Ed Merkle

Assistant Professor 28A McAlester Hall 573.882.4174 merklee@missouri.edu

My interests blend psychometrics with mathematical psychology, yielding some research that falls squarely into one of these areas and some research that is a combination of the two. On the psychometric side, I am developing new tests of measurement invariance and studying sampling variability in model selection statistics. On the mathematical psychology side, I am working with models of subjective probability, both for aggregating them across judges and for describing underlying psychological processes for individual judges.

With support from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, I am currently working on a large-scale forecasting project with other researchers across the U.S. To make some forecasts and get an idea of what we're doing, see here.

Preacher, K. J. & Merkle, E. C. (2012). The problem of model selection uncertainty in structural equation modeling. Psychological Methods, 17, 1-14.

Smithson, M., Merkle, E. C., & Verkuilen, J. (2011). Beta regression finite mixture models of polarization and priming. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 36, 804-831.

Merkle, E. C. (2011). A comparison of imputation methods for Bayesian factor analysis models. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 36, 257-276.

Merkle, E. C., Smithson, M., & Verkuilen, J. (2011). Hierarchical models of simple mechanisms underlying confidence in decision making. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 55, 57-67.

Merkle, E. C. & Steyvers, M. (2011). A psychological model for aggregating judgments of magnitude. In Salerno, J. et al (Eds.), Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction (SBP) 2011 (pp. 236-243). Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6589.

Merkle, E. C. & Shaffer, V. A. (2011). Binary recursive partitioning: Background, methods, and application to psychology. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 64, 161-181.

Merkle, E. C. (2009). The disutility of the hard-easy effect in choice confidence. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 204-213.

Merkle, E. C., Sieck, W. R., & Van Zandt, T. (2008). Response error and processing biases in confidence judgment. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 21, 428-448.

Sieck, W. R., Merkle, E. C., & Van Zandt, T. (2007). Option fixation: A cognitive contributor to overconfidence. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103, 68-83.

Merkle, E. C. & Van Zandt, T. (2006). An application of the Poisson race model to confidence calibration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135, 391-408.