When power tests include a time limit, it is important to assess the possibility of speededness for examinees. Past research on differential speededness has examined gender and ethnic subgroups in the United States on paper and pencil tests. When considering the needs of a global audience, research regarding different native language speakers is…

Literature in the United States provides many examples of no difference in student achievement when measured against the mode of test administration i.e., paper-pencil and online versions of the test. However, most of these researches centre on "regular" students who do not require differential teaching methods or different evaluation…

This article investigates several questions regarding the impact of different item formats on measurement characteristics. Constructed response (CR) items and multiple choice (MC) items obviously differ in their formats and in the resources needed to score them. As such, they have been the subject of considerable discussion regarding the impact of…

This article explores the effect on assessment of "translating" paper and pencil test items into their computer equivalents. Computer versions of a set of mathematics questions derived from the paper-based end of key stage 2 and 3 assessments in England were administered to age appropriate pupil samples, and the outcomes compared.…

A method of automatically selecting items for inclusion in a test with constraints on item content and statistical properties was applied to real data. Tests constructed manually from the same data and constraints were compared to tests constructed automatically. Results show areas in which automated assembly can improve test construction. (SLD)

An experiment was conducted that contrasted a variant of computerized adaptive testing, self-adapted testing, with two traditional tests. Participants completed a self-report of text anxiety and were randomly assigned to take one of the three tests of verbal ability. Subjects generally chose more difficult items as the test progressed. (Author/LMO)

The relationship of an expert-system-scored constrained free-response item type to multiple-choice and free-response items was studied using data for 614 students on the College Board's Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS) Examination. Implications for testing and the APCS test are discussed. (SLD)

Computer simulations were run to measure the relationship between testlet validity and factors of item pool size and testlet length for both adaptive and linearly constructed testlets. Making a testlet adaptive yields only modest increases in aggregate validity because of the peakedness of the typical proficiency distribution. (Author/SLD)

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to explore relationships among existing item types and three new computer-administered item types for the analytical scale of the Graduate Record Examination General Test. Results with 349 students indicate constructs the item types are measuring. (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of four item selection rules--(1) Fisher information (F), (2) Fisher information with a posterior distribution (FP), (3) Kullback-Leibler information with a posterior distribution (KP), and (4) completely randomized item selection (RN)--with respect to the precision of trait estimation and the…

A nominal response model-based computerized adaptive testing procedure (nominal CAT) was implemented using simulated data. Ability estimates from the nominal CAT were compared to those from a CAT based upon the three-parameter logistic model (3PL CAT). Furthermore, estimates from both CAT procedures were compared with the known true abilities used…

A computerized adaptive test (CAT) based on the nominal response model (NR CAT) was implemented, and the performance of the NR CAT and a CAT based on the three-parameter logistic model was compared. The NR CAT produced trait estimates comparable to those of the three-parameter test. (SLD)

To investigate the psychometric feasibility of replacing a paper-and-pencil licensing examination with a computer-administered test, a validity study was conducted. The computer-administered test (Cadm) was a common set of items for all test takers, distinct from computerized adaptive testing, in which test takers receive items appropriate to…

This study seeks to determine whether item features are related to observed differences in item difficulty (DIF) between computer- and paper-based test delivery media. Examinees responded to 60 quantitative items similar to those found on the GRE general test in either a computer-based or paper-based medium. Thirty-eight percent of the items were…

One important and promising application of item response theory (IRT) is computerized adaptive testing (CAT). The implementation of a nominal response model-based CAT (NRCAT) was studied. Item pool characteristics for the NRCAT as well as the comparative performance of the NRCAT and a CAT based on the three-parameter logistic (3PL) model were…