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Asymptotically Correct Standardization of Person-Fit Statistics Beyond Dichotomous Items

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Sandip Sinharay*
Affiliation:
McGraw-Hill Education CTB
*
Correspondence should be made to Sandip Sinharay, McGraw-Hill Education CTB, Monterey, USA. Email: ssinharay@pacificmetrics.com

Abstract

The lz\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$l_z$$\end{document} statistic (Drasgow et al. in Br J Math Stat Psychol 38:67–86, 1985) is one of the most popular person-fit statistics (Armstrong et al. in Pract Assess Res Eval 12(16):1–10, 2007). Snijders (Psychometrika 66:331–342, 2001) derived the asymptotic null distribution of lz\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$l_z$$\end{document} when the examinee ability parameter is estimated. He also suggested the lz∗\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$l^*_z$$\end{document} statistic, which is the asymptotically correct standardized version of lz\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$l_z$$\end{document}. However, Snijders (Psychometrika 66:331–342, 2001) only considered tests with dichotomous items. In this paper, the asymptotic null distribution of lz\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$l_z$$\end{document} is derived for mixed-format tests (those that include both dichotomous and polytomous items). The asymptotically correct standardized version of lz\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$l_z$$\end{document}, which can be considered as the extension of lz∗\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$l^*_z$$\end{document} to such tests, is suggested. The Type I error rate and power of the suggested statistic are examined from several simulated datasets. The suggested statistic is computed using a real dataset. The suggested statistic appears to be a satisfactory tool for assessing person fit for mixed-format tests.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

The research reported in this paper was performed when the author was an employee of McGraw-Hill Education CTB. The author is currently an employee of Pacific Metrics Corporation.

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