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A Comparison of the Efficiency and Accuracy of BILOG and LOGIST

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Wendy M. Yen
Wendy M. Yen*
Affiliation:
CTB/McGraw-Hill
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Wendy M. Yen, CTB/McGraw-Hill, 2500 Garden Road, Monterey, CA 93940.
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Abstract

Comparisons are made between BILOG version 2.2 and LOGIST 5.0 Version 2.5 in estimating the item parameters, traits, item characteristic functions (ICFs), and test characteristic functions (TCFs) for the three-parameter logistic model. Data analyzed are simulated item responses for 1000 simulees and one 10-item test, four 20-item tests, and four 40-item tests. LOGIST usually was faster than BILOG in producing maximum likelihood estimates. BILOG almost always produced more accurate estimates of individual item parameters. In estimating ICFs and TCFs BILOG was more accurate for the 10-item test, and the two programs were about equally accurate for the 20- and 40-item tests.

Keywords

BILOGcomputer programitem response theoryLOGISTtests
Type
Computational Psychometrics
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , March 1987 , pp. 275 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

I am grateful to Robert J. Mislevy, Martha L. Stocking, and Marilyn S. Wingersky for many helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. I would also like to thank Hamid Kamrani and Bongmyoung Park for getting LOGIST and BILOG running and keeping them running under changing computer systems at CTB/McGraw-Hill.

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