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 - research methodology and adolescent academic achievement.
Recent advances in statistics have made sophisticated techniques available to researchers. When used responsibly, 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, models typically used for educational measurement. In general I focus on the application of Bayesian methods to improve inference and inform model selection.
In terms of academic achievement, my current focus is on the early identification of academic talent in middle school children. The prevailing method of selecting participants for national "talent searches" is to test students with the SAT. Because a large number of academically talented young adolescents "max out" on age-appropriate tests, it is thought that an out of level test like the SAT can be a useful tool for identifying the most talented. Little research has been done on the properties of the SAT in this age-group. One major question is the degree of variance at the school and district level that is due to unequal educational opportunities for students up to the middle school years. Another question regards the specific properties of the testing situation for such young students. I am also interested in the longitudinal development of student ability as reflected in standardized tests, along with the personality and motivational factors that relate to performance. Finally, I am interested in the development of large-scale web-based assessment and instruction.
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
- 1992-1994: Teaching Assistant, University of Michigan
- 1993: Instructor, University of Michigan
- 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 >
Honors and Awards
- 1989 & 1990: National Science and Engineering Research Council Summer Award
- 1987-1992: Greville Smith Scholarship
- 1996-1997: Derek Bok Center Award for Teaching Excellence
- 1997-1998: George W. Goethals Award in Teaching
- 1997-1998: Harold Gulliksen Fellowship, Educational Testing Service
- 1998: Outstanding Student Poster Award, APA
Selected Publications
- 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.
- 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.
- Loken, E. (2005) Identifiability constraints and the shape of the likelihood in confirmatory factor models. Structural Equation Modeling, 12, 232-244.
- 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.