Item Response Models, Pathological Science and The Shape of Error : Reply to Borsboom and Mellenbergh  

Oleh:

Michell, Joel

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Theory and Psychology vol. 14 no. 1 (Feb. 2004), page 121–129.
Topik: SCIENCE; item response models; pathological science; psychological measurement; psycho metrics; quantification; response models; shape of error
Fulltext: 121TP141.pdf (58.41KB)

Isi artikel

There is nothing in Borsboom and Mellenbergh's (2004) response that refutes my thesis that psycho metrics is a pathology of science. They seek to defend item response models from my charge of pathological science without apparently realizing that my charge relates to psychometricians, not to models. They appeal to the Quine - Duhem thesis in an attempt to argue that item response models do not allow the hypothesis that psychological attributes are quantitative to be tested in isolation, but their argument is based upon a mis - interpretation of Duhem. In any experiment, what is being tested depends on what the experimenter already takes to be true, and it is possible that a psycho metrician could be testing just one of the hypotheses constituting an item response model. Furthermore, using the theory of conjoint measurement, it is possible to isolate predictions that depend upon psychological attributes being quantitative, as opposed to merely ordinal. Despite this, Borsboom and Mellenbergh agree with the first part of my thesis. They do not discuss the second part, but an examination of textbooks on item response models shows that psycho metricians disguise their failure to test the hypothesis that psychological attributes are quantitative by simply declining to mention that this hypothesis is presumed in their models. Claims to measure psychological attributes based upon these models depend exclusively upon the weakest part of these models : the hypothesis that the distribution of 'errors' takes a specific form.

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