An Approach to Mental Test Theory

Abstract

It currently seems to me that the heart of mental test theory is the concept of true score. The trouble starts as soon as it is realized that the actual test score obtained by a particular individual might just as well have been some numerical value other than the one actually observed. The individual examinee might have guessed differently, might have been less nervous, or might have slept better the night before. The testing conditions might have been different–lighting, facilities for use of paper and pencil, presence or absence of distraction. Finally, any one of many different but equally appropriate psychological tests might have been constructed and administered. Mental test theory must deal with all these kinds of disturbing influences. However, we are not really interested in each of the different test scores that an examinee might obtain under all sorts of conditions. We are interested in something approximated by these scores. This something may be called the true score on the test.

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