Psychometrics, the science sustaining psychological test construction and use, has consistently ignored logical criticism of its foundations, even though science as a cognitive enterprise requires criticism. This accumulating corpus of criticisms is generally unacknowledged in histories of the discipline, in textbooks, and in course curricula. Thus, there is a mystery here as to why this critical resource is missing. Considering three critical offerings from before 1950, it is clear that by mid-century, psychometric methods, consistently marketed as instruments of scientific measurement, were bereft of evidence supporting that boast. A solution to this mystery is proposed.
Joel Michell (Wed,) studied this question.