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Specifying Optimum Examinees for Item Parameter Estimation in Item Response Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Martha L. Stocking
Martha L. Stocking*
Affiliation:
Educational Testing Service
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Martha L. Stocking, Mail Stop 03-T, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ 08541.
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Abstract

Information functions are used to find the optimum ability levels and maximum contributions to information for estimating item parameters in three commonly used logistic item response models. For the three and two parameter logistic models, examinees who contribute maximally to the estimation of item difficulty contribute little to the estimation of item discrimination. This suggests that in applications that depend heavily upon the veracity of individual item parameter estimates (e.g. adaptive testing or text construction), better item calibration results may be obtained (for fixed sample sizes) from examinee calibration samples in which ability is widely dispersed.

Keywords

item response theoryIRT item parametersoptimum examineesinformation functionsIRT estimation

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , September 1990 , pp. 461 - 475
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

This work was supported by Contract No. N00014-83-C-0457, project designation NR 150-520, from Cognitive Science Program, Cognitive and Neural Sciences Division, Office of Naval Research and Educational Testing Service through the Program Research Planning Council. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government. The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Maxine B. Kingston in carrying out this study, and to thank Charles Lewis for his many insightful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

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