In adaptive testing, item selection is sequentially optimized during the test. Since the optimization takes place over a pool of items calibrated with estimation error, capitalization on these errors is likely to occur. How serious the consequences of this phenomenon are depends not only on the distribution of the estimation errors in the pool or…

Computer-adaptive testing (CAT) allows improved security, greater scoring accuracy, shorter testing periods, quicker availability of results, and reduced guessing and other undesirable test behavior. Simple approaches can be applied by the classroom teacher, or other content specialist, who possesses simple computer equipment and elementary…

This paper presents examples of effective uses of microcomputers to support basic statistics instruction. All programs are written in Applesoft BASIC for Apple II Plus microcomputers and compatible equipment. They have been field tested in statistics courses at the University of Maryland. Microcomputers can be used with color monitors for…

In an invitational address to the Victorian Institute of Educational Research, the author discussed Bayesian theory and its relationship to the design and construction of tailored or adaptive tests. Bayesian thinking involves recognizing the role of prior probabilities and using these probabilities in combination with new data to arrive at future…

Latent trait test score theory is discussed primarily in terms of Birnbaum's three-parameter logistic model, and with some reference to the Rasch model. Equations and graphic illustrations are given for item characteristic curves and item information curves. An example is given for a hypothetical 20-item adaptive test, showing cumulative results…

Computer assisted tailored testing was used in a study of 163 Civil Service examinees to assess examinee's affective response to the testing setting. Response was summarized as overwhelmingly positive. (Author/JKS)

This study investigated the efficiency of item selection in a computerized adaptive test (CAT), where efficiency was defined in terms of the accumulated test information at an examinee's true ability level. A simulation methodology compared the efficiency of 2 item selection procedures with 5 ability estimation procedures for CATs of 5, 10, 15,…

In this study, data from an operational computerized adaptive test (CAT) were examined in order to gather information concerning item response times in a CAT environment. The CAT under study included multiple-choice items measuring verbal, quantitative, and analytical reasoning. The analyses included the fitting of regression models describing the…

The Sympson and Hetter (SH; J. Sympson and R. Hetter; 1985; 1997) method is a method of probabilistic item exposure control in computerized adaptive testing. Setting its control parameters to admissible values requires an iterative process of computer simulations that has been found to be time consuming, particularly if the parameters have to be…

Item-exposure control in computerized adaptive testing is implemented by imposing item-ineligibility constraints on the assembly process of the shadow tests. The method resembles J. Sympson and R. Hetter's (1985) method of item-exposure control in that the decisions to impose the constraints are probabilistic. However, the method does not require…

Maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimates of proficiency, typically used in adaptive testing, use item weights that depend on test taker proficiency to estimate test taker proficiency. In this study, several methods were explored through computer simulation using fixed item weights, which depend mainly on the items difficulty. The simpler scores…

A two-stage design provides a way of roughly adapting item difficulty to test-taker ability. All test takers take a parallel stage-one test, and based on their scores, they are routed to tests of different difficulty levels in the second stage. This design provides some of the benefits of standard computer adaptive testing (CAT), such as increased…

In the context of examining the feasibility and advisability of computerizing the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), a review of current literature was conducted with the following goals: (1) determining the skills that are most important in good legal reasoning according to the literature; (2) determining the extent to which existing LSAT item…

A model for constrained computerized adaptive testing is proposed in which the information on the test at the ability estimate is maximized subject to a large variety of possible constraints on the contents of the test. At each item-selection step, a full test is first assembled to have maximum information at the current ability estimate fixing…

Computerized adaptive tests (CATs) are efficient because of their optimal item selection procedures that target maximally informative items at each estimated ability level. However, operational administration of these optimal CATs results in a relatively small subset of items given to examinees too often, while another portion of the item pool is…