Great Measurement but Small Sample Size: Case Study of Videotaped Families

New York Times reports on an interesting UCLA study that involved video taping 32 Los Angeles families over the course of a week. The study generated rich data for analysis. It's great to see researchers moving beyond self-report measures towards real-world well-coded behavioural observations. However, great measurement does not overcome issues of a small sample size.

Advocating Increased Usability for Full-Text Institutional Journal Access: It's about Speed

The following sets out how I'd like to see access improved for full-text journal articles where an institutional subscription applies. 

Causal Inference from Aggregate Data: The Facebook Syphilis Case Study

The Age has an article on the reported connection between using Facebook and Syphilis that is doing the rounds on the Internet. While the idea that Facebook is facilitating social connections seems plausible. And while Facebook may play a role in facilitating risky sexual encounters, the evidence offered (at least that presented in the news reports) for the connection is poor, and provides a good case study in how NOT to reason from data.

Dark Nudges: Your Loss is the Company's Gain

I've recently been thinking about the concept of the nudge. I'm talking about ways that systems can be altered to encourage or discourage particular behaviour. As opposed to telling people that they cannot do something or that they must do something, a system is set up that just makes a given behaviour a little easier or a little harder. A classic example is the difference between opt-out versus opt-in systems for organ donors, and how an opt-out system can dramatically increase organ donor rates. However, while some writers are commenting on the beneficial effects of nudges, I've been thinking more about the dark side of the nudge. Specifically, I've been thinking about the ways that companies use nudges for their own advantage and to the detriment of the customer. This post presents a few examples of dark nudges that have recently come my way and makes some general comments about dark nudges.

What's in a Name? 21st Century Problems: Searching for PASW version 18

Most people now know that IBM has acquired SPSS, and SPSS the software product has changed it's name to PASW. I have often observed name changes with interest. Kentucky Fried Chicken (at least in Australia) decided long ago to change its name to KFC, possibly because Kentucky was too American, Fried implied  fat and unhealthy food, and chicken was too limiting. Likewise, SPSS decided long ago to distance itself from being just a statistics package for the social sciences.

IBM has now released version 18 of PASW. I was trying to find out what were the new features in version 18, when I stumbled on a potential problem with the new name, and perhaps some reasons why IBM may want to move out of troubling teen version numbers as quickly as possible.

Focus Groups Should Not Be Used to Measure Attitudes of the Population | Myki Case Study

Victoria is in the process of adopting a new public transport ticketing system called Myki based on an electronic card. It's delivery is late and the project is over budget. The system has become a political issue. It was interesting to read the following statement:

"[MyKi project’s new spokeswoman] said that Government focus groups had shown that Melburnians were looking forward to using the new card." - TheAge

I just wanted to make a few comments about problems in the reasoning of the above quote.

Newspaper Reports IQ to be 180 | Is it True?

I was reading TheAge. Google is bringing out Google Wave. As part of the story they interview an Australian engineer on the project:

"Nigel, who has an IQ of 180, is also a maths whiz.." - The Age

This got me thinking. What does it mean to have a 180 IQ. IQ is a norm score. IQ typically has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Thus, I asked the following questions:

• What's the probability of having an IQ of 180 or higher?
• One in how many people would have an IQ 180 or higher?
• What's is the probability that someone who a newspaper reports as having a 180 IQ or higher, actually has an IQ of 180 or higher?

Spanking Lowers Child IQ | Correlation is not Causation

As I was waiting for a coffee this morning, I had a cursory glance at the paper and found The Herald Sun reporting on a study stating that:

"A SPANK on the bottom, long used by parents to discipline a naughty child, could cause more than tears... It's now thought the age-old disciplinary method may also lower a child's IQ, with those spanked up to three times a week having a lower IQ due to psychological stress."

Selecting University Students: Perspectives from Selection and Recruitment

I was reading the article in The Age reporting on a discussion paper at The University of Melbourne reviewing undergraduate entry requirements.

The discussion paper mentions other means for selecting students in addition to their performance in the final year of high school (ENTER).

I see the issue as involving two elements:

1. What criterion of an effective selection system does the university want to use?
2. What measurement system can be put in place to maximise this criterion?

The first issue is a matter of values and policy. The second issue is empirical.

From The Age article I gather that there is concern for: representation from disadvantaged student groups and academic potential.

Many other values could be mentioned, including transparency, procedural justice, cost of administration, and so on. No doubt any decision would be a synthesis of such concerns. However, if the choice of criterion could be resolved, the question of a measurement system is largely an empirical question.