Content characteristics of 1,400 Graduate Record Examination (GRE) analytical reasoning items were coded for item difficulty and discrimination. The results provide content characteristics for consideration in extending specifications for analytical reasoning items and a better understanding of the construct validity of these items. (TJH)

Items showing sex differences on the revised Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R) were studied. In a sample of 206 young adults (110 males and 96 females), 15 items demonstrated significant sex differences, but there was no relationship of item-specific gender content to sex differences in item performance. (SLD)

A method is presented for estimating the item characteristic curve (ICC) using polynomial regression splines. Estimation of spline ICCs is described by maximizing the marginal likelihood formed by integrating ability over a beta prior distribution. Simulation results compare this approach with the joint estimation of ability and item parameters.…

Describes the development of a test of scientific creativity for use with secondary school students which was constructed on the basis of an analysis of meaning and aspects of scientific creativity. Reports that the scientific creativity of secondary school students increases with age and science ability is a necessary but not sufficient condition…

Opportunity to learn is considered an important contributing factor in learning outcomes. In some of the latest international comparative studies of mathematics achievement, such as SIMS and TIMSS, painstaking efforts have been made to find out what the participating students' opportunities to learn mathematics had been. However, there have been…

Item response theory (IRT) has become one of the most popular scoring frameworks for measurement data. IRT models are used frequently in computerized adaptive testing, cognitively diagnostic assessment, and test equating. This article reviews two of the most popular software packages for IRT model estimation, BILOG-MG (Zimowski, Muraki, Mislevy, &…

Preventing items in adaptive testing from being over- or underexposed is one of the main problems in computerized adaptive testing. Though the problem of overexposed items can be solved using a probabilistic item-exposure control method, such methods are unable to deal with the problem of underexposed items. Using a system of rotating item pools,…

To assess item dimensionality, the following two approaches are described and compared: hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) and multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) model. Two generating models are used to simulate dichotomous responses to a 17-item test: the unidimensional and compensatory two-dimensional (C2D) models. For C2D…

"Malingering," the exaggeration or fabrication of physical and/or psychological symptoms, can threaten the psychological assessment process (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). To enhance the validity of psychological evaluations, researchers have studied trends in malingering and developed instruments for its detection (Rogers, Bagby, &…

Although the identity formation model is widely used to assess adolescent ethnic identity development, the model propositions have rarely been tested. The existence of the identity statuses (diffuse, foreclosed, moratorium, achieved), the proposed developmental trajectories, and whether youth in the achieved status report higher levels of…

Computerized adaptive tests (CATs) are individualized tests that, from a measurement point of view, are optimal for each individual, possibly under some practical conditions. In the present study, it is shown that maximum information item selection in CATs using an item bank that is calibrated with the one- or the two-parameter logistic model…

The article focuses on Fraser Institute's (Vancouver, British Columbia) "Report Card on Elementary Schools in British Columbia." The rating of a school is based on reading, writing, and numeracy levels for both Grade 4 and Grade 7 students, gender differences in reading and numeracy in Grade 7, and the percentage of students not meeting…

Despite evidence that the choice of dependent measures can significantly influence design sensitivity, many evaluators default to traditional measures that may be insensitive to intervention effects. This paper describes an innovative set of test development guidelines designed to select items and create aggregate scales that are better able to…

This study presents a procedure for detecting differential item functioning (DIF) for dichotomous and polytomous items in testlet-based tests, whereby DIF is taken into account by adding DIF parameters into the Rasch testlet model. Simulations were conducted to assess recovery of the DIF and other parameters. Two independent variables, test type…

In the first part of this study, we investigated effects of item and task type on span performance in a group of aphasic individuals with word processing and STM deficits. Group analyses revealed significant effects of item on span performance with span being greater for digits than for words. We also investigated associations between subjects'…