Quotations and Notations

1994 RMT 8:1 pp. 333ff.

Rating Scale Category Definitions

Are the terms never and nothing unambiguous?

Edmund: "Do you think [that a career in] the church itself [is] never chosen then?"

Miss Crawford: "Never is a black word. But yes, in the never of conversation which means not very often, I do think it. For what is to be done in the church? ... A clergyman is nothing."

Edmund: "The nothing of conversation has its gradations, I hope, as well as the never."

Jane Austen (1814) Mansfield Park, 1:9

Courtesy of Abe Bookstein

Also: "I never use a big, big D-." "What, never?" "No, never!" "What, never?" "Hardly ever!" (Gilbert and Sullivan, H.M.S. Pinafore)

We are extremely limited in making direct comparisons in terms of raw scores for the reasons that raw- score scales are arbitrary and unique. We need a common scale before such comparisons as we have called for can be made.
Guilford, J. P., (1965), Fundamental Statistics in Psychology and Education, Fourth Ed., McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. p.513.

Precision

Our discussion will be adequate if it has as much clearness as the subject matter admits of, for precision is not to be sought for alike in all discussions... it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits.
Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics, 1:3

Plus Ça Change ...

We may labor ingeniously at our analyses of results and may bring from afar the most potent methods which statistical theory has evolved, but we shall accomplish little if our instruments are as grossly defective as some of those which are now being employed appear to be.
B. R. Buckingham. 1918. Statistical terms and methods. In G. M. Whipple (Ed.). 17th NSSE Yearbook.

Objective Measurement: Theory into Practice

Rasch-related papers from IOMW5 (1989), IOMW6 (1991) and IOMW7 (1993):

Volume I (1992), editor: Mark Wilson. 19 papers:
1. Introduction
2. Measurement Practice
3. Measurement Theory
4. Mathematical and Statistical Applications to Measurement

Volume II (1994), editor: Mark Wilson. 18 papers:
1. Historical and Philosophical Perspectives
2. Practice
3. Theory

Volume III (forthcoming), editors:
George Engelhard, Jr. and Mark Wilson. 23 papers:
1 Practice
2. Many-Facet Rasch Model
3. Random Coefficients Multinomial Logit Model
4. Measurement Theory
5. Mathematical and Statistical Applications to Measurement

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Quotations and notations. … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1994, 8:1 p.334ff.

Rasch Publications
Rasch Measurement Transactions (free, online)	Rasch Measurement research papers (free, online)	Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch	Applying the Rasch Model 3rd. Ed., Bond & Fox	Best Test Design, Wright & Stone
Rating Scale Analysis, Wright & Masters	Introduction to Rasch Measurement, E. Smith & R. Smith	Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement, Thomas Eckes	Invariant Measurement: Using Rasch Models in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, George Engelhard, Jr.	Statistical Analyses for Language Testers, Rita Green
Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar	Journal of Applied Measurement	Rasch models for measurement, David Andrich	Constructing Measures, Mark Wilson	Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences, Boone, Stave, Yale
in Spanish:	Análisis de Rasch para todos, Agustín Tristán		Mediciones, Posicionamientos y Diagnósticos Competitivos, Juan Ramón Oreja Rodríguez

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