Please join the Behavioral Science program in welcoming guest lecturer, Joe Rodgers, Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. 

Rodgers will talk about how the development of modern statistical modeling methods -- including SEM, MLM, ARIMA, IRT, and others -- has reduced the epistemological import of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) from its previous status as an overarching organizing framework within the field of statistics. 

In this talk, Rodgers will discuss how this transition has led to the softening of statistical methodology, including treatment of both the art and science of statistical modeling. 

He will also discuss the analogy between the maturation of modern behavioral science and associated methods, and the scientific developments in astronomy and physics in the 16th and 17th centuries.  

Rogers' primary research focus involves building mathematical models of human behavior, with substantive interest in adolescent transition behaviors including smoking, drinking, delinquency, and sexual behavior.