ABSTRACT
Connections With Other Chapters
Chapter 1 described meaning as the least well-understood aspect of test validity in comparison to measurement and causation. Chapter 9 explored the relationship between test validity and values. Chapter 10 developed a model of test score interpretation dubbed the Goldilocks Model. Taking that approach, test score interpretations can be modeled as a series of premises and these can be used to individuate and compare different test score interpretations. Like chapters 4 and 8, the present chapter is devoted largely to open and unresolved issues.
Having developed a theory of test score interpretation in the previous chapter, the present chapter will delve into unresolved problems in test score interpretation based primarily on work drawn from various literatures outside of test validity. Specifically, we first turn to the early psychologist William James regarding the meaning of test items and other stimuli. We then turn to philosopher Hilary Putnam for the questions his work raises about the idea that meaning can reside in the heads of test takers. We next turn to the Slavic literary theorist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin for insight into the dynamics of meaning produced when competing modes of speech interact within a given utterance, or test item. Fourth, we turn to philosopher Saul Kripke to consider how his puzzle about belief applies to the psychology and measurement of beliefs, attitudes, and other intentional states. Together, the work of these four authors challenges some conventional assumptions about testing and test validity as it relates to meaning. The chapter concludes with a brief look at issues of indeterminacy of meaning as they relate to test validity.