The Role of Construct Specification Equations and Entropy in the Measurement of Memory

Abstract

AbstractMemory ability, together with many other constructs related to disability and quality of life, is of growing interest in the social sciences, psychology and in health care examinations. This chapter will focus on two elements aiming at understanding, predicting, measuring and quality-assuring constructs with examples from memory measurements: (i) explicit methods for testing theories of the measurement mechanism and establishment of metrological standards and (ii) substantive theories explaining the constructs themselves. Building on entropy as a principal explanatory variable, analogous to its use in thermodynamics and information theory, we demonstrate how more fit-for-purpose and valid memory measurements can be enabled. Firstly, memory task difficulty, extracted from a Rasch psychometric analysis of memory measurements of experimental data such as from the European NeuroMET project, can be explained with a construct specification equation (CSE). Based on that understanding, the CSE can facilitate the establishment of objective and scalable units through the generation of novel certified reference “materials” for metrological traceability and comparability. These formulations of CSEs can also guide how best to compose new memory metrics, through a judicious choice of items from various legacy tests guided by entropy-based equivalence, which opens up opportunities for formulating new, less onerous but more sensitive and representative tests. Finally, we propose and demonstrate how to formulate CSEs for person ability, correlated statistically and clinically with sets of biomarkers, that can be a means of providing diagnostic information to enhance clinical decisions and targeted interventions.