This paper presents a study of the impact of prior structure on paradoxical results in multidimensional item response theory. Paradoxical results refer to the possibility that an incorrect response could be beneficial to an examinee. We demonstrate that when three or more ability dimensions are being used, paradoxical results can be induced by…

Some suggestions for computations are given for simultaneous determination of squared multiple correlations for all measures. (Authors)

The polyserial and point polyserial correlations are discussed as generalizations of the biserial and point biserial correlations. The relationship between the polyserial and point polyserial correlation is derived. Some practical applications of the polyserial correlation are described. (Author/JKS)

A new look at latent trait models is proposed. The event of an item being solved by a person is related to a person-specific random component and an item-specific random component. This allows for the interpretation of item discriminating power in terms of a product-moment correlation. (Author/JKS)

A strategy for the pairwise assessment which may be used to evaluate the nature of both "prerequisite" and "transference" relations existing among a set of traits is presented. Both confirmatory and exploratory strategies are presented. An example of how the strategy would be used is presented in the exploratory context.…

A new method--similar to Christoffersson's--for the factor analysis of dichotomous variables uses information from the first and second order proportions to fit a multiple factor model. The estimation is considerably simplified. Items from Rotter's locus of control inventory are included. (Author/JKS)

For the six available sets of empirical data, the discrimination (slope) parameter of the logistic item characteristic curve was found to have a significant positive correlation over items with the difficulty (location) parameter. This unpleasant situation can be eliminated by a suitably chosen transformation of the ability scale. (Author/RC)

This paper presents a hierarchical Bayes circumplex model for ordinal ratings data. The circumplex model was proposed to represent the circular ordering of items in psychological testing by imposing inequalities on the correlations of the items. We provide a specification of the circumplex, propose identifying constraints and conjugate priors for…

An approach for multiple factor analysis of dichotomized variables is presented based on distribution of first and second order joint probabilities of binary scored items. The estimator is based on the generalized least squares principle. Standard errors and a test of the fit of the model is given. (Author/RC)