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Measuring Latent Quantities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Roderick P. McDonald
Roderick P. McDonald*
Affiliation:
The University of Sydney
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Roderick P. McDonald, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. E-mail: rmcdonal@cyrus.psych.illinois.edu
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Abstract

A distinction is proposed between measures and predictors of latent variables. The discussion addresses the consequences of the distinction for the true-score model, the linear factor model, Structural Equation Models, longitudinal and multilevel models, and item-response models. A distribution-free treatment of calibration and error-of-measurement is given, and the contrasting properties of measures and predictors are examined.

Keywords

calibrationstandard error of measurementregression predictorsBayes predictors
Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 76 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 511 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

This paper is based on an invited Emeritus Lecture given at the meeting of the Psychometric Society, The University of Cambridge, July 2009. I am grateful to my dear former student, Hariharan Swaminathan, for his very helpful comments on the manuscript. The paper also benefits from discussions with Harvey Goldstein and David Grayson, and from a careful reading by Jay Verkuilen. Any remaining errors are my own.

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