Psycholinguistic Research: A Psychometric Point of View

Abstract

Much of the research in the area of psycholinguistics has implicitly assumed that individual difference variables are not useful in the explanation of linguistic behavior other than for the purpose of error reduction as controls. Designs most frequently employed often assume no interaction between individual difference variables and manipulated linguistic parameters. The position of this paper (certainly not uniquely) is that neither manipulated linguistic parameters or individual difference variables will adequately account for verbal behavior but that it is also necessary to consider their interactions. I hasten to add here, that although an interactionist point of view promises to improve the adequacy of our account it will naturally be dependent on our ability to specify parameters for study. Assuming that individual difference variables can make a contribution to the explanation of linguistic behavior, it becomes necessary to specify individual difference variables to incorporate into experimental paradigms whose purpose is to assess the effects of linguistic parameters. Here Guilford's Structure of the Intellect Model as a possible source of psychometrically inspired variables