Philippe Rast

Philippe Rast Portrait

Professor

Education

  • Ph.D., Psychology, University of Zurich, 2008
  • M.A., Psychology, University of Bern, 2004
  • B.S., Psychology, University of Bern, 2001

About

Philippe Rast is working on the development and application of statistical models for estimating the way that developmental change occurs and how individuals differ in this change. His research lies at the intersection of advanced quantitative methodology, psychometrics, and the empirical study of lifespan development and aging.

Research Focus

Philippe Rast works in the development, evaluation, and application of quantitative methods, mainly longitudinal models for examining change over time and how individuals differ in this change. He integrates mostly Bayesian methods for simultaneously examining intra-individual variability (change at the individual level) and inter-individual differences in such changes in the context of the examination of cognitive processes and changes in emotion and stress.

Philippe Rast's research interests are in individual differences in learning and cognitive development; improvement of prediction of cognitive decline using individual differences in learning functions; and the investigation of potential for improving, maintaining, and preventing decline of functioning across the adult lifespan. He has made contributions to the analysis and design of longitudinal studies, with particular emphasis on methods to disentangle within- and between-person change and variation in longitudinal designs.

His research also includes the development of single case models that allow one to estimate and predict behavior and behavioral consistency for single individuals. He is the author and co-author of multiple R-packages that are geared toward the modeling of within-person variability in high-frequency time series data.

Lab

Rast Lab

Publications

  • Martin, S. R., & Rast, P. (in press). The Reliability Factor: Modeling individual reliability with multiple items from a single assessment. Psychometrika. preprint: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35312954/
  • Williams, D. R., Martin, S. R., & Rast, P. (in press). Putting the Individual into Reliability: Bayesian Testing of Homogeneous Within-Person Variance in Hierarchical Models. Behavior Research Methods. Preprint doi: https://psyarxiv.com/hpq7w/
  • Rast, P., Martin, S. R., Liu, S., & Williams, D. R. (2021). A New Frontier for Studying Within-Person Variability: Bayesian Multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity Models. Psychological Methods. doi: https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/met0000357
  • Williams, D. R., & Rast, P. (2019). Back to the Basics: Rethinking Partial Correlation Network Methodology. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology. Preprint doi: doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/fndru or peer reviewed doi: doi.org/10.1111/bmsp.12173
  • Rast, P., & Ferrer, E. (2018). A Mixed-Effects Location Scale Model for Dyadic Interactions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 53. 756-775. doi: 10.1080/00273171.2018.1477577
  • Rast, P., & Hofer, S. M. (2014). Longitudinal design considerations to optimize power to detect variances and covariances among rates of change: Simulation results based on actual longitudinal studies. Psychological Methods, 19, 133‚Äì154.
  • Rast, P., Hofer, S. M., & Sparks, C. (2012). Modeling individual differences in within-person variation of negative and positive affect in a mixed effects location scale model using BUGS/JAGS. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 47, 177‚Äì200.

Teaching

Philippe Rast teaches intro and advanced courses on statistical methods for psychology (103B/204B) as well as special topic seminars in the area of longitudinal methodology and Bayesian courses geared toward social science students.

Awards

PI of an NIH/NIA R01 grant on “Multi-Study Replication of the Predictive Value of Intra-Individual Variability on Long-Term Changes in Cognition, Health and Affect.” Project duration: 2016-2021.

Fellowship for Advanced Researchers from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to pursue a project at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 2010

Recipient of the Vontobel-Award for Aging research. University of Zurich, Switzerland, 2009