Generalizability Theory (G-Theory)

Generalizability Theory, developed by Lee J. Cronbach and colleagues in the 1960s and formalised by Brennan (2001), is an ANOVA-based framework that extends Classical Test Theory by decomposing observed score variance into multiple, separately identified sources of measurement error — such as raters, tasks, occasions, or items — rather than bundling all error into a single undifferentiated term.