To mitigate the potential damaging consequences of rapid guessing (RG), a form of noneffortful responding, researchers have proposed a number of scoring approaches. The present simulation study examines the robustness of the most popular of these approaches, the unidimensional effort-moderated (EM) scoring procedure, to multidimensional RG (i.e.,…

One of the most serious forms of cheating occurs when examinees have item preknowledge and prior access to secure test material before taking an exam for the purpose of obtaining an inflated test score. Examinees that cheat and have prior knowledge of test content before testing may have an unfair advantage over examinees that do not cheat. Item…

The present study proposes a Bayesian approach for estimating and testing the operation-specific learning model, a variant of the linear logistic test model that allows for the measurement of the learning that occurs during a test as a result of the repeated use of the operations involved in the items. The advantages of using a Bayesian framework…

This study examined the use of Bayesian analysis methods for the estimation of item parameters in a two-parameter logistic item response theory model. Using simulated data under various design conditions with both informative and non-informative priors, the parameter recovery of Bayesian analysis methods were examined. Overall results showed that…

An essential feature of the linear logistic test model (LLTM) is that item difficulties are explained using item design properties. By taking advantage of this explanatory aspect of the LLTM, in a mixture extension of the LLTM, the meaning of latent classes is specified by how item properties affect item difficulties within each class. To improve…

A new variant of the iterative "data = fit + residual" data-analytical approach described by Mosteller and Tukey is proposed and implemented in the context of item response theory psychometric models. Posterior probabilities from a Bayesian mixture model of a Rasch item response theory model and an unscalable latent class are expressed…

Standard approaches for estimating item response theory (IRT) model parameters generally work under the assumption that the latent trait being measured by a set of items follows the normal distribution. Estimation of IRT parameters in the presence of nonnormal latent traits has been shown to generate biased person and item parameter estimates. A…

Testlets, or groups of related items, are commonly included in educational assessments due to their many logistical and conceptual advantages. Despite their advantages, testlets introduce complications into the theory and practice of educational measurement. Responses to items within a testlet tend to be correlated even after controlling for…

In this paper, optimal designs will be derived for estimating the ability parameters of the Rasch model when difficulty parameters are known. It is well established that a design is locally D-optimal if the ability and difficulty coincide. But locally optimal designs require that the ability parameters to be estimated are known. To attenuate this…

A simulation study was conducted to explore the performance of the linear logistic test model (LLTM) when the relationships between items and cognitive components were misspecified. Factors manipulated included percent of misspecification (0%, 1%, 5%, 10%, and 15%), form of misspecification (under-specification, balanced misspecification, and…

For computerized adaptive tests (CATs) to work well, they must have an item pool with sufficient numbers of good quality items. Many researchers have pointed out that, in developing item pools for CATs, not only is the item pool size important but also the distribution of item parameters and practical considerations such as content distribution…

The aim of this study was to improve the criterion-related test score interpretation of a text-based assessment of scientific reasoning competencies in higher education by evaluating factors which systematically affect item difficulty. To provide evidence about the specific demands which test items of various difficulty make on pre-service…

The usefulness of the l[subscript z] person-fit index was investigated with achievement test data from 20 exams given to more than 3,200 college students. Results for three methods of estimating ? showed that the distributions of l[subscript z] were not consistent with its theoretical distribution, resulting in general overfit to the item response…

In this study, we investigated gender and minority achievement gaps on 8th-grade science items employing a multilevel item response methodology. Both gaps were wider on physics and earth science items than on biology and chemistry items. Larger gender gaps were found on items with specific topics favoring male students than other items, for…

The evolution from static to dynamic electronic learning environments has stimulated the research on adaptive item sequencing. A prerequisite for adaptive item sequencing, in which the difficulty of the item is constantly matched to the ability level of the learner, is to have items with a known difficulty level. The difficulty level can be…