Speaker

Dr. Edgar Merkle
Department of Psychological Sciences
University of Missouri

Dr. Ed Merkle’s research involves a mix of psychometric modeling and the experimentation/modeling that arises from cognitive science and mathematical psychology. His specific research includes Bayesian latent variable models, forecasting and subjective probability, psychometric measurement, and statistical modeling.

Title

Some progress and problems in Bayesian SEM

Abstract

The talk will involve a combination of research and software on Bayesian structural equation models, with some material being relevant to general Bayesian modeling in psychology. I will say some things about how the blavaan package was started and where it is going in the future. Then I will say some things about research that has stemmed from development of blavaan, including some problems that are not fully solved. Topics include speed/efficiency of model estimation, methods for computing Bayesian information criteria, and methods for specifying proper prior distributions. Finally, I will discuss the collaborative work that can arise from open source software.