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Introduction to Psychometric Theory
This new text provides a state-of the-art introduction to educational and psychological testing and measurement theory that reflects many intellectual developments of the past two decades. The book introduces psychometric theory using a latent variable mo
- GenresPsychology
348 pages, ebook
First published September 20, 2010
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 20, 2018
This book has some basic information, but it is extremely poorly written.
Throughout the book they put in parentheses different terms for the same thing. This would be great at the start —to learn all the various names people call something— but they keep doing it, and that breaks up the reading and adds tremendous cognitive load.
For example, in the intro sections, they talk about how the same thing might be called a test, a measure, and instrument, a scale, etc. Likewise, they talk about how these have items, which are also called components. That's great in the intro, but then they should have picked one word and stuck with it for their book. Instead, even in the last chapter, you get this sort of thing:
"More formally, a measuring instrument (test) is referred to as unidimentional if (a) its items (components) are ..."
"...valid notion of dimensionality of a behaviour measuring instrument (test, scale) ..."
"Specifically, if for a given test (set of items) ..."
These three examples are all in the same paragraph. And they keep doing this. It makes it very cumbersome to read, as as you can imagine, bloats the pages. If they had picked one word for their book and had a glossary of synonyms, it would have been a much shorter, easier to read book.
They also structure the book someone non-sensically. They just start talking about fine-grained details at the start of a chapter without telling you why, or how these details apply to the broader question, or what use they will be, or what they are trying to model with these details.
Very badly written book. Fine information, but not clear at all. Would not recommend, and would suggest that there are much clearer ways to learn this stuff.
Throughout the book they put in parentheses different terms for the same thing. This would be great at the start —to learn all the various names people call something— but they keep doing it, and that breaks up the reading and adds tremendous cognitive load.
For example, in the intro sections, they talk about how the same thing might be called a test, a measure, and instrument, a scale, etc. Likewise, they talk about how these have items, which are also called components. That's great in the intro, but then they should have picked one word and stuck with it for their book. Instead, even in the last chapter, you get this sort of thing:
"More formally, a measuring instrument (test) is referred to as unidimentional if (a) its items (components) are ..."
"...valid notion of dimensionality of a behaviour measuring instrument (test, scale) ..."
"Specifically, if for a given test (set of items) ..."
These three examples are all in the same paragraph. And they keep doing this. It makes it very cumbersome to read, as as you can imagine, bloats the pages. If they had picked one word for their book and had a glossary of synonyms, it would have been a much shorter, easier to read book.
They also structure the book someone non-sensically. They just start talking about fine-grained details at the start of a chapter without telling you why, or how these details apply to the broader question, or what use they will be, or what they are trying to model with these details.
Very badly written book. Fine information, but not clear at all. Would not recommend, and would suggest that there are much clearer ways to learn this stuff.
Displaying 1 of 1 review