A valid and reliable measure of nothing: disentangling the "Gavagai effect" in survey data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In three recent studies, Maul demonstrated that sets of nonsense items can acquire excellent psychometric properties. Our aim was to find out why responses to nonsense items acquire a well-defined structure and high internal consistency.

Method

We designed two studies. In the first study, 610 participants responded to eight items where the central term (intelligence) was replaced by the term "gavagai". In the second study, 548 participants responded to seven items whose content was totally invented. We asked the participants if they gave any meaning to "gavagai", and conducted analyses aimed at uncovering the most suitable structure for modeling responses to meaningless items.

Results

In the first study, 81.3% of the sample gave "gavagai" meaning, while 18.

SUBMITTER: Arias VB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7678495 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature