70 likes | 194 Views
Comments on the Testing and Measurement Exhibition. Jacques Grégoire Université de Louvain, Belgium. Why is there a need for such an exhibition ?. Psychological measurement is part of our life (school, hospital, job...) and can have a strong impact on our destiny.
E N D
Comments on the Testing and Measurement Exhibition Jacques Grégoire Université de Louvain, Belgium
Why is there a need for such an exhibition ? Psychological measurement is part of our life (school, hospital, job...) and can have a strong impact on our destiny. Public misunderstanding of psychological measures. Even professionals have often little understanding of the psychological measures.
Why is there a need for such an exhibition ? • Several authors (e.g. Meranda, 2003) complained that programs to educate and train psychometricians are on steady decline. • A complete understanding of the technical sections of psychological test manuals is not accessible to a large number of test users. • Many users do not have the conceptual knowledge to judge the quality of a test.
Why is there a need for such an exhibition ? • Clients do not understand: • Specificity of psychological measures, • Norms related measures, • Validity of the scores has always to be appraise according to the context of test use, • Error of measurement, • Probabilistic nature of psychological measurement…
Which measurement topic is the most difficult to explain to the public? • The specificity of psychological measures: • We are measuring latent variables through observable indicators, • The scales we use have arbitrary zero => relative measures; only comparisons between individuals, relative to time (Flynn effect) and culture.
Which measurement topic is the most difficult to explain to the public? • Prior knowledge on objective variables having a non-arbitrary zero (e.g. height) create an obstacle: • Observed indicators are mistaken for latent variables • Ordinal or interval scales are used as ratio scale • Measures are considered as absolute • Inappropriate comparisons
How can we attract the public to the exhibition? • Suggested title (more provocative): • “Measuring the mind” • “Measuring humans” • Measuring psychological characteristics having a rather high emotional intensity: e.g. intelligence, personality, memory… • Then explaining the true meaning of these measures.