A measurement model for psychophysical scaling

In the literature very little attention has been given to psychophysical scaling, even though this kind of measurement provides many advantages, such as continuous interval scales, more precision, possibilities for easy replications and therefore for correction of measurement error. Besides all kinds of technical reasons one possible explanation for this lack of attention is that the procedures have always been described as completely different from the commonly used measurement procedures. Also, the tests which have been suggested for the quality of the results were quite different from the commonly used procedures.In this paper it will be shown that psychophysical scaling can be formulated in a congeneric test model, i.e., all the commonly used criteria for the quality of measurement instruments like reliability and validity can be applied in the usual way. An illustration of this will be given.Furthermore it will be shown that psychophysical scales are not ratio scales but that they satisfy the requirements of a (log)interval scale.

[1]  W. Saris,et al.  The use of magnitude estimation in large scale survey research , 1977 .

[2]  M. R. Novick,et al.  Statistical Theories of Mental Test Scores. , 1971 .

[3]  L. Rainwater,et al.  Social Standing In America: New Dimensions of Class , 1978 .

[4]  S. S. Stevens,et al.  Psychophysics: Introduction to Its Perceptual, Neural and Social Prospects , 1975 .

[5]  Willem E. Saris,et al.  Variation in response functions : a source of measurement error in attitude research , 1988 .

[6]  Kenneth A. Bollen,et al.  The Dimension(s) of Democracy: Further Issues in the Measurement and Effects of Political Democracy , 1981 .

[7]  Richard P. Brinker,et al.  Validation of ratio scales of opinion by multimodality matching , 1971 .

[8]  S. S. Stevens.  On the psychophysical law. , 1957, Psychological review.

[9]  P M Bentler,et al.  Models of female orgasm , 1979, Archives of sexual behavior.

[10]  D. W. Curtis,et al.  Reevaluation of two models for judgments of perceptual intervals , 1973 .

[11]  W. E. Saris,et al.  Characteristics of Structural Equation Models which Affect the Power of the Likelihood Ratio Test , 1988 .

[12]  Robert L. Hamblin,et al.  Social Attitudes: Magnitude Measurement and Theory , 1974 .

[13]  Duane F. Alwin,et al.  MEASUREMENT MODELS FOR RESPONSE ERRORS IN SURVEYS: ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS , 1980 .

[14]  D. Cross,et al.  The calibration and cross-modal validation of ratio scales of political opinion in survey research , 1976 .

[15]  Milton Lodge,et al.  The Psychophysical Scaling and Validation of a Political Support Scale , 1975 .

[16]  K. Jöreskog.  Statistical analysis of sets of congeneric tests , 1971 .