Foundations of a New Test Theory.

摘要

It is only a slight exaggeration to describe the test theory that dominates educational measurement today as the application of twentieth century statistics to nineteenth century psychology. Sophisticated estimation procedures, new techniques for missing-data problems, and theoretical advances into latent-variable modeling have appeared--all applied with psychological models that explain problem-solving ability in terms of a single, continuous variable. This caricature suffices for many practical prediction and selection problems because it expresses patterns in data that are pertinent to the decisions that must be made. It falls short for placement and instruction problems based on students' internal representations of systems, problem-solving strategies, or reconfigurations of knowledge as they learn. Cognitive psychology; Educational measurement; Item response theory; Psychometrics; Test theory. (jes)