ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the psychometric paradigm for understanding educational measurement and standard setting by considering the extent to which that understanding is based on metaphors. I argue that through the metaphors ‘more is up’ and ‘good is up’ we spatialise concepts that are not intrinsically spatial. Human abilities form a distinct conceptual category, with complex and varying rules for the correct usage of different ability terms. The fact that most abilities can be discussed in terms of both ‘possession’ and of ‘more or less’ invites reification, spatialisation, and hence the application of measurement metaphors. Insights into the measurement of abilities can be gained by careful consideration of how ability terms are used in normal discourse, especially of athletic abilities which are partly quantified in terms of attributes that are physically measureable. The fuzziness of natural language creates some of the problems in understanding standards in both psychometrics and physical measurement.

摘要

本文通过考虑基于隐喻的理解程度，分析了用于理解教育测量和标准设定的心理计量范式。我认为通过比喻“更多在增加”和“好在增加”，我们将本质上不是空间的概念空间化。人类能力形成了独特的概念类别，具有复杂且变化的规则来正确使用不同的能力术语。可以用“拥有”和“或多或少”来讨论大多数能力的事实，要求重新定义，空间化，并因此应用测量隐喻。通过仔细考虑在正常语篇中如何使用能力术语，可以深入了解能力的度量，尤其是运动能力，这些能力根据身体可测量的属性进行了部分量化。自然语言的模糊性在理解心理测量和身体测量的标准方面产生了一些问题。