Research suggests that the three-option format is optimal for multiple choice questions (MCQs). This conclusion is supported by numerous studies showing that most distractors (i.e., incorrect answers) are selected by so few examinees that they are essentially nonfunctional. However, nearly all studies have defined a distractor as nonfunctional if…

Assessments can provide instructors and students with valuable information regarding student's level of knowledge and understanding, in order to improve both teaching and learning. In this study, we analyzed departmental assessment quizzes given to students at the start of Organic Chemistry 2, over an eight year period. This assessment quiz was…

Studies have shown that item difficulty can vary significantly based on the context of an item within a test form. In particular, item position may be associated with practice and fatigue effects that influence item parameter estimation. The purpose of this research was to examine the relevance of item position specifically for assessments used in…

In high-stakes, large-scale, standardized tests with certain time limits, examinees are likely to engage in either one of the three types of behavior (e.g., van der Linden & Guo, 2008; Wang & Xu, 2015): solution behavior, rapid guessing behavior, and cheating behavior. Oftentimes examinees do not always solve all items due to various…

The authors evaluated measurement-level, factor-level, item-level, and scale-level revisions to the "Gifted Rating Scales-School Form" (GRS-S). Measurement-level considerations tested the extent to which treating the Likert-type scale rating as categorical or continuous produced different fit across unidimensional, correlated trait, and…

We explored whether performance differences exist between proficient and poor readers on implicit text information. Next, we explored whether indices of meta-cognitive monitoring predicted reading performance. Finally, we examined whether poor and proficient readers exhibited distinct meta-cognitive profiles with respect to reading comprehension…

The study examined the relationship between examinees' test-taking effort and their accuracy rate on items from the PISA 2015 assessment. The 10% normative threshold method was applied on Science multiple-choice items in the Cyprus sample to detect rapid guessing behavior. Results showed that the extent of rapid guessing across simple and complex…

This article examines the performance of heritage speakers on a bimodal acceptability judgment task that targeted morphologically complex words. A major goal of the study was to compare participants' acceptance of conventional and creative words. Data were collected from 57 adult heritage speakers of Spanish who were subsequently divided into two…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to better understand what components impact the creation of organizational leaders' social capital. The study further seeks to illuminate the effects of participating in a leadership development seminar on the creation of social capital in global contexts. Design/methodology/approach: The data was collected…

Few studies have compared interference-based forgetting between item versus associative memory. The memory-system dependent forgetting hypothesis (Hardt, Nader, & Nadel, 2013) predicts that effects of interference on associative memory should be minimal because its hippocampal representation allows pattern separation even of highly similar…

We introduce an approach for making a quantitative comparison of the item response curves (IRCs) of any two populations on a multiple-choice test instrument. In this study, we employ simulated and actual data. We apply our approach to a dataset of 12,187 participants on the 25-item Science Literacy Concept Inventory (SLCI), which includes ample…

Educators' Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is crucial for fostering positive, supportive, and effective learning environments. This study seeks to improve SEL assessment among educators by addressing limitations of the previous EduSEL questionnaire. Study 1 established convergent validity by comparing EduSEL with a validated SEL questionnaire.…

Students' responses to Word Dictation curriculum-based measurement (CBM) in writing tend to include a lot of missing values, especially items not reached due to the three-minute test time limit. A large amount of non-ignorable not-reached responses in Word Dictation can be considered using alternative item response theory (IRT) approaches. In…

In exploratory item factor analysis (IFA), researchers may use model fit statistics and commonly invoked fit thresholds to help determine the dimensionality of an assessment. However, these indices and thresholds may mislead as they were developed in a confirmatory framework for models with continuous, not categorical, indicators. The present…

This dissertation is aimed at investigating the impact of missing data and evaluating the performance of five selected methods for handling missing responses in the implementation of Cognitive Diagnostic Models (CDMs). The five methods are: a) treating missing data as incorrect (IN), b) person mean imputation (PM), c) two-way imputation (TW), d)…