Eric Loken, Ph.D.
2001, Harvard University
Assistant Professor/Senior Research Associate
119-B
Henderson
(814) 865-7091
loken@psu.edu
Research
My work is currently divided into two major areas – new developments in research methodology and applications of those developments.
Recent advances in statistics have made sophisticated techniques available to researchers. These advanced statistical techniques can support theoretical models and also lead to valuable new empirical insights. I am working on latent variables models, both with continuous latent variables such as factor and SEM models, and mixture models which have categorical latent variables. I also work in the area of item response theory. In general I focus on the application of Bayesian methods to improve inference and inform model selection.
There are many exciting opportunities for applying statistical advances to research in education and health. I have ongoing work examining web-based assessment and interventions in education, as well as work looking at weight status and obesity.
Education
- 1987-1992: McGill University, B.A., Philosophy, minor in Mathematics
- 1992-1994: University of Michigan, M.A., Developmental Psychology
- 1996-1997: Harvard University, A.M., Statistics
- 1994-2001: Harvard University, Ph.D., Developmental Psychology
Research and Professional Experience
- 1995-1996: Teaching Fellow, Harvard University
- 1996-1997: Instructor, Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University
- 1998: Summer Intern, Educational Testing Service, New Jersey
- 1998: Teaching Fellow, Harvard Business School
- 1996-1998: Instructor, Harvard University
- 1999-2001: Senior Lecturer, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University
- 2001-present: Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University
Selected Publications
- Rulison, K., & Loken, E. (in press). I’ve fallen and I can’t get up: Can students recover from early mistakes in CAT? Applied Psychological Measurement.
- Bissell, J.M., & Loken, E. (in press). The role of friends in early adolescents’ academic self-competence and intrinsic value for math and English. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
- Staff, J., Patrick, M.E., Loken, E., & Maggs, J. L. (in press). Teenage alcohol use and educational attainment. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
- Chung, H, Lanza, S., & Loken, E. (2008). Latent transition analysis: Inference and estimation. Statistics in Medicine, 27,1834-1854.
- Loken, E., & Molenaar, P. (2008). Categories or continua? The correspondence between mixture models and factor models. In G. R. Hancock & K. M. Samuelsen (Eds.), Advances in latent variable mixture models (pp. 277-297). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
- Loken, E., & Rovine, M. J. (2006). Peirce's 19th century mixture model approach to rater agreement. American Statistician, 60, 158-161.
- Ventura, A. K., Loken, E., & Birch, L. L. (2006). Risk profiles for Metabolic Symdrome in a non-clinical sample of adolescent girls. Pediatrics, 118, 2434-2442.
- Ventura A. K., Loken, E., Mitchell, D. C., Smiciklas-Wright, H., & Birch. L. L. (2006). Understanding reporting bias in the dietary recall data of 11-year-old girls. Obesity Research, 14, 1073-1084.
- Whiteman, S., & Loken, E. (2006). Comparing analytic techniques to classify dyadic relationships: An example using siblings. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 1370-1382.
- Loken, E. (2005) Identifiability constraints and the shape of the likelihood in confirmatory factor models. Structural Equation Modeling, 12, 232-244.
- Chung, H., Loken, E. & Schafer, J.L. (2004). Difficulties in drawing inferences with finite-mixture models: A simple example and a simple solution. American Statistician, 58, 152-158.
- Loken, E., Radlinski, F., Crespi, V., Cushing, L., Millet, J. (2004) Online study behavior of 100,000 students studying for the SAT, ACT and GRE. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 30, 255-262.
- Loken, E. (2004). Multimodality in mixture models and latent trait models. In A. Gelman & X. Meng (Eds.) Missing Data and Bayesian Methods in Practice: Contributions by Donald Rubin's Statistical Family. New York: Wiley.
- Loken, E. (2004). Using latent class analysis to model temperament types. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39(4), 625-652.
- Li, H., & Loken, E. (2002). A unified theory of statistical analysis and inference for variance component models for dyadic data. Statistica Sinica, 12, 519-535.