Quantitude S3E20: The Rise of Machine Learning in the Social Sciences with Doug Steinley
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Feb 15, 2022 Doug Steinley, Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Missouri at Columbia and current editor of the APA journal Psychological Methods, discusses the rise of machine learning in the social sciences. They explore the tension between prediction and explanation, the challenges of incorporating new techniques into curriculum, and the foundational concepts of machine learning and statistical techniques.
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Doug Steinley's Academic Journey
- Doug Steinley shares how machine learning relates to old statistical methods like factor analysis and classification.
- He explains his unexpected path through academia leading to his role at Psychological Methods.
Machine Learning as Enhanced Statistics
- Machine learning is often an extension of regression focused on prediction rather than interpretation.
- Many popular machine learning methods resemble "statistics on steroids" rather than true artificial intelligence.
Use Cross-Validation Rigorously
- Always use cross-validation to avoid overfitting in machine learning models.
- Test your model on held-out data sets or separate data to ensure generalizability beyond training samples.