The Use and Abuse of Psychometrics

I had a very short time slot for my solo talk at SkepTech, so I decided to use it to give a very brief, simplified look at how the process of developing measurement tools in psychology limits what those tools can tell us.

The talk has made my fellow psych people happy, which means I didn’t get anything glaringly wrong. I haven’t yet heard much from people outside psychology, so I have no idea how this plays as an introduction to the topic.

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The Use and Abuse of Psychometrics
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4 thoughts on “The Use and Abuse of Psychometrics

  1. 2

    Ow. Sorry, I can’t comment on what you were saying, as I was having so much trouble hearing it. That was physically painful to listen to. How did they manage to get the sound recording on that *so* bad?

    I mean, the guy introducing you has a roving mic. There’s another one mounted right there on the lectern straight in front of you. So how come it sounds as if the only mic in the room is a cheap-ass omnidirectional type at the back of the room, turned up to full gain, with extra filters to help it pick up white noise and audience shuffles, scrapes, scrunches and crumples?

  2. 3

    karellen: From what I understood, it’s because they were not able to connect their camera directly to the sound source of the rooms. I’m not 100% sure that’s the case, of course.

    But yes, they had a sound system that was pretty good (save for one feedback problem during Maggie Koerth Baker’s talk, and one of the stick mics only working half the time). It was good for the audience, anyway. The recordings were done from halfway up the ramp and thus probably could pick up all the audience white noise.

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