Modeling Asymmetry in the Time–Distance Relation of Ordinal Personality Items |
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Authors: | Dylan Molenaar Sandor Rzsa Natasa K |
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Institution: | 1.University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands;2.Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA;3.Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary |
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Abstract: | In analyzing responses and response times to personality questionnaire items, models have been proposed which include the so-called “inverted-U effect.” These models predict that response times to personality test items decrease as the latent trait value of a given person gets closer to the attractiveness of an item. Initial studies into these models have focused on dichotomous personality items, and more recently, models for Likert-type scale items have been proposed. In all these models, it is assumed that the inverted-U effect is symmetrical around 0, while, as will be explained in this article, there are substantive and statistical reasons to study this assumption. Therefore, in this article, a general inverted-U model is proposed which accommodates two sources of asymmetry between the response times and the attractiveness of the items. The viability of this model is demonstrated in a simulation study, and the model is applied to the responses and response times of the Temperament and Character Inventory–Revised, covering a broad range of personality dimensions. |
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Keywords: | response times personality Likert-type scale item response theory |
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