Measurement Theoreticians Come Up Short!

Irrelevant to practice, out of touch with current conceptual problems, and filled with difficult and arcane mathematics, Philosophical and Foundational Issues in Measurement Theory (Savage CW & Ehrlich P. 1992. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) typifies the chasm between most measurement theory and measurement practice. Only three papers in this book (Kyburg, Ellis and Domotor) mention problems as rudimentary as those outlined by Kuhn (1961), e.g., the dichotomy between measures as creations of researchers and measures as givens in text-books.

Ellis comes closest when he discusses criticisms that are 20 to 30 years old, but he does not deal with recent issues - the relationship of measurement to metaphor, cognition, experimentation, socio-economics, language, culture, history.

Kyburg's paper on errors of measurement begins by bemoaning the lack of attention paid to error theory, a lack considered amazing because "it is only the existence of error that allows us to believe in measurement" (p. 90). Kyburg asserts that scientific generalization depends on statistical theories of errors of measurement. The validity of these error theories depends on the results of quantitative tests - that is, on measurements - that is, on the theory of measurement. This close connection between measure theory and error theory is Kuhn's (1961) point, though Kuhn is not cited by Kyburg, and the point is not developed.

As practitioners, we concur with Domotor in criticizing measurement theory for its "endless proliferation of measurement representation results" (p. 202), occurring "because of [the] perception that every qualitative structure must somehow be quantitatively represented" (p. 214). Measurement theorists perseverate in fabricating models to fit data, rather than directing their efforts into specifying useful models and developing guidelines for constructing data to fit them.

Practitioners need to know how to interact with qualities in order to create structures that produce meaningful quantities. From the practitioner's viewpoint, this book, along with most measurement theory, is useless, providing neither knowledge nor meaning.

Kuhn, Thomas S. 1961. The function of measurement in modern physical science. Isis 52(168): 161-193.

Measurement theoreticians come up short. Fisher WP Jr. … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1994, 8:2 p.361

Rasch-Related Resources: Rasch Measurement YouTube Channel
Rasch Measurement Transactions & Rasch Measurement research papers - free	An Introduction to the Rasch Model with Examples in R (eRm, etc.), Debelak, Strobl, Zeigenfuse	Rasch Measurement Theory Analysis in R, Wind, Hua	Applying the Rasch Model in Social Sciences Using R, Lamprianou	El modelo métrico de Rasch: Fundamentación, implementación e interpretación de la medida en ciencias sociales (Spanish Edition), Manuel González-Montesinos M.
Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar	Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch	Rasch Models for Measurement, David Andrich	Constructing Measures, Mark Wilson	Best Test Design - free, Wright & Stone Rating Scale Analysis - free, Wright & Masters
Virtual Standard Setting: Setting Cut Scores, Charalambos Kollias	Diseño de Mejores Pruebas - free, Spanish Best Test Design	A Course in Rasch Measurement Theory, Andrich, Marais	Rasch Models in Health, Christensen, Kreiner, Mesba	Multivariate and Mixture Distribution Rasch Models, von Davier, Carstensen
Rasch Books and Publications: Winsteps and Facets
Applying the Rasch Model (Winsteps, Facets) 4th Ed., Bond, Yan, Heene	Advances in Rasch Analyses in the Human Sciences (Winsteps, Facets) 1st Ed., Boone, Staver	Advances in Applications of Rasch Measurement in Science Education, X. Liu & W. J. Boone	Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences (Winsteps) Boone, Staver, Yale	Appliquer le modèle de Rasch: Défis et pistes de solution (Winsteps) E. Dionne, S. Béland
Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets), Thomas Eckes	Rasch Models for Solving Measurement Problems (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Jue Wang	Statistical Analyses for Language Testers (Facets), Rita Green	Invariant Measurement with Raters and Rating Scales: Rasch Models for Rater-Mediated Assessments (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Stefanie Wind	Aplicação do Modelo de Rasch (Português), de Bond, Trevor G., Fox, Christine M
Exploring Rating Scale Functioning for Survey Research (R, Facets), Stefanie Wind	Rasch Measurement: Applications, Khine	Winsteps Tutorials - free Facets Tutorials - free	Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets) - free, J.M. Linacre	Fairness, Justice and Language Assessment (Winsteps, Facets), McNamara, Knoch, Fan

Forum

Rasch Measurement Forum to discuss any Rasch-related topic

Go to Top of Page
Go to index of all Rasch Measurement Transactions
AERA members: Join the Rasch Measurement SIG and receive the printed version of RMT
Some back issues of RMT are available as bound volumes
Subscribe to Journal of Applied Measurement

Go to Institute for Objective Measurement Home Page. The Rasch Measurement SIG (AERA) thanks the Institute for Objective Measurement for inviting the publication of Rasch Measurement Transactions on the Institute's website, www.rasch.org.

The URL of this page is www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt82g.htm

Website: www.rasch.org/rmt/contents.htm