Understanding and Investigating Response Processes in Validation Research

This volume addresses an urgent need across multiple disciplines to broaden our understanding and use of response processes evidence of test validity. It builds on the themes and findings of the volume Validity and Validation in Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences (Zumbo & Chan, 2014), with a focus on measurement validity evidence based on response processes. Approximately 1000 studies are published each year examining the validity of inferences made from tests and measures in the social, behavioural, and health sciences. The widely accepted Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (1999, 2014) present five sources of evidence for validity: content-related, response processes, internal structure, relationships with other variables, and consequences of testing. Many studies focus on internal structure and relationships with other variables sources of evidence, which have a long history in validation research, known methodologies, and numerous exemplars in the literature. Far less is understood by test users and researchers conducting validation work about how to think about and apply new and emerging sources of validity evidence. This groundbreaking volume is the first to present conceptual models of response processes, methodological issues that arise in gathering response processes evidence, as well as applications and exemplars for providing response processes evidence in validation work.

Bruno D. Zumbo (Ph.D.) is the Paragon-UBC Professor of Psychometrics and Measurement, and Full Professor of Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology and Distinguished University Scholar with additional appointment in the Institute of Applied Mathematics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Prior to arriving at UBC in 2000, he held Professorships in the Departments of Psychology, Education, and Mathematics at the University of Ottawa and then the University of Northern British Columbia. Over the last 25 years his interdisciplinary program of research has emerged to have broad interdisciplinary impact and as such is well-recognized in a variety of disciplines including psychology, applied social science research (quality of life and well being), assessment, educational research, language testing, health and human development. His research on validity and validation is at the core of his program of research and has elements of working at the foundations of the discipline, including philosophy of science, scientific methodology as well as practical psychometric methods at the intersection of measurement, statistical science and mathematics. Professor Zumbo’s research and teaching have been recognized with international awards. He was recipient of the 2005 Samuel J. Messick Memorial Lecture Award for his work in validity, 2010 Research Fellow Award by the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, and selected as a Fellow of American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2011.

Dr. Hubley (Ph.D.) is a Full Professor in Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology and Director of the Adult Development and Psychometrics Lab in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education (ECPS) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Dr. Hubley is recognized internationally for her expertise in validity, test development, and psychological and health assessment and measurement in areas such as neuropsychology, quality of life, depression, subjective age, and homelessness. She has also developed several clinical, health, and psychological tests, including the Memory Test for Older Adults (MTOA), Modified Taylor Complex Figure (MTCF), and Quality of Life in Homeless and Hard-to-House Individuals (QoLHHI), to name just a few of her measures. She is a former member of the Executive Council of the International Test Commission (ITC), which provides guidance in testing practices to individuals and organizations around the world, and former Editor of their publication, Testing International.