Curriculum Vitae

Triangle

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D. in Psychology (Expected July 2026), National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
    • GPA: 4.19/4.3
    • Dissertation: Precision and Robustness in Adaptive Testing: An Item Response Theory Analysis within an Online Convex Optimization Framework
    • Advisor: Prof. Yung-Fong Hsu
  • M.S. in Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.), 2022
    • GPA: 4.13/4.3
  • B.S. in Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.), 2020
    • GPA: 4.12/4.3

Employment

  • Full-time Research Assistant (R&D Substitute Military Service), Department of Economics, National Taiwan University, July 2023 – February 2025

Project Experience

  • On the Estimation of Standard Errors for the Ability Estimate in Item Response Models (PI: Prof. Yung-Fong Hsu) — Aug. 2024 – Present Concerns the estimation of standard errors for the ability estimate in IRT models, contributing to the advancement of estimation methods for computerized adaptive testing. My work covers algorithm development, simulation experiments, literature review, and manuscript preparation.

  • Family, Health, and the Market (PI: Prof. Kuan-Ming Chen) — Jul. 2022 – Present Investigates the interactions among individuals, families, and the market under health shocks and long-term care demands. I analyze government administrative data to study wage inequality in Taiwan with the Abowd-Kramarz-Margolis (AKM) framework, and intra-household decision-making and tax-filing strategies using comprehensive income tax records, complemented by surveys and field experiments.

  • Evaluation of an Education Program Using Item Response Theory (PI: Prof. Yu-Chang Chen) — Jun. 2022 – Present Evaluates the treatment effect of PaGamO, an online learning platform, using a 2-PL IRT model. I review the IRT literature, conduct algorithmic research, and implement the algorithms. We are currently developing a Bayesian state-space framework to estimate user ability and account for non-linear improvements over time.

  • Issue-Oriented Big Data Analyses on Social Inclusion and Smart Governance (PI: Prof. Kuan-Ming Chen) — Jul. 2023 – Jun. 2025 Examines the substitutability/complementarity between infants and pets, using fertility decisions as a behavioral lens. The study links administrative data from Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance (tax records) and Ministry of Agriculture (pet registration data).

  • Neural Correlates of Emotion as an Arbitrator to Reconcile the Conflicts within Dual Processing in the Context of Decision Making Under Risk (PI: Prof. Yung-Fong Hsu) — Mar. 2021 – Jan. 2023 Behavioral and fMRI experiments probing the role of emotion when people face dual-process induced cognitive conflict under risk. I analyzed fMRI data and contributed to developing an estimation method for utility-function parameters.

  • Analysis of Cognitive Structures Underlying Financial Behavior (PI: Prof. Tsung-Ren Huang) — Jun. 2020 – Nov. 2021 Sought common factors explaining financial behavioral biases. I reviewed the bias-related literature and analyzed behavioral data using exploratory factor analysis.

  • From Mind Reading to Mind Sharing: A Study on Neural Correlates of Cognitive and Affective Theory of Mind and Their Applications to Salesforce Enhancement (PI: Prof. Heng-Chiang Huang) — Sep. 2018 – Jun. 2020 Reviewed and reported related literature on synchronization, structural equation modeling, and theory of mind, and mentored new team members in preprocessing and statistical analysis of behavioral and neuroimaging data.

  • Coalition without Trust: The Intra-Brain Connectivity and Inter-Brain Synchronization of Herd Behaviors in an Economic Bubble Game (PI: Prof. Yu-Ping Chen) — Sep. 2017 – Jun. 2020 Used fMRI hyperscanning to explore theory-of-mind processes when participants competed in a bubble stock-market game. I reviewed literature spanning the diffusion model, reinforcement learning, prospect theory, and behavioral economics, and analyzed the fMRI and behavioral data.

Published Papers

  1. Yang, H.‑H., & Hsu, Y.‑F. (2024). The generalized Robbins‑Monro process and its application to psychophysical experiments for threshold estimation. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 120-121, 102855. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmp.2024.102855

  2. Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2024). A note on the application of stochastic approximation to computerized adaptive testing. Behaviormetrika, 51(1), 259-276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41237-023-00215-0

  3. Cheng, C., Yang, H.‑H., & Hsu, Y.‑F. (2025). Identifiability of polychoric models with latent elliptical distributions. Psychometrika, 90(2), 757-778. https://doi.org/10.1017/psy.2024.25

  4. Chen, K.-M., Tsai, L.-T., & Yang, H.-H. (In press). Labor market sorting in Taiwan. Taiwan Economic Review.

  5. Chen, K.-M., Chen, Y.-C., Hung, C.-C., & Yang, H.-H. (2025). Institution or major? Understanding student preferences in college admissions. Economic Inquiry (Conditionally accepted).

Submitted / Working Papers

  1. Yang, H.-H., Wei, C.-M., & Chen, Y.-C. (2025). On the consistency of Bayesian adaptive testing under the Rasch model. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.07170

  2. Yang, H.‑H., Cheng, C., & Hsu, Y.‑F. (2025). Parametric bootstrapping of standard errors for ability parameters in dichotomous IRT models: Asymptotic and small-sample analyses. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/697yj

  3. Yang, H.-H., Ho, T.-Y., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2025). Enhancing Random Forest performance on imbalanced data using the General Condorcet Model. Under revision.

  4. Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2024). An alternative modeling proposal to conjoint survey experiments: Re-evaluating data from Duch et al. (2021). PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ytfx2

  5. Chang, W.-C., Yang, H.-H., Lin, T.-Y., Tong, J.C.H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2025). Comparison of bisection-based and adaptive psychophysical methods for eliciting indifference points in loss aversion research.

  6. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2024). On the existence and uniqueness of MLE of the latent trait under log-concave distributional assumptions in IRT. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/j25zw

  7. Tong, J.C.H., Yang, H.‑H., & Chen, Y.‑P. (In preparation). Decision‑making process of retail investors during a financial bubble: An fMRI study.

Conference Presentations

2025

  1. Yang, H.-H., Wei, C.-M., & Chen, Y.-C. (2025). On the consistency of Bayesian adaptive testing under the Rasch model. Oral presentation at the 8th International Conference on Econometrics and Statistics (EcoSta 2025), Tokyo, Japan.
  2. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2025). When the test information curve misleads: Exact bias, SE, and RMSE curves in Item Response Theory. Oral presentation at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Behaviormetric Society, Kanagawa, Japan.
  3. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., Hsu, Y.-F., & Lay, K.-L. (2025). A methodology for addressing the biases caused by ipsative placement of Q-sort items. Poster at the SRCD 2025 Biennial Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  4. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., Hsu, Y.-F., & Lay, K.-L. (2025). Paradigmatic decisions for measuring choices and preferences: Likert scales, comparative judgments, or combined models? Poster at the 89th Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association, Sendai, Japan.

2024

  1. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., Hsu, Y.-F., & Lay, K.-L. (2024). Two are better than one: Incorporating Likert scale and comparative judgment data in joint Thurstonian IRT model. Oral presentation at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Taiwanese Psychological Association, Taipei, Taiwan.
  2. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2024). On the existence and uniqueness of polychoric correlations. Poster at the 88th Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association, Kumamoto, Japan.
  3. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2024). Existence and uniqueness of MLE of the ability in IRT. Poster at IMPS 2024, Prague, Czech Republic.
  4. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2024). Predetermined R squared: An index of later development determined by the past. Poster at 27th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD), Lisbon, Portugal.
  5. Chen, K.-M., Chen, Y.-C., Hung, C.-C., & Yang, H.-H. (2024). Estimating preferences for college programs using Taiwanese college admission data. Oral presentation at Annual Conference of the Population Association of Taiwan, Taipei, Taiwan.
  6. Chen, K.-M., Chen, Y.-C., Hung, C.-C., & Yang, H.-H. (2024). Estimating preferences for college programs using Taiwanese college admission data. Oral presentation at the 18th International Symposium on Econometric Theory and Applications (SETA 2024), Taipei, Taiwan.

2023

  1. Chen, K.-M., Chen, Y.-C., Hung, C.-C., & Yang, H.-H. (2023). College and major preference estimation using Taiwanese college admission data. Oral presentation at Asian and Australasian Society of Labour Economics 2023 Conference, Taipei, Taiwan.
  2. Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2023). On the consistency and relative efficiency of a generalized Robbins-Monro process for threshold estimation. Poster at MathPsych 2023, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  3. Yang, H.-H., Cheng, C., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2023). Evaluating SEs of parameter estimates in the 2PL model with exact parametric bootstrap. Poster at IMPS 2023, College Park, MD, USA.
  4. Cheng, C., Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2023). Identifiability of polychoric models with latent elliptical distributions. Oral presentation at IMPS 2023, College Park, MD, USA.

2021

  1. Yang, H.-H., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2021). Modification of the estimation method of threshold: A new adaptive method taking response time and response confidence into account. Oral presentation at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Taiwanese Psychological Association, Taipei, Taiwan.

Grants

  • National Taiwan University Doctoral Scholarship (NSTC Selection/Allocation), August 2025 – July 2026
  • College Student Research Scholarship, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 108-2813-C-002-115-H), July 2019 – February 2020

Teaching Assistant

  • PSY7001, Experimental Design, Fall 2024
  • PSY5033, Applied Linear Regression, Spring 2023
  • PSY7001, Experimental Design, Fall 2022
  • PSY3010, Intermediate Statistics, Fall 2021
  • PSY1004, Statistics in Psychology and Education II, Spring 2021
  • PSY1003, Statistics in Psychology and Education I, Fall 2020
  • PSY1004, Statistics in Psychology and Education II, Spring 2020
  • PSY1003, Statistics in Psychology and Education I, Fall 2019

Skills

Analytical

  • Statistical modeling
    • Principal component analysis
    • Factor analysis
    • Generalized linear models
  • Psychometrics
    • Structural equation modeling
    • Item response theory
  • Mathematical Psychology
    • Adaptive methods (Stochastic approximation)
    • Drift diffusion models
  • Neuroimage analysis (fMRI)

Programming

  • R
  • Python
  • Matlab
  • SAS
  • LaTeX
  • Stata