Dandan Tang

Ph.D. Student

Department of Psychology
University of Virginia

Biography

I am a Ph.D. student at the Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, under the supervision of Prof. Xin Cynthia Tong. Under her guidance, I have been working on the topic of missing data, longitudinal research, and Bayesian statistics at the Bayesian and Longitudinal Data Science Lab.

Research Interests

Structural Equation Modeling
Item Response Theory
Bayesian Statistics
Application of Statistics in Social Sciences

Education

Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology, 2023~Present
Advisor: Prof. Xin Cynthia Tong
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, US

M.S. in Quantitative Psychology, 2017-2020
Advisor: Prof. Zhonglin Wen
School of Psychology, South China Normal University, China

B.S. in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, 2013-2017
Advisor: Prof. Xiliang Fan
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Anhui Normal University, China

Publications

Accepted Publications

[Google Scholar]

Dandan Tang, Xin Cynthia Tong. (2023). A Comparison of Full Information Maximum Likelihood and Machine Learning Missing Data Analytical Methods in Growth Curve Modeling. The Annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society, (under press).
Dandan Tang, Zhonglin Wen. (2020). Statistical Approaches for Testing Common Method Bias: Problems and Suggestions. Journal of Psychological Science, 43(1) link .
Xiao-Fan Lin, Dandan Tang, Weipeng Shen, Zhong-Mei Liang, Yaner Tang, Chin-Chung Tsai. (2020). Exploring the Relationship between Perceived Technology-assisted Teacher Support and Technology-embedded Scientific Inquiry: the Mediation Effect of Hardiness. International Journal of Science Education, 42(8) link .
Zhonglin Wen, Dandan Tang, Honglei Gu. (2019). A General Simulation Comparison of the Predictive Validity between Bifactor and High-order Factor Models. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 51(3) link .
Xiao-Fan Lin, Dandan Tang, Xuanjun Lin, Zhong-Mei Liang, Chin-Chung Tsai. (2019). An Exploration of Primary School Students’ Perceived Learning Practices and Associated Self-efficacies Regarding Mobile-assisted Seamless Science Learning. International Journal of Science Education, 41(3) link .
Zhonglin Wen, Binbin Huang, Dandan Tang. (2019). Preliminary Work for Modeling Questionnaire Data. Journal of Psychological Science, 41(1) link .

Papers on Working

Dandan Tang, Xin Cynthia Tong. An Investigation of Missing Data Analytical Methods in Longitudinal Research: Traditional and Machine Learning Approaches.
Dandan Tang, Xin Cynthia Tong, Steven M Boker. Loadings' Direction in Confirmatory Factor Analysis Models: Problems and Solutions.

Independent Project Experiences

The Cultivation Project of Excellent Graduation Thesis of Bachelor. Jan 2016 - Mar 2017
A Study of the Mathematical Basis of Psychometric and Its Applications.

The Innovation Project of Graduate School of South China Normal University. Nov 2017 - Nov 2018
Working for Modeling Questionnaire Data.

Working Experiences

Research Assistant, Sep 2020 - Apr 2023
Quantitative Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Studying measurement invariance and Bayes factors

Visiting Student, Aug 2019 - Aug 2020
Quantitative Psychology, University of Notre Dame, U.S.
Learning Advanced Quantitative Psychological Courses
e.g. R for Data Science, Longitudinal Data Analysis, and Item Response Theory.

Tutor, Sept 2018 - Oct 2018
South China Normal University, China.
Guiding undergraduates to complete and report a scientific research project.

Data Analyst, , Mar 2018 - Mar 2019.
Engineering and Technologies Research Center for Smart Learning, Guangdong, China.

Guest Lecturer, May 2018
South China Normal University, China.
Teaching how to use Mplus for researchers and teachers at the School of Foreign Studies.

Teaching Assistant
South China Normal University, China.
Statistics and Data Processing (Sep 2017 - Dec 2017)
Special Topics in Research Method of Psychology (Sep 2018 - Dec 2018)

Researcher, Jul 2017 - Oct 2017
Developing a quantitative system for evaluating the quality of education of high schools, which has been applied by the Shenzhen Education Bureau.

Intern (Education Assessment), Jun 2017 - Jul 2017
Shensuanzi Education Technology Company, China.
Designing tests to measure mathematical ability for junior-school students.

Teacher, Jun 2014 - Aug 2014 & Jul 2015 - Aug 2015
Mingliang Education Company, China.
Teaching math to primary-school, junior-school, and senior-school students.

Intern (Math Teacher), Dec 2014 - Jan 2015
Yingshang No.1 Middle School, China.
Teaching math, assisting a math teacher to organize and correct homework, and answering questions.

Presentations

The 13rd Cross-Strait Conference on Educational and Psychological Testing. Taiwan, October 2018. A General Simulation Comparison of the Predictive Validity between Bifactor and High-order Factor Models. Excellent Paper (Oral Presentation). link .
The 21st National Academic Congress of Psychology. Beijing, China, November 2018. A Simulation Comparison of Two Types of Bifactor and High-order Factor Models : Model Fit and Structural Coefficient. (Oral Presentation) link .
Structural Equation Modeling: New Developments and Applications. Tilburg University, Netherlands, March 2022. Bayesian Evaluation of Approximate Measurement Invariance. (Oral Presentation) link .
The Summer Conference on Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics. Leuven University, Belgium, June 2022. Bayesian Evaluation of Approximate Measurement Invariance. (Poster Presentation) link .
International Meeting of the Psychometric Society. Bologna, Italy, July 2022. Bayesian Evaluation of Approximate Measurement Invariance. (Oral Presentation) link.
The Winter Conference on Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics. Twente University, Netherlands, December 2022. A Bayesian Method for Testing Approximate Longitudinal or Multiple-Group Measurement Invariance with Continuous or Dichotomous Data. (Poster Presentation) link .
International Meeting of the Psychometric Society. Maryland, US, July 2023. An Investigation of Missing Data Analytical Methods in Longitudinal Research: Traditional and Machine Learning Approaches. (Oral Presentation) link.

Awards & Honors

Outstanding Graduate Award (Top 3%), South China Normal University. June 2020.
Zeng Yongyu Scholarship (Top 3%), South China Normal University. June 2020.
Study Abroad Scholarship, South China Normal University. May 2019.
National Award (Top 3%), South China Normal University. October 2019.
Excellent Paper Award (Top 3), Chinese Association of Psychological Testing. October 2018.
Excellent Award for AI Creativity Works, South China Normal University. December 2017.
Elite Award, Anhui Normal University. 2016.
National Encouragement Award (Top 3), Anhui Normal University. 2015.
The Second Prize Award (three times), Anhui Normal University. 2014-2016.

Skills

R, Mplus, LISREI, MATLAB, Python, SAS, Shiny, Smartpls, WinBUGS, HLM, Parscale, EQS.

Certificates

National Assistant Psychological Counselor
National Assistant Statistician
Advanced Teacher for Math

Memberships

Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics, Netherlands.

Reviewers

Acta Psychologica Sinica
Journal of Behavioral Data Science
2024 AERA Annual Meeting

Leadership & Professional Service

Organizer, a Workshop on Bayesian Statistics at the Department of Methodology and Statistics,\\ Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Department of Psychology University of Virginia

Awards & Honors

Department of Psychology
University of Virginia