Increasing Item Complexity: A Possible Cause of Scale Shrinkage for Unidimensional Item Response Theory

1985/12/01 by Wendy M. Yen · 3 citations
Computer Science · Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Advanced Statistical Modeling Techniques #Psychometric Methodologies and Testing #Cognitive Abilities and Testing

paper · doi:10.1007/bf02296259

Abstract

When the three-parameter logistic model is applied to tests covering a broad range of difficulty, there frequently is an increase in mean item discrimination and a decrease in variance of item difficulties and traits as the tests become more difficult. To examine the hypothesis that this unexpected scale shrinkage effect occurs because the items increase in complexity as they increase in difficulty, an approximate relationship is derived between the unidimensional model used in data analysis and a multidimensional model hypothesized to be generating the item responses. Scale shrinkage is successfully predicted for several sets of simulated data.

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