Measurement Across the Sciences: Developing a Shared Concept System for Measurement

Foreword by Roman Z. Morawski
Foreword by Robert J. Mislevy
	Educational Assessment and Educational Measurement
	Opening the Black Box in Educational Measurement
	Conclusion
Preface
	For Whom Did We Write This Book?
	The Structure of the Chapters in This Book
	About This Second Edition
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
1 Introduction
	1.1 Why We Wrote This Book
		1.1.1 Is Measurement Necessarily Physical?
	1.2 Some Familiar and Not-So Familiar Contexts for Measurement
		1.2.1 A Brief Introduction to Temperature and Its Measurement
		1.2.2 A Brief Introduction to Reading Comprehension Ability and Its Measurement
		1.2.3 An Initial View of Psychosocial Measurement from a Physical Science Perspective
	1.3 The Path We Will Travel in This Book
	References
2 Fundamental Concepts in Measurement
	2.1 Introduction
	2.2 The Abstract Structure of Measurement
		2.2.1 Measurement as an Empirical Process
		2.2.2 Measurement as a Designed Process
		2.2.3 Measurement as a Process Whose Input is a Property of an Object
		2.2.4 Measurement as a Property Evaluation
	2.3 Between the Empirical World and the Information World
	References
3 Technical and Cultural Contexts for Measurement Systems
	3.1 Introduction
	3.2 The Quality of Measurement and Its Results
		3.2.1 A Sketch of the Framework
		3.2.2 The Error Approach (or: True Value Approach)
		3.2.3 The Uncertainty Approach
		3.2.4 Basic Components of Measurement Uncertainty
		3.2.5 Measurement Uncertainty and Measurement Results
	3.3 The Operational Context
		3.3.1 The Metrological System
		3.3.2 The Measurement Environment
	3.4 The Conceptual Context
		3.4.1 Measurement and Property Identification
		3.4.2 Measurement and Measure
	References
4 Philosophical Perspectives on Measurement
	4.1 Introduction
		4.1.1 Measurement Between Objectivity and Subjectivity
	4.2 Characterizing Measurement
		4.2.1 Naive Realist Perspectives on Measurement
		4.2.2 Operationalist Perspectives on Measurement
		4.2.3 Representationalist Perspectives on Measurement
	4.3 The Concept of Validity in Psychosocial Measurement
		4.3.1 Early Perspectives on Validity
		4.3.2 Construct Validity
		4.3.3 An Argument-Based Approach to Validity
		4.3.4 Causal Perspectives on Validity
	4.4 An Interpretive Framework
		4.4.1 Exploring Perspectives on Measurement
		4.4.2 Toward a Different Perspective?
	4.5 A Preliminary Synthesis: Model-Dependent Realism
	References
5 What is Measured?
	5.1 Introduction
		5.1.1 The Possible Meanings of the Basic Evaluation Equation
		5.1.2 A Pragmatic Introduction to the Problem
		5.1.3 Anticipating the Main Outcomes
	5.2 Some Clarifications About Properties
		5.2.1 Properties of Objects as Entities of the World
		5.2.2 Properties and Predicates
		5.2.3 Properties and Relations
		5.2.4 From Properties of Formal Logic to Properties of Measurement Science
		5.2.5 Context Dependence of Properties
		5.2.6 Indistinguishability of Properties of Objects
	5.3 A Philosophical Interlude
		5.3.1 Do Individual Properties Exist?
		5.3.2 Individual Properties as Universals: An Explanation
		5.3.3 Do We Really Need Properties?
	References
6 Values, Scales, and the Existence of Properties
	6.1 Introduction
	6.2 Towards Values of Properties
		6.2.1 Values of Properties: What They Are not
		6.2.2 Values of Properties Cannot Be Discarded in Contemporary Measurement
	6.3 Constructing Values of Quantities
		6.3.1 Operating on (Additive) Quantities of Objects
		6.3.2 On Reference Objects and Reference Quantities
		6.3.3 Alternative Reference Quantities and Their Relations, i.e., Scale Transformations
		6.3.4 Generalizing the strategy of Definition of Reference Quantities
		6.3.5 Values of Quantities: What They Are
		6.3.6 Beyond Additivity: The Example of Temperature
		6.3.7 Beyond Additivity: The Example of Reading Comprehension Ability
	6.4 The Epistemic Role of Basic Evaluation Equations
	6.5 Generalizing the Framework to Non-quantitative Properties
		6.5.1 The Scope of the Quantitative/non-Quantitative Distinction
		6.5.2 From Values of Quantities to Values of Properties
		6.5.3 Property Evaluation Types
	6.6 About the Existence of General Properties
		6.6.1 Properties and Variables
		6.6.2 Justifications for the Existence of Properties
	References
7 Modeling Measurement and Its Quality
	7.1 Introduction
	7.2 Direct and Indirect Measurement
		7.2.1 Recovering a Meaningful Distinction Between Direct and Indirect Measurement
		7.2.2 Refining the Distinction Between Direct and Indirect Measurement: First Step
		7.2.3 Refining the Distinction Between Direct and Indirect Measurement: Second Step
	7.3 A Structural Model of Direct Measurement
		7.3.1 The Design and Construction of a Measuring Instrument: backgrounder
		7.3.2 The Stages of Direct Measurement
		7.3.3 An Alternative Implementation
		7.3.4 The Hexagon Framework
		7.3.5 An Example Application of the Model in the Human Sciences
	7.4 Measurement Quality According to the Model
		7.4.1 Measurement that Involves Feedback
		7.4.2 Uncertainties in the Stages of Direct Measurement
		7.4.3 Quality of Measurement as Objectivity and Intersubjectivity
		7.4.4 Can Measurement Be “Bad”?
	References
8 Conclusion
	8.1 Introduction
		8.1.1 Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Information
		8.1.2 A Semiotic Perspective on Measurement
	8.2 The Path We Have Walked so Far
	8.3 Can There Be One Meaning of “Measurement” Across the Sciences?
		8.3.1 Different Subject Matters, Different Processes…
		8.3.2 … with Some Structural Commonalities…
		8.3.3 … and a Common Emphasis on Trustworthiness…
		8.3.4 … and a Focus on Producing Explicitly Justifiable Information
		8.3.5 Consequences for the Theory and the Practice of Measurement
	References
Appendix A A Basic Concept System of Measurement
Index