Projects

  • Automated Nonverbal Behavior Analysis

    Fully automated analysis of facial behavior

  • Interpersonal Behavior and Psychopathology

    Examination of social communication in mental illness

  • Measurement Evaluation and Validation

    Development and application of methods for evaluating measurement quality

    I am very interested in philosophical, methodological, and practical issues pertaining to measurement. How do we know what we are measuring? When do our measurements succeed and fail? What can we do to improve the development and implementation of measurement instruments?

    Along these lines, I have read extensively about classical and contemporary validity theory, reliability analysis, and psychometrics. I have also begun to disseminate these ideas and principles through the writing of review articles (Girard & Cohn, 2016) and applied measurement evaluation studies (Girard et al., 2015), the hosting of measurement-focused workshops (Girard & Cohn, 2017, 2018), and the development of open-source software tools for reliability and validity analysis (Girard, 2016-2018).

  • Circumplex Data Analysis and Visualization

    Development of R packages for analyzing and visualizing circumplex data

    I created and maintain the circumplex package for analyzing and visualizing circumplex data in R.

  • Statistical and Data Consultation

    Teaching and application of data science techniques

    In addition to applying statistical and software engineering techniques to address challenges in my own research, I also provide educational and consultation services to help others do the same. To date, I have given workshops on automated facial expression analysis and statistical methods for measurement validation as well as lectures on factor analysis, meta-analysis, missing data analysis, resampling methods, effect sizes and confidence intervals, and validity and reliability. I have also consulted on studies to implement multilevel modeling, multiple imputation, data collection, data visualization, and acoustic signal processing.