The purpose of this study was to compare calibration and linking methods for placing pretest item parameter estimates on the item pool scale in a 1-3 computerized multistage adaptive testing design in terms of item parameter recovery. Two models were used: embedded-section, in which pretest items were administered within a separate module, and…

An operational multistage adaptive test (MST) requires the development of a large item bank and the effort to continuously replenish the item bank due to concerns about test security and validity over the long term. New items should be pretested and linked to the item bank before being used operationally. The linking item volume fluctuations in…

In this study, we examined the potential impact of item misfit on the reported scores of an admission test from the subpopulation invariance perspective. The target population of the test consisted of 3 major subgroups with different geographic regions. We used the logistic regression function to estimate item parameters of the operational items…

Does having more knowledge or interest in the topics used in example problems facilitate or hinder learning in statistics? Undergraduates enrolled in Introductory Psychology received a lesson on central tendency. Following the lesson, half of the students completed a worksheet with a baseball cover story while the other half received a weather…

Spontaneous transfer of learning is often difficult to elicit. This finding may be widespread partly because pretests proactively interfere with transfer. To test this hypothesis, 7-year-olds' transfer was examined across 2 numerical tasks (number line estimation and categorization) in which similar representational changes have been observed. As…