1 - Psychometric Approaches to the Study of Language Abilities

Abstract

This chapter discusses the psychometric approaches to the study of language abilities. Psychometrics is devoted to the quantitative study of behavior and the methodologies for pursuing such study. Psychometric methodology can be utilized in psychophysics and other branches of experimental psychology. Few psychometricians have been interested in using the psychometrics of mental tests in the study of theoretical questions in psychology. The chapter discusses the factor-analytic studies of language abilities. Factor analysis is essentially a method of analyzing the interrelations among a series of measures applied to a defined set of objects. The theory and technology for performing appropriate and wide-ranging studies of language abilities is at present available on the one hand from psychometrics and on the other hand from linguistics and psycholinguistics. It is further concluded from the studies of language abilities that the users of a language differ among themselves enormously both in their implicit knowledge of language rules and in their ability to use that knowledge in language performances.