Heinz Holling

University of Münster | WWU · Department of Psychology

We collected international studies that have used the Passionate Love Scale, the Love Attitudes Scale and the Triangular Love Scale in order to check the stability of reliability estimates of these measures across different cultures until mid-2017. We used cultural dimensions to verify if the different love components of these scales could have som...

In this paper, we develop optimal designs for growth curve models with count data based on the Rasch Poisson-Gamma counts (RPGCM) model. This model is often used in educational and psychological testing when test results yield count data. In the RPGCM, the test scores are determined by respondents ability and item difficulty. Locally D-optimal desi...

The framework of multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) offers psychometric models for various data settings, most popularly for dichotomous and polytomous data. Less attention has been devoted to count responses. A recent growth in interest in count item response models (CIRM)---perhaps sparked by increased occurrence of psychometric count d...

This study compares the faking resistance of Likert scales and graded paired comparisons (GPCs) analyzed with Thurstonian IRT models. We analyzed whether GPCs are more resistant to faking than Likert scales by exhibiting lower score inflation and better recovery of applicants’ true (i.e., honest) trait scores. A total of N=573\documentclass[12pt]{m...

Rare events are events which occur with low frequencies. These often arise in clinical trials or cohort studies where the data are arranged in binary contingency tables. In this article, we investigate the estimation of effect heterogeneity for the risk‐ratio parameter in meta‐analysis of rare events studies through two likelihood‐based nonparametr...

A situational judgment test (SJT) is a psychological instrument typically used to assess the suitability of applicants in personnel selection or development. Interest in SJTs has increased over the past decades as research has shown considerable validity of SJTs and various other benefits. Researchers often provide information about internal consis...

Introduction Fournier gangrene is a life-threatening urological disease that requires rapid surgical intervention. Despite major improvements in medical therapy, the mortality of Fournier gangrene has not changed during the past 25 years. To potentially improve the outcome, we analyzed different medical processes for overall mortality in the treatm...

Even though a relationship between psychopathology and creativity has been postulated since the time of ancient Greece, systematic meta-analyses on this topic are still scarce. Thus, the metaanalysis described here can be considered the first to date that specifically focuses on the relationship between creative potential, as measured by divergent...

Objective: A comprehensive quantitative summary of the efficacy and acceptability of psychological interventions (PIs) for adult posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is lacking. Method: We conducted a systematic literature search to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the efficacy and acceptability (all-cause dropout) of psych...

The causes underlying comorbid learning difficulties in reading (RD) and math (MD) are still a matter of debate. Based on current research, two models for the relation of the cognitive profile of isolated and combined learning difficulties (RDMD) are discussed. Regarding the “multi-deficit model”, the profile of RDMD is characterized by the sum of...

Integrating green practices into supply chain management is an important issue for companies to combine both environmental responsibility and the goal of increasing profits. In this paper, we present a meta-analysis of the relationship between green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and firm performance. By using robust variance estimation,...

Modeling heterogeneity in meta-analysis of count data is challenging when the event of interest is rare. Then, models based on the assumption of a normal random-effects distribution often fail to detect heterogeneity or to provide unbiased estimates of the between-study variance. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of logistic and...

Background Many studies display promising results for interventions that are based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in the treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: This meta-analysis assessed the effects of such treatments on developmental outcomes in children with ASD and on parental stress based on 11 studies with 632 participants....

Optimal design ideas are increasingly used in different disciplines to rein in experimental costs. Given a nonlinear statistical model and a design criterion, optimal designs determine the number of experimental points to observe the responses, the design points and the number of replications at each design point. Currently, there are very few free...

In scientific research, many hypotheses relate to the comparison of two independent groups. Usually, it is of interest to use a design (i.e., the allocation of sample sizes $m$ and $n$ for fixed $N = m + n$) that maximizes the power of the applied statistical test. It is known that the two-sample t-tests for homogeneous and heterogeneous variances...

Meta-analysis of binary data is challenging when the event under investigation is rare, and standard models for random-effects meta-analysis perform poorly in such settings. In this simulation study, we investigate the performance of different random-effects meta-analysis models in terms of point and interval estimation of the pooled log odds ratio...

This study explores long-term stability of creative self-concept variables, which have gained attention in the past decade, but lacked specific longitudinal investigation and strong analytical decisions. We conducted two higher-order confirmatory factor analyses based on latent state-trait theory to demonstrate the underlying latent structure of tw...

Meta-analysis of binary outcome data faces often a situation where studies with a rare event are part of the set of studies to be considered. These studies have low occurrence of event counts to the extreme that no events occur in one or both groups to be compared. This raises issues how to estimate validly the summary risk or rate ratio across stu...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe condition that is associated with trauma-related guilt. We aimed at providing a comprehensive quantitative systematic review on the relationship between trauma-related guilt and adult PTSD. Database searches in Medline, PsycINFO, PTSDpubs and Web of Knowledge resulted in the inclusion of 163 eligible...

While dozens of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have examined psychological interventions for adult posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), no network meta-analysis has comprehensively integrated their results for all interventions and both short and long-term efficacy. We conducted systematic searches in bibliographical databases to identify RCT...

We present general results on D-optimal designs for estimating the mean response in repeated measures growth curve models with metric outcomes. For this situation, we derive a novel equivalence theorem for checking design optimality. The motivation of this work originates from designing a study in psychological item response testing with multiple r...

The paper outlines several approaches for dealing with meta-analyses of count outcome data. These counts are the accumulation of occurred events and these events might be rare, so a special feature of the meta-analysis is dealing with low counts including zero-count studies. Emphasis is put on approaches which are state-of-the-art for count data mo...

The nature and extent of persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms after COVID-19 are not established. To help inform mental health service planning in the pandemic recovery phase, we systematically determined the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in survivors of COVID-19. For this pre-registered systematic review and meta-analysis (PROSPERO ID CR...

This paper takes a deeper look into uncertainty assessment of the Mantel–Haenszel estimator (MHE). In the homogeneity case, all developed confidence intervals for the risk ratio and risk difference behave acceptably, even in therare events situation. For heterogeneity, the non-parametric bootstrap approachprovides confidence intervals for the risk...

Both researchers and practitioners agree that having highly engaged employees results in individuals and organizations reaping various positive consequences related to performance and absenteeism. However, available research syntheses date from the early years of this line of research, thus cover only a small fraction (under 10%) of the available s...

There is accumulating evidence of the neurological and neuropsychiatric features of infection with SARS-CoV-2. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to describe the characteristics of the early literature and estimate point prevalences for neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and CI...

In many meta-analyses, the variable of interest is frequently a count outcome reported in an intervention and a control group. Single- or double-zero studies are often observed in this type of data. Given this setting, the well-known Cochran’s Q statistic for testing homogeneity becomes undefined. In this paper, we propose two statistics for testin...

Even though a relationship between psychopathology and creativity has been postulated since the time of ancient Greece, systematic meta-analyses on this topic are still scarce. Thus, the meta-analysis described here can be considered the first to date that specifically focuses on the relationship between creative potential, as measured by divergent...

Background The nature and extent of persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms after COVID-19 are not established. To help inform mental health service planning in the pandemic recovery phase, we systematically determined the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in survivors of COVID-19. Methods For this pre-registered systematic review and meta-anal...

This paper provides a meta-analytic update on the relationship between intelligence and divergent thinking (DT), as research on this topic has increased, and methods have diversified since Kim’s meta-analysis in 2005. A three-level meta-analysis was used to analyze 875 correlation coefficients from 112 studies with an overall N = 33,897. The overal...

Discrete choice experiments are a popular method to measure part worths of economic goods and in health science. These models include several attributes as explanatory variables. The commonly used multinomial logit model assumes independent utilities for different choice options. In Graßhoff et al. [Optimal design for discrete choice experiments. J...

Objectives There is accumulating evidence of the neurological and neuropsychiatric features of infection with SARS-CoV-2. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to describe the characteristics of the early literature and estimate point prevalences for neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations. Methods We searched MEDLINE, Emba...

This pre-registered study compares the faking resistance of Likert scales and graded paired comparisons (GPCs) analyzed with Thurstonian IRT models. Based on findings on other forced-choice formats, we hypothesized that GPCs would be more resistant to faking than Likert scales by resulting in lower score inflation and better recovery of applicants’...

Meta-analysis provides an integrated analysis and summary of the effects observed in k independent studies. The conventional analysis proceeds by first calculating a study-specific effect estimate, and then provides further analysis on the basis of the available k independent effect estimates associated with their uncertainty measures. Here we cons...

Up to now, support for the idea that a controlled component exists in creative thought has mainly been supported by correlational studies; to further shed light on this issue, we employed an experimental approach. We used four alternate uses tasks that differed in instruction type (“be fluent” vs. “be creative”) and concurrent secondary workload (l...

Background While the number of detected COVID-19 infections are widely available, an understanding of the extent of undetected cases is urgently needed for an effective tackling of the pandemic. The aim of this work is to estimate the true number of COVID-19 (detected and undetected) infections in several European countries. The question being aske...

Background: The Amyloid Tau Neurodegeneration (ATN) framework was proposed to define the biological state underpinning Alzheimer's disease (AD). Blood-based biomarkers offer a scalable alternative to the costly and invasive currently available biomarkers. Objective: In this meta-analysis we sought to assess the diagnostic performance of plasma a...

Forced-choice questionnaires can prevent faking and other response biases typicallyassociated with rating scales. However, the derived trait scores are often unreliableand ipsative, making interindividual comparisons in high-stakes situations impossible.Several studies suggest that these problems vanish if the number of measured traits ishigh. To d...

Forced-choice questionnaires can prevent faking and other response biases typically associated with rating scales. However, the derived trait scores are often unreliable and ipsative, making interindividual comparisons in high-stakes situations impossible. Several studies suggest that these problems vanish if the number of measured traits is high....

Background While the number of detected SARS-CoV-2 infections are widely available, an understanding of the extent of undetected cases is urgently needed for an effective tackling of the pandemic. The aim of this work is to estimate the true number of SARS-CoV-2 (detected and undetected) infections in several European Countries. The question being...

An automatic item generator for figural memory test items called figumem was developed. It is available in R. A cognitive model allowed the generation of hypothetically parallel items within three difficulty levels determined by visual information load. In a pilot study, participants solved three items for each level of visual load. Within an item...

Pooling the relative risk (RR) across studies investigating rare events, for example, adverse events, via meta‐analytical methods still presents a challenge to researchers. The main reason for this is the high probability of observing no events in treatment or control group or both, resulting in an undefined log RR (the basis of standard meta‐analy...

Objectives A major open question, affecting the decisions of policy makers, is the estimation of the true number of Covid-19 infections. Most of them are undetected, because of a large number of asymptomatic cases. We provide an efficient, easy to compute and robust lower bound estimator for the number of undetected cases. Methods A modified versi...

Objective Disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) are the gold standard for slowing disability progression in multiple sclerosis (MS), but their effects on cognitive impairment, a key symptom of the disease, are mostly unknown. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the differential effects of DMTs on cognitive test performance...

In this paper we derive optimal designs for the Rasch Poisson counts model and its extended version of the (generalized) negative binomial counts model incorporating several binary predictors for the difficulty parameter. To efficiently estimate the regression coefficients of the predictors, locally D‐optimal designs are developed. After an introdu...

A major open question, affecting the policy makers decisions, is the estimation of the true size of COVID-19 infections. Most of them are undetected, because of a large number of asymptomatic cases. We provide an efficient, easy to compute and robust lower bound estimator for the number of undetected cases. A "modified" version of the Chao estimato...

This paper studies optimal designs for linear regression models with correlated effects for single responses. We introduce the concept of rhombic design to reduce the computational complexity and find a semi-algebraic description for the D-optimality of a rhombic design via the Kiefer–Wolfowitz equivalence theorem. Subsequently, we show that the st...

Millions of refugees around the globe suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to determine the efficacy of psychological interventions for PTSD and/or depression in refugees. The meta-analysis was registered on the PROSPERO database (CRD42017071384). A...

In this paper we derive locally D-optimal designs for discrete choice experiments based on multinomial probit models. These models include several discrete explanatory variables as well as a quantitative one. The commonly used multinomial logit model assumes independent utilities for different choice options. Thus, D-optimal optimal designs for suc...

Forced-choice questionnaires can prevent faking and other response biasestypically associated with rating scales. However, the derived trait scoresare often unreliable and ipsative, making inter-individual comparisons inhigh-stakes situations impossible. Several studies suggest that these problemsvanish if the number of measured traits is high. To...

This paper studies optimal designs for linear regression models with correlated effects for single responses. We introduce the concept of rhombic design to reduce the computational complexity and find a semi-algebraic description for the D-optimality of a rhombic design via the Kiefer-Wolfowitz equivalence theorem. Subsequently, we show that the st...

Background. The originality of divergent thinking production is one of the most critical indicators of creative potential. It is commonly scored using the statistical infrequency of responses relative to all responses provided in a given sample. Aims. Response frequency estimates vary in terms of measurement precision. This issue has been widely ov...

When a cognitive ability is assessed repeatedly, test scores and ability estimates are often observed to increase across test sessions. This phenomenon is known as the retest (or practice) effect. One explanation for retest effects is that situational test anxiety interferes with a testee’s performance during earlier test sessions, thereby creating...

Die präzise Vorhersage der mathematischen Kompetenz am Ende der Grundschulzeit ist für die Unterrichts- und Förderplanung entscheidend. Unspezifische Prädiktoren der mathematischen Kompetenz (z. B. Intelligenz) können dabei von solchen unterschieden werden, die spezifische mathematische Fertigkeiten messen (z. B. arithmetischer Faktenabruf). Indivi...

Background: The vascular depression hypothesis emphasizes the significance of vascular lesions in late-life depression. At present, no meta-analytic model has investigated whether a difference in hyperintensity burden compared to controls between late-life and late-onset depression is evident. By including a substantial number of studies, focusing...

Divergent thinking (DT) ability (i.e., the ability to come up with creative ideas) is a complex cognitive construct that has been associated with several specific components of the Cattel-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model. In this study, we employed a nested latent variable approach to examine the specific role of mental speed (Gs) and general retrieval abi...

In the presented work, a shift of perspective with respect to the dimensionality of divergent thinking (DT) tasks is introduced moving from the question of multidimensionality across DT scores (i.e., fluency, flexibility, or originality) to the question of multidimensionality within one holistic score of DT performance (i.e., snapshot ratings of cr...

We develop D-optimal designs for linear main effects models on a subset of the 2K full factorial design region, when the number of factors set to the higher level is bounded. It turns out that in the case of narrow margins only those settings of the design points are admitted, where the number of high levels is equal to the upper or lower bounds, w...

Finding Bayesian optimal designs for nonlinear models is a difficult task because the optimality criterion typically requires us to evaluate complex integrals before we perform a constrained optimization. We propose a hybridized method where we combine an adaptive multidimensional integration algorithm and a metaheuristic algorithm called imperiali...

Forced-choice questionnaires have been proposed to avoid common response biases typically associated with rating scale questionnaires. To overcome ipsativity issues of trait scores obtained from classical scoring approaches of forced-choice items, advanced methods from item response theory (IRT) such as the Thurstonian IRT model have been proposed....

This paper describes results stemming from an in-depth analysis of Higgins’ measure of heterogeneity for a meta-analysis applied in the context of meta-analysis for diagnostic problems. Higgins measure of heterogeneity I² has been criticized for being confounded by the study-specific sample size, in the sense that different I² –values can be achiev...

In the presented work, a shift of perspective with respect to the dimensionality of divergent thinking tasks is introduced moving from the question of multidimensionality across divergent thinking scores to the question of multidimensionality across the scale of divergent thinking scores. We apply IRTree models to test if the same latent trait can...

The Remote Associates Test (RAT; Mednick, 1962; Mednick & Mednick, 1967) is a commonly employed test of creative convergent thinking. The RAT is scored with a dichotomous scoring, scoring correct answers as 1 and all other answers as 0. Based on recent research into the information processing underlying RAT performance, we argued that the dichotomo...

Item-response theory (IRT) models are test-theoretical models with many practical implications for educational measurement. For example, test-linking procedures and large-scale educational studies often build on IRT frameworks. However, IRT models have been rarely applied to divergent thinking which is one of the most important indicators of creati...

In this paper, we derive optimal designs for the Rasch Poisson counts model and the Rasch Poisson-Gamma counts model incorporating several binary predictors for the difficulty parameter. To efficiently estimate the regression coefficients of the predictors, locally D-optimal designs are developed. After an introduction to the Rasch Poisson counts m...

Divergent thinking tasks are the cornerstone of creative thinking assessment. Besides fluency, the number of generated ideas, several other scores have been used to measure different aspects of idea generation in divergent thinking tasks. However, between all such scores high correlations are quite common. These correlations, in particular high cor...

Forced-choice questionnaires have been proposed to avoid common response biases typically associated with rating scale questionnaires. To overcome ipsativity issues of trait scores obtained from classical scoring approaches of forced-choice items, advanced methods from item response theory (IRT) such as the Thurstonian IRT model have been proposed....

We develop $D$-optimal designs for linear main effects models on a subset of the $2^K$ full factorial design region, when the number of factors set to the higher level is bounded. It turns out that in the case of narrow margins only those settings of the design points are admitted, where the number of high levels is equal to the upper or lower boun...

Automatic Item Generation (AIG) techniques are offering innovative ways to produce test items as they overcome many disadvantages involving standard item writing, such as time-consuming work and resource-intensive demands. Although this field is relatively new, it is progressing at a high speed, and several contributions have been accomplished. Nev...

https://rdcu.be/YLHg // The repeated administration of working memory capacity tests is common in clinical and research settings. For cognitive ability tests and different neuropsychological tests, meta-analyses have shown that they are prone to retest effects, which have to be accounted for when interpreting retest scores. Using a multilevel appro...

Scoring divergent thinking response sets has always been challenging because such responses are not only open-ended in terms of number of ideas, but each idea may also be expressed by a varying number of concepts and, thus, by a varying number of words (elaboration). While many current studies have attempted to score the semantic distance in diverg...

Behavioral couple therapy (BCT) and emotionally focused couples therapy (EFCT) are well‐established treatments to reduce couple distress. This meta‐analysis summarizes the current state of knowledge on the efficacy of these two therapy methods by focusing on randomized controlled trials only. A literature search revealed 33 suitable primary studies...

In this study; we focus on mental speed and divergent thinking, examining their relationship and the influence of task speededness. Participants (N = 109) completed a set of processing speed tasks and a test battery measuring divergent thinking. We used two speeded divergent thinking tasks of two minutes and two unspeeded tasks of eight minutes to...