Chapter 62: Luria and Learning: How Neuropsychological Theory Translates Into Educational Practice

Rooted in the philosophical writings of structuralists like Rene Descartes and functionalists like John Locke, the field of psychology turned to measurement to answer long-held observations and beliefs about constructs such as intelligence and personality as early as the 1800s. It was believed that psychological constructs such as sensation, perception, or affect could be quantified and measured with mathematical precision. With the advent of Galton’s psychometrics, Terman’s intelligence quotient, and Spearman’s factor analyses revealing g, Western psychology increasingly used nomothetic and quantitative approaches to understand the human experience. As we will argue here, this measurement obsession has undermined the utility of psychological assessment, and assumptions underlying psychological test interpretation need to be reconsidered, or even deconstructed altogether.