Package: ShortForm 1.0.0.9000

ShortForm: Automatic Short Form Creation

Performs automatic creation of short forms of scales with an ant colony optimization algorithm and a Tabu search. As implemented in the package, the ant colony algorithm randomly selects items to build a model of a specified length, then updates the probability of item selection according to the fit of the best model within each set of searches. The algorithm continues until the same items are selected by multiple ants a given number of times in a row. On the other hand, the Tabu search changes one parameter at a time to be either free, constrained, or fixed while keeping track of the changes made and putting changes that result in worse fit in a "tabu" list so that the algorithm does not revisit them for some number of searches. See Leite, Huang, & Marcoulides (2008) <doi:10.1080/00273170802285743> for an applied example of the ant colony algorithm, and Marcoulides & Falk (2018) <doi:10.1080/10705511.2017.1409074> for an applied example of the Tabu search.

Authors:Anthony Raborn [aut, cre], Walter Leite [aut]

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manual.pdf |manual.html✨
DESCRIPTION |NEWS
card.svg |card.png
ShortForm/json (API)

# Install 'ShortForm' in R:
install.packages('ShortForm', repos = c('https://anthonyraborn.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))

Bug tracker:https://github.com/anthonyraborn/shortform/issues

Datasets:

On CRAN:

Conda:

ant-colony-optimizationmachine-learning-algorithmsshortformsimulated-annealingtabu-search

6.62 score 10 stars 26 scripts 507 downloads 2 mentions 11 exports 19 dependencies

Last updated from:0f548568d3. Checks:9 OK. Indexed: yes.

TargetResultTimeFilesSyslog
linux-develOK202
source / vignettesOK198
linux-releaseOK225
macos-releaseOK251
macos-oldrelOK246
windows-develOK182
windows-releaseOK168
windows-oldrelOK115
wasm-releaseOK97

Exports:add.paramantColonyantcolony.mplusplotrefit.modelsearch.prepshowsimulatedAnnealingsummarytabu.semtabuSearch

Dependencies:clicodetoolsdoSNOWforeachglueiteratorslavaanlifecyclemagrittrMASSmnormtnumDerivpbivnormquadprogrlangsnowstringistringrvctrs

Ant Colony Optimization with antColony()
How it works | A basic example | Inspecting the result | A more realistic example | Fit indices, thresholds, and pheromone | Ordered (categorical) data | Bifactor models | Parallelization and progress output
Rendered fromantColony.Rmdusingknitr::rmarkdown

Last update: 2026-09-10
Started: 2026-09-10

Getting Started with ShortForm
Overview | When to use ShortForm | A shared workflow | Quick example: Ant Colony Optimization | Quick example: Simulated Annealing | Quick example: Tabu Search | Which algorithm should I use? | Outputs
Rendered fromShortForm.Rmdusingknitr::rmarkdown

Last update: 2026-09-10
Started: 2026-09-10

Simulated Annealing with simulatedAnnealing()
How it works | A basic example | Inspecting the result | The criterion | Full-model (non-short-form) searches | Bifactor models | Parallel chains
Rendered fromsimulatedAnnealing.Rmdusingknitr::rmarkdown

Last update: 2026-09-10
Started: 2026-09-10

Tabu Search with tabuSearch()
How it works | A basic example | Inspecting the result | The criterion | A larger example | Bifactor models | The lower-level tabu.sem()
Rendered fromtabuSearch.Rmdusingknitr::rmarkdown

Last update: 2026-09-10
Started: 2026-09-10

Readme and manuals

Help Manual

Help pageTopics
Package Attach Hook Function.onAttach
An S4 class for the Ant Colony Optimization AlgorithmACO-class
Adds a parameter to the given search table. Checks whether parameter is involved in any (in)equality constraints in a fitted lavaan modeladd.param
A function to implement the ant colony optimization algorithm for short form specification searches with the package lavaan.antColony
A function to implement the ant colony optimization algorithm for short form specification searches, either using MPlus directly via 'system' calls or using Mplus indirectly with the package MplusAutomation.antcolony.mplus
Model syntax for the example in the 'antColony' function.exampleAntModel
An S4 class for the modelCheck objectmodelCheck-class
Plot method for class `ACO`plot,ACO,ANY-method
Plot method for class `SA`plot,SA,ANY-method
Plot method for class `TS`plot,TS,ANY-method
Given a fitted lavaan model and a search table, refits the model using the search table as specifying what changes should be done (parameters fixed/freed).refit.model
An S4 class for the Simulated Annealing AlgorithmSA-class
Given a fitted lavaan model (e.g., CFA), prepares a table that contains parameters that can be fixed/freed as part of a model specification search.search.prep
Model syntax for the short example in the 'antColony' function.shortExampleAntModel
'ShortForm' packageShortForm-package ShortForm
Create Package Startup MessageShortFormStartup
Print method for class `ACO`show,ACO-method
Print method for class `SA`show,SA-method
Print method for class `TS`show,TS-method
A simulated data set based on a standardized test.simulated_test_data
An adaptation of the simulated annealing algorithm for psychometric models.simulatedAnnealing
Summary method for class `ACO`summary,ACO-method
Summary method for class `SA`summary,SA-method
Summary method for class `TS`summary,TS-method
Given a fitted lavaan model, a search table, and an objective criterion, performs a Tabu model specification search. Currently only supports neighbors that are 1 move away from the current model.tabu.sem
Short Form Tabu SearchtabuSearch
An S4 class for the Tabu Search AlgorithmTS-class