POPULAR MEASUREMENT 31 Research and Practice: Bundled Bedfellows Robert L
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opU1ar Volume 3 - No. 1 - $15.00 Spring 2000 ~~easurement2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Journal of the Institute for Objective Measurement Inside : l Profiles in"iMeasurement Reading Ruler Measurement Musings Measurement Spotlight Testing-Testing-Testing Crime & Punishment Raters & Rating Scales Psychometric Ponderings Classroom Classics INDEX Profiles in Measurement ................ ..... .... ...... .... ..... ...... ................. 5 Fechner: The Man in the Mask - Larry H. Ludlow & Rose Alvarez-Salvat Thurstone : Measurement For a New Science - Nikolaus Bezruczko Jack Stenner: The Lexile King - LindaJ. Webster Reading Ruler .. ...... .... ...... .......... ........... ..... .......... ...... .... ........... 14 Lexile Perspectives -Benjamin D. Wright &A. Jackson Stenner How the Lexile Framework' Operates - Rick R. Smith The Lexile Community: From Science to Practice - Rick R. Smith INSTITUTE FOR Best Practices for Using Lexiles - Barbara R. Blackburn OBJECTIVE A Spanish Version ofThe Lexile Framework" for Reading - Ellie Sanford MEASUREMENT Measurement Musings ..... ...... .... ..... ..... .......... .... ...... ........... ....... 2 7 155 N Harbor Drive #3104 The Shift from Modeling Observations to Applying Theory - Thomas R. O'Neill Chicago, IL 60601 Statistics versus Measurement? - Keith M. McCoy Rita K. Bode Ex-Officio What Works for Me - Benjamin D. Wright, Ph.D. Research and Practice: Bundled Bedfellows - Robert L. Durrah, Jr. University of Chicago Measurement Spotlight ... ...... ..... ...... ............... ........... .......... ......... 34 President Just Say "No!" The Impact ofNegation in Survey Research - Marci Morrow Enos A. Jackson Stenner, Ph.D. MetaMetrics, Inc. Testing Testing Testing ... ...... ..... .... ........... ..... .......... ..... ........... .... 40 A Standard Vision - Gregory E. Stone Vice President Precision Versus Practicality - Cindy Brito Mark H. Stone, Ph.D. An Introduction to Three Item Testing - Kirk Becker Adler School of Professional Psychology A Review ofCAT Review - Renata Sekula-Wacura Secretary/Treasurer Factors that Impact Analytic Skill Ratings - JessicaHeineman-Pieper & Mary E. Lunz Mary Lunz, Ph.D. Crime & Punishment ... ........... ..... .......... ..... .......... ........... .....:.... 53 Measurement Research Associates, Inc. Thurstone's Crime Scale Re-Visited - Mark H. Stone Toward a Definition of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace - SuzyVance &Anne Wendt POPULAR MEASUREMENT Raters & Rating Scales . .......... ..... ........... .... .... ...................... ..... 58 Survey Design Recommendations - William P Fisher, Jr. Editor Rasch Analysis for Surveys - Ben Wright Donna Surges Tatum, Ph.D. Expert Panels, Consumers, and Chemistry - Thomas K. Rehfeldt American Society of Clinical Pathologists Objective Measurement ofSubjective Well-being - Elizabeth A. Hahn Culture Shiftx - Judy Schueler and Donna Surges Tatut.t Associate Editor Linda J. Webster, Ph.D. Psychometric Ponderings ....... .................... .... ................. .... ..... ... 70 University of Arkansas, Monticello Using RaschMeasures For Rasch Model Fit Analysis - George Karabatsos Assistant Editors Classroom Classics .......... ...... ..... ...... ..... .......... .... .... .... ............... 72 Barbara F Hoffman Classic Instructional Handouts ofProfessor Benjamin D. Wright - Matthew Enos Steven L. Hoffman What's to Learn in Psychometrics? - Benjamin D. Wright Editorial Review Board Three "Cs" to Meaning: The Big Picture - Benjamin D. Wright Benjamin D. Wright, Ph.D. The Road to Reason - Benjamin D. Wright John Michael Linacre, Ph.D. Realizations ofMeasurement -Benjamin D. Wright Basic Methods - Benjamin D. Wright Karen Kahle, MA Research Executive Manager IOM Mission, Objectives & Benefits ... .......... .... .......................... 78 Valerie Been Loeber, Ph.D. Membership Listing MembershipApplication POPULAR MEASUREMENT3 Fechnero The Man in the Mask Larry H. Ludlow and Rose Alvarez-Salvat Boston College maciated, nearly blind, alone by choice in rooms with black ened walls. Communicating through funnels doors while wearing a metal mask. Despondent and wishful of death yet persisting in volitional exercises to channel mental forces to subject his involuntary physical functions to voluntary control. Although dismissed by some as a mental patient, he gained renown as "the father of experimental psychol- ogy." So, who was this man in the mask? Gustav Theodor Fechner is well known to us through "Fechner's Law." This law was one consequence ofa lifelong interest in the potentialities ofEthe mind, particularly in the relationship between the mind and body. This interest led him to argue that the mind (sensation) and body (stimulus) had to be regarded as two separate entities in order that each could be measured and the relation between the two determined (separation ofparameters?). He encountered a problem. While the magnitude ofa stimulus can Larry H. Ludlow, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Boston College, School of be directly measured, the magnitude ofa sensation can not. But since we can Education, Education Research, Measurement, and physically measure the stimulus values that give rise to a sensation, we can Evaluation Program . indirectly measure sensation by taking differences between two stimuli. To Professional interests : developing interesting determine the magnitude of a sensation, we then take the just noticeable graphical representations of multivariate data (vi- sualizing an eigenvector), and applying psychomet- difference (jnd) between two stimuli as the unit of sensation and count up ric models in situations where the results have an jnd's from zero sensation at the absolute threshold to the sensation that is obvious practical utility (scaling flute perfrn,nance) . being measured. This reasoning led to: S = k log R, where S (the magnitude Personal interests: woodcarving, sketching, and of sensation) is the number ofjrid that the zero, R is the motorcycling. sensation is above Last book read : Arthur Koestler, The Sleep- magnitude of the stimulus, and k is a proportionality constant. (Interestingly, walkers. the law requires the existence of negative sensations.) Personal goal: Actually catch something fly , fishing . With this formula, Fechner believed that the dualism between mind Favorite drink: Diet Dr. Pepper. and body had disappeared and the nature of psychophysics as "an exact Favorite quote: "If it exists, it can be measured. If science of the functional relations or the relation of dependency between it cant be measured, it doesn't exist." (mine) e-mail : LUDLOW0BC .ED U mind and body" had been established. For us, the significance ofhiswork was that it took measurement beyond solely material phenomena to what Fechner Rose M. Alvarez-Salvat referred to as the immaterial mind and the spiritual world. Rose M . Alvarez-Salvat is a doctoral candi- date in the Counseling Psychology program at Bos- So then, what drew Fechner to the study of the mind? Why, in ton College, Chestnut Hill, MA. Her research in- particular, did he seem to have a fixation on measuring magnitudes ofsensa- terests are in adolescent identity development, tions? Was his interest purely academic and suited to the times (Zeitgeist) or multicultural issues, and psychological assessment . SPRING 2000 POPULAR MEASUREMENT 5 First, he regarded the medical advice of the day as p was there a personal interest in his quest? These questions prompted this article. "fruitless" and began his own series of treatments . These con- R First, there were his spiritual, sisted ofstimulants, infusions, drainingremedies, electrical ap plications, steam baths, opium, and even animal magnetism . O philosophical beliefs. These were all without success. His father was the village pastor and his uncle, too, was a preacher. Both men contributed to his lifelong philo- Second, he trulybelieved that mind and soul are the reality, a philosophical position he called the "day Z sophical stance against materialism through their examples of ultimate of independence of thought and receptivity- of new ideas. His view". Starting from this position allowed him to consider that L support ofspiritualism as opposed to materialism is seen in his the brain possessed powers not fully realized or explored. He The Little Book on Life after Death (1836) . His spiritualism was particularly concerned with establishing psychophysical E even took him so far as to argue for the mental life of plants functional connections that would guide him to personal (Nanna,1848) . psychotherapeutical procedures . For example, he suffered from an intense digestive disorder that transmitted sensation (pain) Second, there were his medical studies., to his brain. He reasoned that if the digestive organs could At the age of 16, he went to Leipzig to study physiol- transmit signals to the brain, "why not conversely, by the exer- Z ogy, which meant studying for a doctorate in medicine . This cise ofvolition, bring about a conduction from the brain tothose was a time when medical thinking and practice were charac N organs and thus remedy them?" terized by philosophical considerations and systems . There was an absence of an empirical basis in medical doctrine . It This reasoning led to a system ofexercises to not only was a time ofexperimenting and waiting for chance hits . The increase his mental effort at reducing pain but to turnback and M practice of medicine was so chancy that Fechner adopted the heal the disorder in the first place. Here we see the stimulus (the volitional