BPS Mathematics, Statistics & Computing Section

Schedule for 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting (London)

2011-11-25T13:12:00.001Z

2011 Annual Scientific Meeting & AGM (London)

2011-10-28T14:39:00.001+01:00

Annual Scientific Meeting & AGM

3^rd December 2011

BPS Offices, 30 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4UE

Attendance free

Coffee from 10.30am, Meeting begins at 11am (AGM at 3.30pm)

Keynote Speaker:

Prof Zoltan Dienes: Using Bayes to make the most of null results.

Registration

To register for this free event, please email name, institution, contact details to the Secretary of the Maths, Stats & Computing Section:

Dr Collette Corry cv.corry_at_ulster.ac.uk

Call for papers

The closing date for submissions is Wednesday 26^th November 2011

Presentations on both theoretical and substantive applications are welcome in the area of Mathematics, Statistics or Computing in Psychology. We welcome submissions from postgraduate students. Abstracts should be submitted (no more than 200 words) with your name, institution and contact details to: Dr Collette Corry, cv.corry_at_ulster.ac.uk

2011 Ranald Macdonald Postgraduate Research Award

2011-10-28T14:14:00.005+01:00

The Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Psychology Section is pleased to invite considerations for the 2011 Ranald Macdonald Postgraduate Research Award. Deadline for applications 30th March 2012

This will be awarded to the best UK Postgraduate thesis/dissertation/project (MSc, MRes, MPhil, Professional Doctorate, DPhil or PhD) using mathematics or statistics in a novel way to investigate an aspect of Psychology. The work and qualification upon which the award is assessed must have been awarded between 1st August 2010 and 31st December 2011.

The award consists of £150 and expenses up to £200 to attend the section's Annual Scientific Meeting in the following year (2012 for the 2011 award). As a condition of accepting the award, the winner will be expected to present on their winning work at that meeting (scheduled for December 2012) and to join the section if they are not already a member.

Details about eligibility and the (simple) application process can be found below or by contacting the Section Secretary Dr Collette Corry.

cv.corry _at_ ulster.ac.uk

Please note the deadline for submissions will be 30th March 2012 at 5pm.

How to apply:

Please send the following to the section secretary Collette Corry via email to:

cv.corry_at_ulster.ac.uk

1. Your full contact details including Name, Institution, Degree Title and Date the qualification was awarded, Address, Email, Telephone number and the Name (s) of Supervisors

2. The extended abstract from your thesis, which outlines the findings of your work

3. A supporting statement from one of your supervisory team outlining the importance and contribution of your thesis and suitability for the award (no more than 300 words) and listing any peer-reviewed publications associated with the work.

Procedure: Your application will be considered by a panel of Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Section Committee members, and the panel’s decision will be final. One or more submissions will be short-listed and their authors may be invited to submit the complete thesis to the panel for final consideration via PDF. The panel reserves the right not to short-list any candidates if the panel does not deem the quality of submissions to be sufficiently high. From time to time the panel may also seek the views of expert reviewers on the quality of a submission prior to short-listing or to making an award. The panel may, in exceptional circumstances, make a split award between two equally deserving candidates.

Criteria for making the award: Emphasis will be placed on the following criteria:

- use of novel mathematics or statistics

- reference to substantive issues in psychology or related disciplines

- clarity of exposition of the mathematical or statistical concepts

- potential or actual contribution to the field, via peer-reviewed publication

British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology archives online

2011-08-30T16:31:00.000+01:00

The BJMSP archives going back to the first issue (Volume 1 Part 1 in 1947) are now online for subscribers (including BPS members). It began life as the The British Journal of Psychology (Statistical Section), but became known as the British Journal of Statistical Psychology. Although it changed to the British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology in 1964 the focus was on mathematical contributions to psychology in its broadest sense (including statistics) rather than narrowly on statistics, though factor analysis dominated in the early years. This was probably partly because of the founding editors (Burt and Thomson) and partly because of the importance of factor analysis at the time.

The first editorial by Burt and Thomson is free to all readers here.

The Jon Rasbash prize for Quantitative Social Science

2011-06-21T08:22:00.000+01:00

A new award - The Jon Rasbash prize for Quantitative Social Science - has been established to commemorate the contributions to quantitative social science of Jon Rasbash, who was Professor of Computational Statistics and Director of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling at the University of Bristol. Jon was principally known for his development of multilevel methodology and its software implementation and for his research on studying social relationships within families.

The £500 prize recognizes early career achievement in the development and/ or application of advanced quantitative methods in any social science discipline. Applicants should be UK residents and in the first 10 years of their research career (including periods of postgraduate study).

The prize will be awarded on the basis of a research paper published in a

peer-reviewed journal in 2010 or 2011. The applicant should be the sole or lead author of the paper. Submissions by 1 December 2011.

Further details: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmm/research/rasbash-prize.html

Job opportunity Fixed term (1 year) Senior Biostatistician on Growing up project (New Zealand)

2011-05-25T09:37:00.004+01:00

For your information:

Senior Biostatistician (click on title for job description)

Fixed term until June 2012, with possible extension

Growing Up in New Zealand: A longitudinal research study of kiwi children and their families

Growing Up in New Zealand is an exciting and ground breaking longitudinal study that is following approximately 7000 children from before they were born until they are adults, in the context of their families. It aims to understand the developmental environment, life experiences and aspirations of these children and families and will provide evidence to help build effective policy, programmes and initiatives to improve outcomes for all of New Zealand’s children. The families involved in the study reflect the cultural diversity of New Zealand, our evolving society, environment and identity.

Further details about the study can be seen on our website http://www.growingup.co.nz

We are seeking an enthusiastic and highly experienced Senior Biostatistician to lead our biostatistics team and work with our multi-disciplinary research team. You will have expertise in the epidemiological and lifecourse principles of longitudinal research design and data analysis. You will be able to contribute to ensuring the robust design, management, analysis and interpretation of our large complex data sets.

You will possess a PhD or higher degree in Statistics, Biostatistics or relevant disciplines and have expertise working with one or more statistical software packages including SAS.

Some of the key aspects of this role are to develop and execute analysis plans, support the research team to ensure data collection enables robust analysis, to lead and manage the biostatistics team including peer review and quality check of their work, to undertake analysis and interpretation of data and to support the preparation of reports and scientific papers.

Growing Up in New Zealand is led by the University of Auckland within UniServices, the largest research and development company in Australasia and a wholly owned company of The University of Auckland.

The position is a full-time position for a fixed term ending on 30 June 2012 in the first instance, with possibility for extension beyond this.

Please email or phone Florence Falconer for further information: f.falconer@auckland.ac.nz +64 (9) 373 7599 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +64 (9) 373 7599 end_of_the_skype_highlighting ext. 84451.

If you wish to apply please email your CV and a cover letter to Florence at f.falconer@auckland.ac.nz

Special Issue: Advances in Statistical Methods for Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology Data

2011-05-09T08:25:00.000+01:00

Readers of the blog may be interested that The Journal of Experimental Psychopathology (Volume 2, Issue 2) has a special issue on Advances in Statistical Methods for Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology Data.

It is edited by Andy Field and Eric Woody:

·         Tracing the Interpersonal Web of Psychopathology: Dyadic Data Analysis Methods for Clinical Researchers
Pamela Sadler, Nicole Ethier, Erik Woody
·         How to Conduct and Statistically Analyze Case-Based Time Series Studies, One Patient at a Time
Michael R Nash, Jeffery J Borckardt, Amineh Abbas, Erin GrayD
·         Performing Taxometric Analysis to Distinguish Categorical and Dimensional Variables
John Ruscio, Ayelet Meron Ruscio, Lauren M Carney
·         Best Practices for Using Median Splits, Artificial Categorization, and their Continuous Alternatives
Jamie DeCoster, Marcello Gallucci, Anne-Marie R Iselin
·         An SEM Perspective on Evaluating Mediation: What Every Clinical Researcher Needs to Know
Erik Woody
·         Using Bootstrap Estimation and the Plug-In Principle for Clinical Psychology Data
Daniel B Wright, Kamala London, Andy P Field
·         A Primer on Using Multilevel Models in Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology Research
Andy P Field, Daniel B Wright
·         A Primer on Meta-Analysis in Clinical Psychology
Scott A Baldwin, William R Shadish

2011 meeting of the European Mathematical Psychology Group

2011-04-19T08:31:00.000+01:00

The next meeting of the European Mathematical Psychology Group (EMPG 2011) will be held in Paris, from August 29 to August 31, 2011. The Web site of the conference is now available at the following address:

http://www.infres.enst.fr/~hudry/EMPG/

You will find there the way to register and to submit a communication, as well as other details about the organization. All communications dealing with any subject related to mathematical psychology are welcome.

The main features of EMPG 2011 are the following:

* Dates : 29-30 August 2011

* Place : Telecom ParisTech, Paris, France

* No fees.

* Proceedings:

- a special issue of Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics (ENDM) will be devoted to the meeting
- we are studying the possibility to publish full papers in a special issue of Mathematics and Social Sciences

* Important dates:
- May 15, 2011: deadline for the reception of abstracts (1 page, sent to Olivier Hudry (hudry at enstr.fr)
- June 15, 2011: notification of acceptance of the communication
- August 19, 2011: deadline for registration
- August 29-31, 2011: 2011 EMPG meeting
- September 30, 2011: deadline for submitting a contribution to the special issue of ENDM

Annual Scientific Meeting 2011 abstracts and links

2011-02-07T09:27:00.000Z

Annual Scientific Meeting 2011 abstracts and links

Music and amusis - an experience sampling study

Diana Omigie, Goldsmith’s University (London)

Congenital amusia (CA) is a developmental disorder characterized by deficits in melody perception and production. Empirical research into this condition has the potential to throw light on questions like how the brain processes music and why music listening can bring such pleasure to its listeners. However recent work has focused mainly on the perceptual abilities of people with C.A. and there has been little research into whether and how the observed perceptual deficits affect their appreciation of music in every day life. Assessing the degree with which amusics willingly engage with music in everyday life is a useful way of inferring how they feel about it and consequently evaluating the relationship between music perception and appreciation. We used hierarchical cluster analysis to evaluate the experiences ampling data collected from a total of 34 participants (17 amusics and 17 matched controls) and then observed how amusics were distributed over the resulting analysis solution. We found that at least 60 percent of amusics demonstrated a listening profile that was clearly distinct from that of controls. These amusics showed little evidence of wanting to engage with music in their everyday life. However the remaining amusics who fell into the cluster that mainly contained controls showed evidence of normal music appreciation; choosing to listen regularly and reporting obtaining pleasure from it. This research is important as it reveals contrasting attitudes towards music within the condition known as Congenital amusia. The reasons why appreciation may arise in the absence of normal perception are explored and further analysis is carried out to try to explain why the two groups of amusics show such different attitudes to music.

Research methods achievement predicted by stress, social class, and locus of control, but not dyscalculia

John Barry, City University (London)

Negative attitudes towards learning research methods (RM) are associated with poor grades and dropout. The present cross-sectional internet survey explored preferences for learning RM and factors associated with RM grades. Psychology students (N = 134) from high school to postgraduate level reported that more interaction with their teacher would improve grades. Those with most RM difficulty also wanted: practical work, visual teaching aids, more interesting textbooks, humour in teaching, smaller seminar groups, and more seminars. Using ordinal regression, the significant predictors of better RM grades relative to grades for other modules were: lower stress (p < .001), more advantaged social background (p < .005), and internal locus of control (p < .013). The effect of motivation was mediated by stress. Dyscalculia was not associated with RM grade. These findings have implications for ways to improve the teaching of research methods to psychology students.

Multiple hypothesis testing when hypotheses are related logically
using Shaffer’s R test: A hierarchical step down procedure with a step up test at each step

Andrew Rutherford, Keele University

Hochberg’s (1988) presented a powerful test based on Simes’ (1986) inequality. Rom (1990) later improved this test by defining and calculating exact p-values. Later, Hochberg and Rom (1995) described how to apply their tests when hypotheses were related logically, as described by Shaffer (1986). However, as Hochberg and Rom’s (1995) account is not easily understood by sophisticated statistical mathematicians, it presents real problems for most other scientists. This may explain the lack of application of this important work. In response to my request for worked examples, Juliet Shaffer provided valuable insights into multiple hypothesis testing and Dror Rom delivered a new short-cut method to test logically related hypotheses, which he named Shaffer’s R test. The background and application of Shaffer’s R test will be described.

Exploring what is hidden: The power of Latent Class Analysis in uncovering barriers to engagement in the arts

Glenn A. Williams, Nottingham Trent University

Latent class analysis is a powerful technique that enables researchers to glean insights into ‘hidden’ psychological experiences. It has been used in a variety of domains, such as with attempts: to understand psychosis as measured along a continuum of symptom expression; to identify features of computer games that are integral to the gaming experience; and to assess the characteristics of a range of trauma and suicidal behaviour typologies. The technique is grounded in the psychometric approach and item response theory and is a versatile method to dealing with nominal data in a deep and psychologically grounded way. This presentation will involve discussion of the key principles and practices when undertaking a latent class analysis. To illustrate the art and science of latent class analysis, a case example will draw on the nuances of data obtained from a general population survey of over 4,300 respondents and will model a set of various class solutions to unearth the barriers to engagement in the arts that could be present within a community.

Towards a rational use of mathematics in the psychology of reasoning

Andy Fugard, University of Salzburg

Logic is the mathematics of reasoning. Traditionally, logic in the psychology of reasoning was taken to mean classical logic and most non-mathematicians received a diagnosis of illogical. However, there are many logics, including probability logics. For so-called "basic" conditionals such as "If the card shows a square, then it's red", most people's degree of belief is given by a conditional probability, P(red|square), a justifiably rational interpretation. However, a significant minority treat an "if" as an "and" (conjunction), which is less easy to justify. Previously we found that, given a long series of trials, many of those initially showing a conjunction interpretation spontaneously shift to a conditional probability. In this talk I will present evidence that automatic stimulus-oriented processes are responsible for the conjunctions and inhibitory function is required for a shift. In another experiment we tested the effect of different expressions of identical (from the perspective of probability theory) conditionals, e.g., for conditionals concerning four cards numbered 1 to 4: "If the card shows a 2, then it shows a 2 or a 4" versus "If the card shows a 2, then it shows an even number". For the former type of conditional, most participants' degree of belief was 0, versus 1 for the latter type of conditional. A theory of relevant deduction, originally developed for classical logic, explains these two interpretations. These results illustrate the utility, and limitations, of logic for guiding theorizing and designing experiments about how non-mathematicians reason.

Adaptive design for model discrimination

Maarten Speekenbrink, University College London

Psychology is rich in formal models of learning, categorization and decision-making, to name but a few areas. While competing models differ in their substantive assumptions, they often make highly similar predictions. For this reason, model comparison based on empirical data is often inconclusive. Optimizing the design of an experiment for model discrimination is difficult, especially when individual participants differ widely in terms of model parameters. To resolve this problem, we present a method to design experiments adaptively whilst running them, at each trial choosing the stimulus which is expected to minimize the entropy of the posterior probability distribution over a set of competing models. We show the advantages of adaptive design in simulation study. We then present data from an experiment in which the method was applied to discriminate between competing models of category learning, including an exemplar model (the Generalized Context Model) and a decision bound model.

British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology 2011 Issue 1 online

2011-02-07T08:56:00.000Z

Wiley-Blackwell
is proud to publish the British Journal of Mathematical and
Statistical Psychology on behalf of The British
Psychological Society.

Download the first issue of 2011

Testing overall and moderator effects in random
effects meta-regression

Hilde M. Huizenga, Ingmar Visser and Conor V. Dolan

Correcting an analysis of variance for clustering

Larry V. Hedges and Christopher H. Rhoads

Evaluation of convergent and discriminant validity
with multitrait–multimethod correlations

Tenko Raykov

Decision making on ambiguous stimuli such as prosody
by subjects suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, alcohol dependence,
and without psychiatric diagnosis

Karol Fabia´nczyk

Bayesian estimation of semiparametric nonlinear
dynamic factor analysis models using the Dirichlet process prior

Sy-Miin Chow, Niansheng Tang, Ying Yuan, Xinyuan Song
and Hongtu Zhu

Ridge structural equation modelling with correlation
matrices for ordinal and continuous data

Ke-Hai Yuan, Ruilin Wu and Peter M. Bentler

The linear mixed model and the hierarchical
Ornstein–Uhlenbeck model: Some equivalences and differences

Zita Oravecz and Francis Tuerlinckx

Expert tutorial

Binary recursive partitioning: Background, methods,
and application to psychology

Edgar C. Merkle and Victoria A. Shaffer

Statistical software review

R you ready for R?: The CRAN Psychometrics Task View

Ali Ünlü and Takuya Yanagida

About
British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical
Psychology

Edited
by: Thom Baguley

Impact Factor: 0.83

ISI Journal Citation Report © Ranking 2009:
7/11 (Psychology, Mathematical); 50/80 (Mathematics Interdisciplinary
Applications); 56/100 (Statistics and Probability); 67/74 (Psychology,
Experimental)

The British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology
publishes articles relating to areas of psychology which have a greater
mathematical or statistical aspect of their argument than is usually
acceptable to other journals including:

mathematical

psychology

statistics

psychometrics

decision making

psychophysics

classification

relevant areas of mathematics, computing and computer
software

These include articles that address substantitive psychological issues
or that develop and extend techniques useful to psychologists. New
models for psychological processes, new approaches to existing data,
critiques of existing models and improved algorithms for estimating the
parameters of a model are examples of articles which may be favoured.

For specific submission requirements, please view the Author Guidelines.

Early View: Articles now appear on Early
View before the paper version is published – Click here to see the Early View articles currently available online;

BPS
Blackwell

For
the complete range of Blackwell BPS books, please go to: www.wiley.com/go/bps

About
The British Psychological Society

The
British Psychological Society is the representative body for
psychology and psychologists in the UK.

The Journals of the British Psychological Society form an essential
part of the Society's mission to advance and disseminate psychological
knowledge. With a publishing history spanning over 100 years, our
journals portfolio is at the forefront of the psychology community with
international contributions and readership.

For more information or to join the Society, please visit www.bps.org.uk

2010 CPS Workshop slides

2011-01-17T12:27:00.003Z

Slides from all three of the 2010 CPD workshops (held in Nottingham on 13th December) are now available:

R: An introduction for psychologists (Thom Baguley & Danny Kaye, Nottingham Trent University)

Linear mixed models using R (Andy Fugard, Salzburg University)

An introduction to PsychoPy (Jonathan Peirce)

Finer details of travel to Nottingham and activities on the day

2010-12-08T11:13:00.004Z

Here are some specific details about the sessions and directions to NTU, City Campus.
______________________________________________________________

Day 1
BPS Maths, Stats and Computing Section CPD workshop

Timing:
Monday December 13th 2010
9.00-9.30 Registration and coffee.
930-12.30 Morning workshop starts (either PsychoPy or R)
12.30-2.00 Lunch
2.00-5.00 Afternoon workshop ends (Linear mixed models in R)
Note: Lunch is provided as part of the workshop.

Contacts:
Professor Thom Baguley Thomas.BaguleyATntuDOTacDOTuk
Dr Gillian Smith Gillian.SmithATntuDOTacDOTuk
Dr Danny Kaye Danny.KayeATntuDOTacDOTuk

Emails:
We would like to create an email list to share with other delegates and the session leaders. If you wish to be included please email me (Thomas.BaguleyATntuDOTacDOTuk) requesting this (we are not permitted to circulate the list without permission).

Travel directions
By public transport.

The easiest way to get to Nottingham Trent University, City Campus (Campus Map) is by train and tram. Trams go direct from Nottingham train station to Nottingham Trent University every few minutes throughout the day. An all day tram ticket will cost about £3.00 (buy a ticket from the conductor on the tram; he or she will be able to provide change, from £10 or less).

The Nottingham Trent University tram stop is just outside the Chaucer building main reception (on the same side of the street). The Division of Psychology is based on the 4th floor of the Chaucer Building. The registration desk for the workshop will be at the Psychology entrance (also on the 4th floor!). Please feel free to ask the security personnel on the front desk for assistance if you require.

By car.

The easiest method is park and ride. Either travel to East Midlands Parkway (train station) and park your car and take the train to Nottingham, followed by tram (as above). You can buy a combined train and parking ticket.

Or travel to The Forest Park and Ride, park your car and take the tram (as above; except you’ll be coming in from the other direction and will need to cross the road to get to the Chaucer building). Parking is free.

Parking in central Nottingham.

Parking in central Nottingham is expensive – probably around £15-20 per day (but there are usually plenty of places in the Trinity Square or Victoria Centre car parks). The one-way system is also very difficult to navigate unless you are familiar with the city. We may be able to organize one or two visitors parking spaces at the Gill Street car park (see tram stop map above), but this is still not recommended (as getting through the one-way system in rush hour morning traffic is difficult unless you know the roads well).

There is also a guide to getting to NTU here

Monday evening:
The organizers and session leaders plan to have an informal drink and a meal after the workshop. Delegates are warmly invited to join us. We will meet in the Chaucer Building foyer at 6.30pm (to allow a short break after the session). You are warmly invited to attend.
____________________________________________________________________
Day 2
BPS Maths, Stats and Computing Section Annual Scientific Meeting

Directions:
Are as above, however, the Annual Scientific Meeting will be held in the Newton Building (this building is further up Goldsmith Street on the other side of the street from the Chaucer Building). Please see here for details (Campus Map)

Registration
Will be between 9-9.30 in the foyer of Newton Building. There will be signs, around the building, and feel free to ask the security on the front desk (main entrance is on Goldsmith Street) should you require any assistance.

If you have not already, please email Gillian.SmithATntuDOTacDOTuk to let us know you are planning to attend day two. It is a free event.

We look forward to welcoming you to NTU

2010 Scientific meeting programme

2010-12-03T10:04:00.002Z

BPS Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Section

Annual Scientific Meeting Programme

14th December 2010

Time
9.30am- 9.45am	Welcome
9.45am- 10.15am	Dr Glenn A. Williams, Nottingham Trent University Exploring what is hidden: The power of Latent Class Analysis in uncovering barriers to engagement in the arts
10.15am-10.55am	Ranald Macdonald Prize winner: Dr Colette Corry, University of Ulster Title TBC
Morning tea break 10.55-11.20
11.20am-11.50am	Dr Maarten Speekenbrink, University College London Adaptive design for model discrimination
11.50am-12.30pm	Keynote speaker: Dr Michael Brammer, Institute of Psychiatry, London Lies, damned lie and fMRI: issues and challenges in the analysis of fMRI data
12.30pm-1.00pm	Dr Andrew Rutherford, Keele University Multiple hypothesis testing when hypotheses are related logically using Shaffer’s R test: A hierarchical step down procedure with a step up test at each step
1.00pm-1.45pm Lunch
1.45pm-2.15pm	John Barry, City University (London) Research methods achievement predicted by stress, social class, and locus of control, but not dyscalculia.
2.15pm-2.45pm	Diana Omigie, Goldsmith’s University (London) Music and amusis- an experience sampling study
2.45pm-3.15pm	Dr Andy Fugard, University of Salzburg Towards a rational use of mathematics in the psychology of reasoning
3.15pm-3.30pm Afternoon tea break
3.30pm AGM

Last chance for workshop registration

2010-11-30T11:24:00.000Z

Places are still available for the Introduction to R, Linear mixed models in R and PsychoPy sessions. Only a few days left to register ...

Registration link

N.B. This is for the workshop only. The scientific meeting on the following day is free to attend and registration will be open until a couple of days before (this enables us to track the numbers and move to a larger lecture theatre if required).

2010 Workshop and scientific meeting (Nottingham December 13th-14th)

2010-11-03T14:50:00.000Z

November's issue of The Psychologist incorrectly indicates the venue as London. The Workshop and Scientific meeting are most definitely in Nottingham!

Happy world statistics day!

2010-10-20T15:31:00.002+01:00

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/wsd/

Registration for 2010 CPD workshops and Annual Scientific Meeting now open!

2010-10-11T16:15:00.000+01:00

Day 1: 13^th December 2010

CPD statistics and computing workshops

*Parallel Sessions*
*Morning*	*Afternoon*
R: An introduction for psychologists (Thom Baguley & Danny Kaye, Nottingham Trent) An introduction to PsychoPy (Jonathan Peirce, Nottingham)	Bayesian data analysis: An introduction for psychologists (Mark Andrews, Nottingham Trent) Linear mixed models using R (Andy Fugard, Salzburg)

Registration for the workshops is now open. Places are limited. Discounted rates are available for MSC section members and current students. For full details are available here.

Day 2: 14^th December 2010

Annual Scientific Meeting and AGM

We hope you will join us for this free event. The Scientific Meeting will commence at 9.30 am and will feature papers applying mathematics, statistics or computing to Psychology. Please note that you do not have to be a section or BPS member to present a paper or to attend.

Calls for Papers and Posters
Submissions are invited for the Annual Scientific Meeting. Presentations on both theoretical and substantive applications are welcome, in the area of Mathematics, Statistics or Computing in Psychology. We are particularly keen to welcome submissions from postgraduate students. Abstracts should be submitted as attachment with your name, institution and contact details by 15^th November and sent via email to Dr Gillian Smith (Gillian dot Smith at ntu.ac.uk).

Annual scientific meeting registration

To register for Annual Scientific Meeting, please email name, institution and contact details and to the Section Secretary Dr Gillian Smith (Gillian dot Smith at ntu.ac.uk).

Call for Papers: 2010 Annual Scientific Meeting

2010-09-14T16:28:00.000+01:00

The Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Psychology Section is pleased to invite papers for their

Annual Scientific Meeting

at Nottingham Trent University

13th & 14th December 2010

Papers can be on any novel aspect of Mathematics, Statistics or Computing applied to Psychology (broadly defined), and we are particularly keen to encourage submissions from Psychology Postgraduates or from researchers in disciplines that overlap with mathematical and statistical psychology.*

Please submit abstracts to the Section Secretary Gillian Smith gillian.w.smith@gmail.com along with name, contact details and affiliation by 28th November 2010

Directions and further details about the event will be on the MSCS blog soon

http://bps-msc.blogspot.com/

For any queries please contact gillian.w.smith@gmail.com

Please note that Day 1 (13th) will comprise of professional development workshops, on the following topics R: An introduction for psychologists (Thom Baguley & Danny Kaye), Bayesian data analysis: An introduction for psychologists (Mark Andrews), Linear mixed models using R (Andy Fugard) and An introduction to PsychoPy (Jonathan Peirce). Day 2 of the conference will comprise of the Section AGM, keynote, postgraduate prize winner and delegates papers.

* Note that you do not have to be a member of the BPS or the section to present a paper.

Ranald Macdonald Postgraduate Research Award- Call for nominations

2010-09-09T09:41:00.002+01:00

The Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Psychology Section is pleased to invite considerations for the
Ranald Macdonald Postgraduate Research Award.
Deadline for applications 15th October 2010

This will be awarded to the best Postgraduate thesis (MSc, MRes, MPhil, Professional Doctorate, DPhil or PhD) using mathematics or statistics in a novel way to investigate an aspect of Psychology (submitted and passed within 1st August 2009-31st July 2010 inclusive).

The prize consists of £150.00 and expenses up to £200 to attend the section's annual conference this year at Nottingham Trent University. As a condition of accepting the prize, the winner will be expected to present an aspect of their winning work at this years Annual conference (dates below).

Further details on eligibility and the simple application process can be found below or by contacting the Section Secretary Gillian Smith gillian.smith@ntu.ac.uk
Please note the deadline for submissions will be 15th October 2010 at 5pm.

How to apply:
Please send the following to the section secretary Gillian Smith via email to gillian.smith@ntu.ac.uk

1. Your full contact details including Name, Institution, Degree Title and Date Qualification was awarded, Address, Email, Telephone number and the Name (s) of Supervisors

2. The extended abstract from your thesis, which outlines the findings of your work

3. A supporting statement from one of your supervisory team outlining the importance and contribution of your thesis and suitability for the award (no more than 300 words)

Procedure: Your application will be considered by a panel of Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Section Committee members, and the panel’s decision will be final. One or more submissions will be short-listed and their authors may be invited to submit the complete thesis to the panel for final consideration via PDF. The panel reserves the right not to short-list any candidates if the panel does not deem the quality of submissions to be sufficiently high. From time to time the panel may also seek the views of expert reviewers on the quality of a submission prior to short-listing or to making an award. The panel may, in exceptional circumstances, make a split award between two equally deserving candidates.

Criteria for making the award: Emphasis will be placed on the following criteria:

- use of novel mathematics or statistics

- reference to substantive issues in psychology or related disciplines

- clarity of exposition of the mathematical or statistical concepts

- potential or actual contribution to the field, via peer-reviewed publication

Provisional dates for 2010 Annual Scientific Meeting and CPD workshop for early career researchers

2010-08-06T16:18:00.000+01:00

The provisional dates for the BPS Mathematics, Statistics and Computing section Annual Scientific Meeting are now available. The meeting will be held at Nottingham Trent University on the 14 December 2010. The meeting will be combined with an CPD workshop on the 13th December (also at NTU).

The workshop will be aimed at early career researchers and as of writing four half-day workshops have been scheduled. The planned workshop sessions are:

R: An introduction for psychologists (Thom Baguley & Danny Kaye)

Bayesian data analysis: An introduction for psychologists (Mark Andrews)

Linear mixed models using R (Andy Fugard)

An introduction to PsychoPy (Jonathan Peirce)

Further details - including registration info - on both the Annual Scientific Meeting and the workshop are to follow.

BJMSP on academia.edu

2010-05-14T10:05:00.000+01:00

You can now follow BJMSP and other BPS journals on academia.edu.

BPS Journals launch twitter feed

2010-03-02T11:01:00.000Z

The BPS Journals office have just launched a twitter feed. Although I'm usually a skeptic about such things I've just tried it out and it is rather good. Having never used twitter before I didn't realize how the cross-linking works. You can subscribe to the feed, but also follow topic and other links (or presumably come across links in google searches).

The Journals office will also be providing some open access links to articles with lots of press coverage via these links.

PsyPAG Statistics Workshop in Strathclyde (January 18th 2010)

2010-01-14T20:09:00.000Z

Three members of the section committee will be presenting at the PsyPAG Statistics Workshop in Strathclyde next week. Dr Andrew Rutherford will be talking about statistical assumptions, Dr Gillian Smith about teaching statistics and Professor Thom Baguley will be presenting on multilevel modeling. The speakers (including Professor Mark Shevlin) will also be acting as a panel for a 'live' statistics surgery.

The event is organized by PsyPAG's Josie Booth and supported by PGwT and the University of Strathclyde Roberts Innovation Fund.

2009 Annual Scientific Meeting

2010-01-14T19:54:00.000Z

The 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting was held at Staffordshire University. Thanks to Professor David Clark-Carter (local organizer) and Dr Gillian Smith (Section Secretary) for organizing such a friendly and lively event.

The invited speaker was Professor David Bartholomew who spoke on A Modern Version of Thomson's Model for Intelligence based on his recent work with Ian Deary and Martin Lawn. In Professor Barthomew emphasized that the Thomson's bonds model isn't just a historical curiosity, but when implemented has statistical properties that make it a plausible competitor to Spearman's two-factor model.

David Clark Carter and Professor Thom Baguley debated the future of the BPS statistics curriculum for undergraduate psychology and the implications of recent accreditation changes.

Individual papers were presented by Gareth Hagger-Johnson, Danny Kaye and Elisa Carrus.

Welcome to the BPS Maths, Stats & Computing Section blog

2009-12-05T20:48:00.001Z

This is the weblog of the British Psychological Society's Mathematics, Statistics and Computing section. The role of the blog is to help us communicate announcements, publicize section activities and keep in touch with section members. We also operate an official mailing list for members on an opt-in basis. Traffic on that list is low as we try to avoid bombarding members with emails, so this blog offers us an alternative communication channel.

At the moment the blog is public (in keeping with the open way the section has operated in the past). Among other activities, we have operated a regular Annual Scientific Meeting for just over fifty years. This meeting is a free-to-register scientific meeting open to all academics and professionals interested in the mathematical and statistical aspects of psychology and the application of mathematics, statistics and advanced computing in psychology. There is no requirement to be a BPS member (or a psychologist) to present papers at or attend our Annual Scientific Meeting.

The section and members of the section have also been very strongly involved in advanced mathematics and statistics training of psychology students (particularly at Masters and Doctoral levels). The section is free to join for student members of the BPS.

BPS Mathematics, Statistics & Computing Section

Schedule for 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting (London)

2011 Annual Scientific Meeting & AGM (London)

2011 Ranald Macdonald Postgraduate Research Award

British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology archives online

The Jon Rasbash prize for Quantitative Social Science

Job opportunity Fixed term (1 year) Senior Biostatistician on Growing up project (New Zealand)

Special Issue: Advances in Statistical Methods for Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology Data

2011 meeting of the European Mathematical Psychology Group

Annual Scientific Meeting 2011 abstracts and links

Annual Scientific Meeting 2011 abstracts and links

Music and amusis - an experience sampling study

Diana Omigie, Goldsmith’s University (London)

Research methods achievement predicted by stress, social class, and locus of control, but not dyscalculia

John Barry, City University (London)

Multiple hypothesis testing when hypotheses are related logicallyusing Shaffer’s R test: A hierarchical step down procedure with a step up test at each step

Andrew Rutherford, Keele University

Exploring what is hidden: The power of Latent Class Analysis in uncovering barriers to engagement in the arts

Glenn A. Williams, Nottingham Trent University

Towards a rational use of mathematics in the psychology of reasoning

Andy Fugard, University of Salzburg

Adaptive design for model discrimination

Maarten Speekenbrink, University College London

British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology 2011 Issue 1 online

2010 CPS Workshop slides

Finer details of travel to Nottingham and activities on the day

2010 Scientific meeting programme

Last chance for workshop registration

2010 Workshop and scientific meeting (Nottingham December 13th-14th)

Happy world statistics day!

Registration for 2010 CPD workshops and Annual Scientific Meeting now open!

Call for Papers: 2010 Annual Scientific Meeting

Ranald Macdonald Postgraduate Research Award- Call for nominations

Provisional dates for 2010 Annual Scientific Meeting and CPD workshop for early career researchers

BJMSP on academia.edu

BPS Journals launch twitter feed

PsyPAG Statistics Workshop in Strathclyde (January 18th 2010)

2009 Annual Scientific Meeting

Welcome to the BPS Maths, Stats & Computing Section blog

Multiple hypothesis testing when hypotheses are related logically
using Shaffer’s R test: A hierarchical step down procedure with a step up test at each step