ABSTRACT
Psychometric procedures have proved to be particularly amenable to computerization. However, the fact that tests usually contain information about an individual’s psychological make-up, that they are normally scored by computer, and that once scored the data can easily be transferred to databases, makes this field very sensitive. Furthermore, data of this type are always of interest to personnel and credit agencies, the insurance and marketing industry, social security, and the police and intelligence services, and this does mean that special care needs to be taken, especially now that large data banks are able to extract information in ‘intelligent’ ways. The contribution of computers to testing for college entrance, professional licensure tests, standardized achievement batteries and scored clinical instruments is enormous, although not immediately apparent to the large number of people who are affected by it. Computerization of scoring, of test design, and of reliability and validity estimation is leading to significant improvements in the dependability of testing, and this is proceeding at an ever-increasing rate.
