Does Measurement Measure Up?

Does Measurement Measure Up?
Author: John M. Henshaw
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2006-05-05
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0801889375

A critical perspective of how measurements have come to affect our lives—from reasonable doubt to No Child Left Behind. There was once a time when we could not measure sound, color, blood pressure, or even time. We now find ourselves in the throes of a measurement revolution, from the laboratory to the sports arena, from the classroom to the courtroom, from a strand of DNA to the far reaches of outer space. Measurement controls our lives at work, at school, at home, and even at play. But does all this measurement really measure up? Here, John Henshaw examines the ways in which measurement makes sense or creates nonsense. Henshaw tells the controversial story of intelligence measurement from Plato to Binet to the early days of the SAT to today's super-quantified world of No Child Left Behind. He clears away the fog on issues of measurement in the environment, such as global warming, hurricanes, and tsunamis, and in the world of computers, from digital photos to MRI to the ballot systems used in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. From cycling and car racing to baseball, tennis, and track-and-field, he chronicles the ever-growing role of measurement in sports, raising important questions about performance and the folly of comparing today's athletes to yesterday's records. We can't quite measure everything, at least not yet. What could be more difficult to quantify than reasonable doubt? However, even our justice system is yielding to the measurement revolution with new forensic technologies such as DNA fingerprinting. As we evolve from unquantified ignorance to an imperfect but everpresent state of measured awareness, Henshaw gives us a critical perspective from which we can "measure up" the measurements that have come to affect our lives so greatly.

Measurement With Persons

Measurement With Persons
Author: Birgitta Berglund
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2013-05-13
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1136723730

Measurements with persons are those in which human perception and interpretation are used for measuring complex, holistic quantities and qualities, which are perceived by the human brain and mind. Providing means for reproducible measurement of parameters such as pleasure and pain has important implications in evaluating all kind of products, services, and conditions. This book inaugurates a new era for this subject: a multi- and inter-disciplinary volume in which world-renowned scientists from the psychological, physical, biological, and social sciences reach a common understanding of measurement theory and methods. In the first section, generic theoretical and methodological issues are treated, including the conceptual basis of measurement in the various fields involved; the development of formal, representational, and probabilistic theories; the approach to experimentation; and the theories, models, and methods for multidimensional problems. In the second section, several implementation areas are presented, including sound, visual, skin, and odor perception, functional brain imagining, body language and emotions, and, finally, the use of measurements in decision making Measurement with Persons will appeal to a wide audience across a range of sciences, including general psychology and psychophysics, measurement theory, metrology and instrumentation, neurophysiology, engineering, biology, and chemistry.

The Meaning of More

The Meaning of More
Author: Alexis Wellwood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-09-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0192526812

This book reimagines the compositional semantics of comparative sentences using words such as more, as, too, and others. The book's central thesis entails a rejection of a fundamental assumption of degree semantic frameworks: that gradable adjectives like tall lexicalize functions from individuals to degrees, i.e., measure functions. Alexis Wellwood argues that comparative expressions in English themselves introducemeasure functions; this is the case whether that morphology targets adjectives, as intaller or more intelligent; nouns, as in more coffee, more coffees; verbs, such as run more, jump more; or expressions of other categories. Furthermore, she suggests that expressions that comfortably and meaningfully appear in the comparative form should be distinguished from those that do not in terms of a general notion of "measurability": a measurable predicate has a domain of application with non-trivial structure. This notion unifies the independently motivated distinctions between, for example, gradable and non-gradable adjectives, mass and count nouns, singular and plural noun phrases, and telic and atelic verb phrases. Based on careful examination of the distribution of dimensions for comparison within the class of measurable predicates, she ties the selection of measure functions to the specific nature and structure of the domain entities targeted for measurement. The book ultimately explores how, precisely, we should understand semantic theories that invoke the "nature" of domain entities: does the theory depend for its explanation on features of metaphysical reality, or something else? Such questions are especially pertinent in light of a growing body of research in cognitive science exploring the understanding and acquisition of comparative sentences.

Graphs and Order

Graphs and Order
Author: Ivan Rival
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 798
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9400953151

This volume contains the accounts of the principal survey papers presented at GRAPHS and ORDER, held at Banff, Canada from May 18 to May 31, 1984. This conference was supported by grants from the N.A.T.O. Advanced Study Institute programme, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the University of Calgary. We are grateful for all of this considerable support. Almost fifty years ago the first Symposium on Lattice Theory was held in Charlottesville, U.S.A. On that occasion the principal lectures were delivered by G. Birkhoff, O. Ore and M.H. Stone. In those days the theory of ordered sets was thought to be a vigorous relative of group theory. Some twenty-five years ago the Symposium on Partially Ordered Sets and Lattice Theory was held in Monterey, U.S.A. Among the principal speakers at that meeting were R.P. Dilworth, B. Jonsson, A. Tarski and G. Birkhoff. Lattice theory had turned inward: it was concerned primarily with problems about lattices themselves. As a matter of fact the problems that were then posed have, by now, in many instances, been completely solved.

Operations Research Proceedings 1994

Operations Research Proceedings 1994
Author: Ulrich Derigs
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3642794599

An insight into the latest results from the world of operations research - a wide-ranging field, as is shown by the book's 24 sections, corresponding to the conference program itself. Although problems of a primarily methodological nature are discussed, the emphasis is placed firmly on practical subjects, such as reports from the fields of healthcare, environmental protection, logistics and traffic engineering. This selection also clearly illustrates the extent to which OR is spreading into and already interwoven in other scientific disciplines.

Rankings and Decisions in Engineering

Rankings and Decisions in Engineering
Author: Fiorenzo Franceschini
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2022-02-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030898652

This book focuses on decision-making problems in engineering. It investigates the ranking aggregation problem and the related features, such as input/output data, simplification hypotheses, importance hierarchy of experts. In addition to a well-structured overview of several interesting, consolidated methodological approaches, it presents innovative approaches that can also be applied profitably in other fields. The fascinating selection of topics included is based on research that has been developed in the past twenty years. The descriptions are supported by figures, tables, flowcharts, diagrams, examples and practical case studies. The book is an ideal resource for engineering academics, practitioners, technicians and students, who do not necessarily have an in-depth knowledge of decision-making. It is also a thought-provoking read for engineers and academics looking for innovative ways to improve engineering processes in a variety of fields, such as conceptual design, quality improvement, reliability engineering. “Today, rankings are exercised in all spheres of life, products are ranked on Amazon and similar platforms; services such as restaurants and hotels on platforms such as TripAdvisor; and other services such as lectures or even medical treatment on different specialized platforms. We often make our daily decisions based on these rankings. The quality of our decisions depends on our ability to select appropriate methods to fit the context and needs. We need to be familiar with the theory and practice of these methods to make them useful. To this purpose, this book is an important addition to the bookshelves of academics and professionals, not only from engineering. The connection between theory and practice is weaved throughout the book, making it useful for practitioners also.” Prof. Yoram Reich, Full Professor and Head of Systems Engineering research Initiative at Tel Aviv University (Israel), Editor-in-Chief of “Research in Engineering Design”

New Handbook of Mathematical Psychology: Volume 2, Modeling and Measurement

New Handbook of Mathematical Psychology: Volume 2, Modeling and Measurement
Author: William H. Batchelder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 631
Release: 2018-09-27
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1108632467

The field of mathematical psychology began in the 1950s and includes both psychological theorizing, in which mathematics plays a key role, and applied mathematics motivated by substantive problems in psychology. Central to its success was the publication of the first Handbook of Mathematical Psychology in the 1960s. The psychological sciences have since expanded to include new areas of research, and significant advances have been made in both traditional psychological domains and in the applications of the computational sciences to psychology. Upholding the rigor of the original Handbook, the New Handbook of Mathematical Psychology reflects the current state of the field by exploring the mathematical and computational foundations of new developments over the last half-century. The second volume focuses on areas of mathematics that are used in constructing models of cognitive phenomena and decision making, and on the role of measurement in psychology.

Functional Equations in Several Variables

Functional Equations in Several Variables
Author: J. Aczél
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 490
Release: 1989
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9780521352765

This treatise deals with modern theory of functional equations in several variables and their applications to mathematics, information theory, and the natural, behavioural and social sciences. The authors have chosen to emphasize applications, though not at the expense of theory, so they have kept the prerequisites to a minimum.