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The use of Latent Class Models for Assessing Prerequisite Relations and Transference Among Traits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

George B. Macready
George B. Macready*
Affiliation:
University Of Maryland
*
Request for reprints should be sent to George Macready, Department of Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation, College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742.
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Abstract

This paper presents a strategy for pairwise assessment which may be used to evaluate the nature of both “prerequisite” and “transference” relations existing among a set of traits. This strategy is appropriate for use both within a confirmatory context, in which an attempt is made to establish the validity of some specified set of relations among traits, as well as within an exploratory context, in which a search is made for unconjectured prerequisite and transference relations existing between pairs of traits. Both uses of this strategy are based on a variety of latent class models which are representative of various possible relational states existing between pairs of traits. Thus, the nature of trait relations may be investigated through the use of statistical assessments of both absolute and relative fit attained by these models. An application is presented to exemplify how this strategy may be used within the exploratory context.

Keywords

hierarchical structurelatent structure modelsexploratory and confirmatory modelling
Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , December 1982 , pp. 477 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

The author is obliged to Clifford Clogg, C. Mitchell, Dayton, and William Schafer for helpful comments made regarding a previous draft of this paper as well as to Mary Papageorgiou who provided access to the data which was considered in this study.

References

Reference Notes

Clogg, C. C. Unrestricted and restricted maximum likelihood latent structure analysis: a manual for users. Pennsylvania State University, Working Paper No. 1977-09, July 1977.Google Scholar
Papageorgiou, M. R. The relations between the development of spatial and syntactic transformations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, 1978.Google Scholar

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