Measuring the Mind: Conceptual Issues in Contemporary Psychometrics

"He argues that we can, but we have to make sure that we articulate the way that we think the mind works so that we can actually create test items that tap into parts of the way the mind might be measurable. I know that sounds circular, but the contents of the mind are not observed and so we need to find instruments to probe and make observable the contents of the mind—the way that it thinks or the way that it creates ideas, the way that it’s able to formulate ideas before they’re spoken. That can help us create tests that actually are the keys that can unlock the expression of the mind in written form. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter What I love most about this book is that it challenges assumptions about what we think about tests. Not only is it solidly conversant in psychometric theory, mathematically, psychometrically, it’s very good—certainly, an expert wrote it— but this expert is challenging the way that we’re thinking about tests, especially in terms of how we think about validity. One of the ways that we can better measure the mind, according to the book, is by developing theories of the way that we expect people to think about things—like mathematics, for example. So before we start creating a math test that, say, measures someone’s understanding of trigonometry, creating questions that we think are the best way to tap into what they know, it would be really useful to understand, first of all, how people think mathematically. How do people, especially those who do so correctly, solve problems in trigonometry? How do they think about numbers? How do they put this information together? How does the mind—with the limitations that we know it has, like working memory—select information, combine information, express information? So before we even begin to ask questions, he argues, we need to understand exactly what we’re measuring. So if we want to measure mathematical reasoning, problem solving, in trigonometry, how do people think about that? That’s the first question to ask. Then, once we understand that, we can then begin to ask questions about different parts of the measurement process."