Comparing item characteristic curves

Test items are often evaluated and compared by contrasting the shapes of their item characteristics curves (ICC's) or surfaces. The current paper develops and applies three general (i.e., nonparametric) comparisons of the shapes of two item characteristic surfaces: (i) proportional latent odds, (ii) uniform relative difficulty, and (iii) item sensitivity. Two items may be compared in these ways while making no assumption about the shapes of item characteristic surfaces for other items, and no assumption about the dimensionality of the latent variable. Also studied is a method for comparing the relative shapes of two item characteristic curves in two examinee populations.The author is grateful to Paul Holland, Robert Mislevy, Tue Tjur, Rebecca Zwick, the editor and reviewers for valuable comments on the subject of this paper, to Mari A. Pearlman for advice on the pairing of items in the examples, and to Dorothy Thayer for assistance with computing.     

A comparison of the efficiency and accuracy of BILOG and LOGIST

Comparisons are made between BILOG version 2.2 and LOGIST 5.0 Version 2.5 in estimating the item parameters, traits, item characteristic functions (ICFs), and test characteristic functions (TCFs) for the three-parameter logistic model. Data analyzed are simulated item responses for 1000 simulees and one 10-item test, four 20-item tests, and four 40-item tests. LOGIST usually was faster than BILOG in producing maximum likelihood estimates. BILOG almost always produced more accurate estimates of individual item parameters. In estimating ICFs and TCFs BILOG was more accurate for the 10-item test, and the two programs were about equally accurate for the 20- and 40-item tests.I am grateful to Robert J. Mislevy, Martha L. Stocking, and Marilyn S. Wingersky for many helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. I would also like to thank Hamid Kamrani and Bongmyoung Park for getting LOGIST and BILOG running and keeping them running under changing computer systems at CTB/McGraw-Hill.     

Binary programming and test design

An algorithmic approach to test design, using information functions, is presented. The approach uses a special branch of linear programming, i.e. binary programming. In addition, results of some benchmark problems are presented. Within the same framework, it is also possible to formulate the problem of individualized testing.I would like to thank my colleagues N. Veldhuijzen, H. Verstralen and M. Zwarts for their suggestions and comments. Furthermore, I would like to thank Professor W. van der Linden, Department of Educational Measurement and Data Analysis, Technological University Twente, for offering facilities at his department; Ellen Timminga of the same department and S. Baas, department of Operational Research at the same University for their efforts in linear programming.     

Thinking “Outside the Box”: Unconstrained Creative Generation in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Creative generation is structured around existing knowledge and task examples, yet overreliance on specific examples may limit imagination (Ward, T. B., Finke, R. A., & Smith, S. M., 1995). The constraining influence of knowledge during creative generation may be offset by conceptual expansion, a process of thinking outside traditional conceptual boundaries, which may be heightened by distractibility and mild executive dysfunction (Abraham, A., Windmann, S., Daum, I., & Güntürkün, O., 2005). The present study explored the constraining effects of knowledge in adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a disorder characterized by impaired attention and inhibitory control (Barkley, R. A., 1997). College students with and without ADHD were compared on two creative generation measures: an alien fruit invention task that required participants to imagine fruit that might exist on another planet (Ward, T.B., 1994), and a product label invention task wherein the goal was to invent product names without using elements of task examples (Kray, L.J., Galinski, A.D. & Wong, E.M., 2006). ADHD participants created alien fruit that diverged more from Earth fruit and labels that conformed less to examples, relative to non-ADHD peers. Results suggest that adults with ADHD may be less constrained by knowledge during creative generation. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical import and practical implications for individuals with ADHD.     

The oral and written side of word production in young and older adults: generation of lexical neighbors

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of aging on both spoken and written word production by using analogous tasks. To do so, a phonological neighbor generation task (Experiment 1) and an orthographic neighbor generation task (Experiment 2) were designed. In both tasks, young and older participants were given a word and had to generate as many words as they could think of by changing one phoneme in the target word (Experiment 1) or one letter in the target word (Experiment 2). The data of the two experiments were consistent, showing that the older adults generated fewer lexical neighbors and made more errors than the young adults. For both groups, the number of words produced, as well as their lexical frequency, decreased as a function of time. These data strongly support the assumption of a symmetrical age-related decline in the transmission of activation within the phonological and orthographic systems.     

Exploring a Source of Uneven Score Equity across the Test Score Range

Score equity assessment (SEA) refers to an examination of population invariance of equating across two or more subpopulations of test examinees. Previous SEA studies have shown that score equity may be present for examinees scoring at particular test score ranges but absent for examinees scoring at other score ranges. No studies to date have performed research for the purpose of understanding why score equity can be inconsistent across the score range of some tests. The purpose of this study is to explore a source of uneven subpopulation score equity across the score range of a test. It is hypothesized that the difficulty of anchor items displaying differential item functioning (DIF) is directly related to the score location at which issues of score inequity are observed. The simulation study supports the hypothesis that the difficulty of DIF items has a systematic impact on the uneven nature of conditional score equity.     

眼动追踪在价值导向元记忆研究中的应用

价值导向元记忆关注人们在面对不同重要性信息时,通过元记忆监测和调节,有选择地优先加工高价值信息,以实现记忆效率最大化的目的。价值导向元记忆包括价值导向元记忆监测和控制,眼动追踪技术以其无干扰性、生态效度高等优势可以时时追踪这一监控过程。当前该领域研究中已采用的眼动指标集中在项目选择、学习时间分配、学习进程等方面。未来在项目选择、学习效率和策略比较等研究中可以探索眼动追踪技术的进一步应用。     

海洛因戒断者的阈下情绪启动研究

研究表明海洛因戒断者的情绪加工异常,但其阈下情绪加工是否异常尚无定论。本研究采用阈下情绪启动范式,考察其阈下情绪加工能力。结果：戒断组的反应时显著高于控制组;两组中,相比不一致、控制状态,一致状态反应时均显著最短;在戒断组中,不一致状态的反应时显著大于控制状态,负性图片的反应时显著大于正性图片,而在控制组中差异不显著。结论：戒断者存在阈下情绪启动效应,阈下情绪加工存在正性偏向,且能力弱于正常人。     

Mental fatigue disturbs local processing more than global processing

Focusing of attention is influenced by external features such as the presence of global or local target stimuli, but also by motivation and mood states. In the current study, we examined whether working on cognitively demanding tasks for 2 h, which induces mental fatigue, subsequently had a differential effect on global and local processing. The results showed that, compared to non-fatigued participants, fatigued participants particularly displayed compromised local processing. This indicates that mental fatigue may also manifest itself as effects on attentional focusing. The findings of this study are in line with recent ideas about the nature of fatigue-related cognitive deficits, implying disturbances in the control over attention and behaviour.     

Two interpretations of the discrimination parameter

In this paper we propose two interpretations for the discrimination parameter in the two-parameter logistic model (2PLM). The interpretations are based on the relation between the 2PLM and two stochastic models. In the first interpretation, the 2PLM is linked to a diffusion model so that the probability of absorption equals the 2PLM. The discrimination parameter is the distance between the two absorbing boundaries and therefore the amount of information that has to be collected before a response to an item can be given. For the second interpretation, the 2PLM is connected to a specific type of race model. In the race model, the discrimination parameter is inversely related to the dependency of the information used in the decision process. Extended versions of both models with person-to-person variability in the difficulty parameter are considered. When fitted to a data set, it is shown that a generalization of the race model that allows for dependency between choices and response times (RTs) is the best-fitting model.