In many testing programs it is assumed that the context or position in which an item is administered does not have a differential effect on examinee responses to the item. Violations of this assumption may bias item response theory estimates of item and person parameters. This study examines the potentially biasing effects of item position. A…

"Item models" (LaDuca, Staples, Templeton, & Holzman, 1986) are classes from which it is possible to generate/produce items that are equivalent/isomorphic to other items from the same model (e.g., Bejar, 1996; Bejar, 2002). They have the potential to produce large number of high-quality items at reduced cost. This paper introduces…

Recent assessment research joining cognitive psychology and psychometric theory has introduced a new technology, item generation. In algorithmic item generation, items are systematically created based on specific combinations of features that underlie the processing required to correctly solve a problem. Reading comprehension items have been more…

We describe the item modeling development and evaluation process as applied to a quantitative assessment with high-stakes outcomes. In addition to expediting the item-creation process, a model-based approach may reduce pretesting costs, if the difficulty and discrimination of model-generated items may be predicted to a predefined level of…

Birnbaum's three-parameter logistic item response model was used to study guessing behavior of low ability examinees on the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test, Verbal Measure. GRE scoring procedures had recently changed, from a scoring formula which corrected for guessing, to number-right scoring. The three-parameter theory was used…