Ed Psych hosts the International Meeting of the Psychometric Society 2025

This summer, the UMN Department of Educational Psychology was the host of the 90th International Meeting of the Psychometric Society (IMPS), the oldest and one of the most renowned societies in the fields of psychometrics and quantitative psychology. From July 14-18, the Graduate Hotel and McNamara Alumni Center teemed with more than 400 attendees, including international scholars and graduate students from 30 countries. They presented research and attended sessions covering a wide range of topics, from the legacy of Dr. Paul Meehl, former UMN Hathaway and Regents' Professor of Psychology and past president of the American Psychological Association, to application of AI and large language models in education and psychology today.

From the UMN, members from the departments of Educational Psychology, Psychology, Biostatistics & Health Data Science, and the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science were in attendance. Presenters from the Department of Educational Psychology included CEHD Dean Michael Rodriguez, Drs. Nidhi Kohli, Wenchao Ma, Haoran Li, and Nana Kim, as well as graduate students from the quantitative methods in education (QME) program.

Dr. Kohli, coordinator of the QME program praised the collaborative efforts between the Department of Educational Psychology and the Psychometric Society in organizing this event. “It truly takes a village to host a conference of this magnitude,” she said. Dr. Kohli expressed particular gratitude for the support of Dr. Anne Foegen, Chair of the Department of Educational Psychology, Dr. LeAnne Johnson, Associate Chair, and Ms. Rochelle Hammer, department administrator. She also thanked the student volunteers, whose dedication and hard work were instrumental in ensuring the smooth execution of the conference.

In addition to acknowledging those who helped make the event possible, Dr. Kohli also highlighted the attendees' reactions to the UMN campus. "It was really neat to see so many scholars from around the world come together,” she said. She also noted that they appreciated the University of Minnesota’s welcoming environment, not just in terms of the people, but also the variety of food options available right on campus. “Overall, people were genuinely impressed with our beautiful campus.”

Among various short courses offered during the conference, "Cognitive Diagnosis Models: Theory and Applications in R," was offered by the QME program's Dr. Ma, along with Dr. Jimmy de la Torre from the University of Hong Kong, and Dr. Sangbeak Ye from Florida Atlantic University.

Learn more about the Psychometric Society here.