Information provided for computerized adaptive test (CAT) simulees was compared under two conditions on two moderately correlated trait composites, mathematics and reading comprehension. The first condition used information provided by in-scale items alone, while the second condition used information provided by in- and out-of-scale items together…

This study investigated specific conditions under which out-of-scale information improves measurement precision and the factors that influence the degree of reliability gains and the amount of bias induced in the reported scores when out-of-scale information is used. In-scale information is information that an item provides for a composite trait…