As a quantoid with access to many large databases, I, like many other quantoid’s, have a "pleasant problem." I often run late night analyses to investigate questions or hypotheses that my mind generates or which are posed by others on listserv’s or at conferences. I always have the best of intentions to write up the results either as an IAP research report (to be posted to my web page) or to be submitted to a journal for possible publication. Unfortunately, the demands of work call me away or a new analyses capture my attention and the interesting results, insights, and discoveries of yesterday end up being buried in my hard drive forever (although I do integrate many of the results into my PowerPoint presentations when on the “road.”).
One reason for creating this blog is to provide a quicker and more efficient means by which to share some of these unpublished delights. Of course, they will need to be taken with a grain of salt as the results will not have benefited from peer review (I hope to address this issue in a subsequent post) and will not have extensive explanatory text regarding methodology, literature reviews, etc. But heck….the results and conclusions are provided free of charge.
My first planned set of postings will be in honor of John (Jack) Carroll. I was fortunate to have been the last professional to visit Jack at his daughter’s house in Alaska one month prior to his passing away. He personally instructed me on the use and interpretation of his custom (self-written) suite of DOS-based programs for conducting exploratory factor analyses as per the procedures used in his seminal treatise (Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies, 1993). Following this trip I applied what I had learned to the complete set of WJ3 (including the Diagnostic Supplement) test variables. The results where extremely interesting and have been simmering on my hard drive since Sept, 2003.
My plan is to post a summary of the results and then, possibly in a series of posts (strung across a period of time) highlight and discuss the key findings and insights. By making this public post I hope to place enough pressure on myself to get this done. These data need to see the light of day and will not if I continue to wait for the right time to pump out a nice APA-style research report.
3 comments:
Kevin-
I think that it would be very interesting to look at some of this data on the Diagnostic Supplement. On the NASP listserv, we were questioning whether the diagnostic supplement has a reserach base which is as rich as the WJ3 as well.
I think that this method of disseminating information is probably the next wave after listservs, and will be quite helpful to practising professionals such as myself
Andrew...Thanks....I just rejoined the NASP listserv this morning....asking for the daily digest format. I think I'll change back to getting each message. I had quit subscribing as the sheer volumn of emails (from multiple listserv's) was just getting to be too much. I will try again. Maybe my blog will help provide me a more disciplined way to respond.
Yes...blogs are the next wave. I finally got up the motivation to start one after reading Hugh Hewitt's new book..BLOG...which is primarily about the influence of political blogs, and how they have come to challenge and hold mainstream media accountable. I could see their influence in the last election and just know that they will start to enter more arenas. I appreciate your feedback and support. Feel free to mention my blog on the NASP listserv :)
In order to post messages on your blog, I needed to develop one. So, mine is named, "Confessions of a Burnt-out School Psychologist". Once I get it up and running, I will send it to you.
Andrew
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