mathematics

Wolfgang Viechtbauer

Wolfgang Viechtbauer is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wolfgang Viechtbauer rather than just read about it. In short: Wolfgang Viechtbauer is a statistician. He is an associate professor of methodology and statistics at the Maastricht University in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences and Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Key takeaways

Wolfgang Viechtbauer belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wolfgang Viechtbauer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wolfgang Viechtbauer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wolfgang Viechtbauer is a statistician. He is an associate professor of methodology and statistics at the Maastricht University in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences and Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. His most influential work has been focused on the field of meta-analysis and evidence synthesis.

Education Viechtbauer completed a M.A. (2002) and a Ph.D. (2004) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His master's thesis was titled Bias of certain variance estimators in meta-analysis and his dissertation was titled Choosing between the fixed-, random-, and mixed-effects model in meta-analysis: an analysis of existing and new model selection methods. His doctoral advisor was David Budescu.

Career Viechtbauer is an associate professor of methodology and statistics at the Maastricht University in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences and Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Research and software Viechtbauer’s research centres on statistical methods for meta-analysis, including heterogeneity estimation, publication-bias diagnostics and multilevel or multivariate models. In 2009 he released metafor, an R package that provides a comprehensive suite of functions for computing effect sizes, fitting fixed-, random- and mixed-effects models, and producing diagnostic graphics. The JSS article introducing metafor has received more than 18,000 citations in Google Scholar as of May 2025, and the software is referenced in methodological tutorials, and domain-specific guides across health, ecology, education and psychology.

Selected works Roberts, Brent W.; Walton, Kate E.; Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (2006). "Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies". Psychological Bulletin. 132 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1. ISSN 1939-1455. PMID 16435954. Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (2010). "Conducting Meta-Analyses in R with the metafor Package". Journal of Statistical Software. 36 (3). doi:10.18637/jss.v036.i03. ISSN 1548-7660. Viechtbauer, Wolfgang; Cheung, Mike W. L. (2010). "Outlier and influence diagnostics for meta-analysis". Research Synthesis Methods. 1 (2): 112–125. doi:10.1002/jrsm.11. PMID 26061377. S2CID 17573692.

References

External links Official website Wolfgang Viechtbauer publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wolfgang Viechtbauer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wolfgang Viechtbauer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wolfgang Viechtbauer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wolfgang Viechtbauer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wolfgang Viechtbauer

In research: Wolfgang Viechtbauer appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wolfgang Viechtbauer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wolfgang Viechtbauer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century German mathematicians, 21st-century statisticians, Academic staff of Maastricht University, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wolfgang Viechtbauer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wolfgang Viechtbauer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wolfgang Viechtbauer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wolfgang Viechtbauer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wolfgang Viechtbauer in simple terms?

Why does Wolfgang Viechtbauer matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wolfgang Viechtbauer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wolfgang Viechtbauer.