking away grandpa's car keys, needing an avocado, Patrick's paygrade, clean-up hitters, unhinged Tweeting, promiscuous models, meercats, cantankerously frequentist, who needs data, and combining with Jordan for 70 points. 

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In this week's episode Patrick and Greg plumb the depths of what is a dissertation and what purpose does it serve. They are aided in the use of an AI language interpreter to translate old man grousing to positive and supportive advice for students as they discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a dissertation project. Along the way they also mention: pumpkin spice, marching bands, Maximus Decimus Meridius, Hiccup, being like too American, OMG, anger interpreters, patience and self-restraint, the pantsless Lindy, it's just something people do, flight instructors, bloody marys in Row 14, dead birds, kilometerage, sleek sports cars, three-masted ships, downright silly questions, We Are The World, three questions, devolution, and subconning. 

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In this week’s episode, Greg and Patrick talk about the terrifying, the feared, the dreaded … Multicollinearity. Blamed for a multitude of general linear model problems, they dare to ask the question: “But should it be?” Along the way they also mention: having your stump ground out, fall guys, Keyser Soze, croissants and breadsticks, baguettes in space space space, mostly dead, the Cliffs of Moher, enablers, dangling on a wing and a prayer, nanotech R-squareds, opening a suitcase, reinventing factor analysis, and whiny a** babies.

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In this week's episode, the first of Season 5, Patrick and Greg explore the very cool world of receiver operating characteristic, or ROC, curves: what they are, how they work, and why we can give partial thanks to Winston Churchill for their existence. Along the way they also mention: advent calendars, lasagna for 8, Honey Nut Cheerios, radio detection and ranging, flock of seagulls, broken pun promises, Dwayne Johnson, the whale petting machine, Embassy Suites, poison ivy and kudzu, sexy Hulk, smoldering intensity, Spitfires and F-14s, drunken punches, and Where’s Waldo.

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In the last episode of season 4, Greg and Patrick discuss the very cool exploratory technique of cluster analysis — including concepts of multivariate distance, hierarchical and non-hierarchical methods, and how it differs from mixture models. Along the way they also mention: Scandinavian architects, raccoons on meth, vegetarian hotdogs, sh*t-ton of do-loops, free-range jam, statistical hairballs, Euclid’s burial, the platypus problem, stars and galaxies, stealing from the hard sciences, ungulates & marsupials, and Amy-Marie.

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In this week's episode Patrick and Greg talk about the critical and often unmet assumptions underlying the use of measured variables at multiple time points, whether for simple analyses like tests of means or more complex analyses like modeling individual growth. Along the way they also mention: following your blocker, Pascal’s wager, Wikipedia empathy, ham sandwich syllogisms, flying cattle cars, Kennedy babies, Costco bathroom scales, Spirit Airlines, expecting you to bring wine, crying about broccoli, the Audi A series, dead raccoon smell, Joe Walsh, Greg’s abs, copy/paste measurement models, Orlando vs. Fort Lauderdale, moles on spring break, and disturbing artwork.

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