jRate sorting task with Pathfinder network analysis

Research Method · All research methods
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

jRate (Schuelke, 2012) is the computer sorting task software used in both studies: participants drag topic-level key terms around a screen to form clusters according to their understanding, and the software converts the sorting into a proximity file of term-term distances in screen pixels. These files are analyzed by Pathfinder software (Schvaneveldt, 2020) with Minkowski r = infinity and q = n−1 to produce networks compared to an expert referent network by percent overlap and Freeman's graph centrality.

Accounts

• jRate sorting task software with Pathfinder network analysis for eliciting conceptual macrostructure: jRate (Schuelke, 2012) is the computer sorting task software used in both studies: participants drag topic-level key terms around a screen to form clusters according to their understanding, and the software converts the sorting into a proximity file of term-term distances in screen pixels. These files are analyzed by Pathfinder software (Schvaneveldt, 2020) with Minkowski r = infinity and q = n−1 to produce networks compared to an expert referent network by percent overlap and Freeman's graph centrality. (Chen et al. (2025))

Claims

• In classroom-learned history content, sorting-task network overlap with an expert network correlates significantly with both lesson test and unit test scores one month later [+M]
• Graph centrality of students' sorting-task networks showed no relationship to expert-network overlap or to posttest scores in either study [+M]

Related Research Methods

• Pathfinder network technique for structural assessment

Key Sources

• Chen, X., Wang, W., Peng, C., Guo, W., & Clariana, R. B. (2025). An exploratory study of a new concept macrostructure measure when learning history in middle school. Education Tech Research Dev. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-025-10536-4

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	research-method
id	jrate-sorting-task-with-pathfinder-network-analysis
title	jRate sorting task with Pathfinder network analysis
description	jRate (Schuelke, 2012) is the computer sorting task software used in both studies: participants drag topic-level key terms around a screen to form clusters according to their understanding, and the software converts the sorting into a proximity file of term-term distances in screen pixels.
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-28
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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