Jeromy Anglim's Blog: Psychology and Statistics


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Social Network Analysis Resources for R

Social Network Analysis is an increasingly popular tool for modelling dependence structures between social actors. In my department researchers are developing new models for representing such dependence structures (MELNET). In 2007 I gave a talk on my consulting experience using social network analysis to provide insights on team dynamics. Since then I have switched to mainly using R for analysing social network datasets.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Selecting University Students: Perspectives from Selection and Recruitment

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.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

My Procedure for Upgrading R: Windows XP with StatET

R releases upgrades around every 6 months. I run R on Windows XP using the StatET plug-in and Eclipse. This is my current upgrade procedure. I've posted this mainly for my own future reference. But who knows? it might be useful for someone else: