When Does the Factor-Mixture Distinction Matter?

摘要

Von Davier, Naemi, and Roberts (this issue) present a nice summary of the statistical ambiguity often encountered in making distinctions between qualitative and quantitative constructs. The topic has a long historical tradition in psychology and has received increased recent attention due to the availability of powerful and flexible methods for analyzing data. The authors provide us with another discussion on the topic. They are at their strongest when showing the utility of their modeling framework that encompasses an array of models with discrete and/or continuous latent variables.