- PO Box 5010
Atlanta, GA 30302-5010
Lee Branum-Martin
Georgia State University, Psychology, Faculty Member
- Georgia State University, Educational Policy Studies, Department MemberGeorgia State University, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Department MemberUniversity of Houston, Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, Department Memberadd
- I am interested in the use of multilevel multivariate models for understanding educational and psychological phenomen... moreI am interested in the use of multilevel multivariate models for understanding educational and psychological phenomena in their social contexts. Because education occurs within classrooms and schools, important aspects of education can be examined when these groupings are included in empirical investigations. My interest in multilevel modeling extends from my interest in construct validation and psychometrics—understanding relations among items, tests, or other performance measures. This appreciation for multiple phenomena, combined with my experience with learning languages has also interested me in bilingual education: the relations between languages within various domains of learning.edit
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Faces judged as stereotypically Black are perceived negatively relative to less stereotypical faces. In this experiment, artificial faces were constructed to examine the effects of nose width, lip fullness, and skin reflectance, as well... more
Faces judged as stereotypically Black are perceived negatively relative to less stereotypical faces. In this experiment, artificial faces were constructed to examine the effects of nose width, lip fullness, and skin reflectance, as well as to study the relations among perceived dominance, threat, and Black stereotypicality. Using a multilevel structural equation model to isolate contributions of the facial features and the participant demographics, results showed that stereotypicality was related to wide nose, darker reflectance, and to a lesser extent full lips; threat was associated with wide nose, thin lips, and low reflectance; dominance was mainly related to nose width. Facial features explained variance among faces, suggesting that face-type bias in this sample was related to specific face features rather than particular characteristics of the participant. People’s perceptions of relations across these traits may underpin some of the sociocultural disparities in treatment of c...
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Longitudinal methods are gaining wider use in educational research, but they have yet to see much application in research among students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The present chapter has three aims. First, an overview is given of... more
Longitudinal methods are gaining wider use in educational research, but they have yet to see much application in research among students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The present chapter has three aims. First, an overview is given of some of the benefits and important concepts in longitudinal methods that may be informative for teachers and researchers. Second, a two-cohort data set of reading comprehension scores at up to four time points is analyzed in a didactic manner, in order to illustrate concepts and models for literacy growth. Sample computer code (SAS and R) is provided. Third, recommendations for teachers and researchers are provided.
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Better understanding of the mechanisms underlying early reading skills can lead to improved interventions. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine multivariate associations among reading, language, spoken phonological awareness,... more
Better understanding of the mechanisms underlying early reading skills can lead to improved interventions. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine multivariate associations among reading, language, spoken phonological awareness, and fingerspelling abilities for three groups of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) beginning readers: those who were acquiring only spoken English (n = 101), those who were visual learners and acquiring sign (n = 131), and those who were acquiring both (n = 104). Children were enrolled in kindergarten, first, or second grade. Within-group and between-group confirmatory factor analysis showed that there were both similarities and differences in the abilities that underlie reading in these three groups. For all groups, reading abilities related to both language and the ability to manipulate the sublexical features of words. However, the groups differed on whether these constructs were based on visual or spoken language. Our results suggest that there are ...
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The goal of the current study was to examine the impact of dialect density on the growth of oral language and reading skills in a sample of African American English (AAE)-speaking children reared in urban communities. Eight hundred... more
The goal of the current study was to examine the impact of dialect density on the growth of oral language and reading skills in a sample of African American English (AAE)-speaking children reared in urban communities. Eight hundred thirty-five African American children in first through fifth grades participated. Using an accelerated cohort design, univariate and bivariate growth models were employed to examine dialect density, oral language and reading, and the relationships between these variables. For the univariate models, results indicated that (a) dialect density decreased over time by approximately 5% per year beyond first grade, (b) language skills improved approximately 0.5 SD per year, and (c) reading comprehension increased significantly from first to second grade and slowed 23% per year in second through fifth grades. Results from the bivariate models revealed that (a) dialect density and language ability are negatively associated, although dialect density did not affect ...
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Using multitrait, multimethod data, and confirmatory factor analysis, the current study examined the effects of arithmetic item formatting and the possibility that across formats, abilities other than arithmetic may contribute to... more
Using multitrait, multimethod data, and confirmatory factor analysis, the current study examined the effects of arithmetic item formatting and the possibility that across formats, abilities other than arithmetic may contribute to children's answers. Measurement hypotheses were guided by several leading theories of arithmetic cognition. With a sample of 1314 3rd grade students (age M=103.24 months, SD=5.41 months), Abstract Code Theory, Encoding Complex Theory, Triple Code Theory, and the Exact versus Approximate Calculations Hypothesis were evaluated, using 11 measures of arithmetic with symbolic problem formats (e.g., Arabic numeral and language-based formats) and various problem demands (e.g., requiring both exact and approximate calculations). In general, results provided support for both Triple Code Theory and Encoding Complex Theory. As predicted by Triple Code Theory, arithmetic outcomes with language formatting, Arabic numeral formatting, and estimation demands (across formats) were related but distinct from one another. As predicted by Encoding Complex Theory, executive attention was a direct predictor of all arithmetic outcomes. Language was no longer a direct predictor of arithmetic outcomes when executive attention was accounted for in the model; however, a strong and enduring relationship between language and executive attention suggested that language may play a facilitative role in reasoning during numeric processing. These findings have important implications for assessing arithmetic in educational settings and suggest that in addition to arithmetic-focused interventions, interventions targeting executive attention, language, and/or the interplay between them (i.e., internal speech during problem-solving) may be a promising avenues of mathematical problem-solving intervention.
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Statistical learning (SL) is believed to enable language acquisition by allowing individuals to learn regularities within linguistic input. However, neural evidence supporting a direct relationship between SL and language ability is... more
Statistical learning (SL) is believed to enable language acquisition by allowing individuals to learn regularities within linguistic input. However, neural evidence supporting a direct relationship between SL and language ability is scarce. We investigated whether there are associations between event-related potential (ERP) correlates of SL and language abilities while controlling for the general level of selective attention. Seventeen adults completed tests of visual SL, receptive vocabulary, grammatical ability, and sentence completion. Response times and ERPs showed that SL is related to receptive vocabulary and grammatical ability. ERPs indicated that the relationship between SL and grammatical ability was independent of attention while the association between SL and receptive vocabulary depended on attention. The implications of these dissociative relationships in terms of underlying mechanisms of SL and language are discussed. These results further elucidate the cognitive natu...
Research Interests: Vocabulary, Language Development, Electroencephalography, Linguistics, Language, and 15 moreAdolescent, Learning, Humans, Female, Male, Reaction Time, Young Adult, Middle Aged, Adult, Language and the Brain, Visual Evoked Potentials, Random Allocation, photic stimulation, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
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We present a simple technique for evaluating multiple-choice questions and their answers beyond the usual measures of difficulty and the effectiveness of distractors. The technique involves the construction and qualitative consideration... more
We present a simple technique for evaluating multiple-choice questions and their answers beyond the usual measures of difficulty and the effectiveness of distractors. The technique involves the construction and qualitative consideration of item response curves and is based on item response theory from the field of education measurement. To demonstrate the technique, we apply item response curve analysis to three questions from the Force Concept Inventory. Item response curve analysis allows us to characterize qualitatively whether ...
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Abstract: This study estimates program effects (English immersion versus primary language instruction using varying degrees of Spanish) upon English and Spanish word identification in the context of changing classrooms... more
Abstract: This study estimates program effects (English immersion versus primary language instruction using varying degrees of Spanish) upon English and Spanish word identification in the context of changing classrooms (cross-classification) from kindergarten through second grade. Letter-word identification is an important predictor of early reading achievement (Scarborough, 2001, 2005). In particular, the authors are interested in classroom and school differences not merely as noise to be removed, but as indicators of ...
This longitudinal quasi-experimental study examines the effects of Word Generation, a middle-school vocabulary intervention, on the learning, maintenance, and consolidation of academic vocabulary for students from English-speaking homes,... more
This longitudinal quasi-experimental study examines the effects of Word Generation, a middle-school vocabulary intervention, on the learning, maintenance, and consolidation of academic vocabulary for students from English-speaking homes, proficient English speakers from language-minority homes, and limited English-proficiency students. Using individual growth modeling, we found that students receiving Word Generation improved more on target word knowledge during the instructional period than students in comparison schools did, on average. We found an interaction between instruction and home-language status such that English-proficient students from language-minority homes improved more than English-proficient students from English-speaking homes. Limited English-proficiency students, however, did not realize gains equivalent to those of more proficient students from language-minority homes during the instructional period. We administered follow-up assessments in the fall after the instructional period ended and in the spring of the following year to determine how well students maintained and consolidated target academic words. Students in the intervention group maintained their relative improvements at both follow-up assessments.