Geography Library of Test Items. Volume Five.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kouimanos, John, Ed.

As one in a series of test item collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, items of value from past tests are made available to teachers for the construction of unit tests, term examinations or as a basis for class discussion. Each collection was reviewed for content validity and reliability. The…

Textiles and Design Library of Test Items. Volume I.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Jan, Ed.

As one in a series of test item collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, items of value from past tests are made available to teachers for the construction of unit tests, term examinations or as a basis for class discussion. Each collection is reviewed for content validity and reliability. The test…

Commerce Library of Test Items. Volume Two.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meeve, Brian, Ed.

As one in a series of test item collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, items of value from past tests are made available to teachers for the construction of unit tests, term examinations or as a basis for class discussion. Each collection was reviewed for content validity and reliability. The…

Geography Library of Test Items. Volume Six.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kouimanos, John, Ed.

As one in a series of test item collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, items of value from past tests are made available to teachers for the construction of unit tests, term examinations or as a basis for class discussion. Each collection was reviewed for content validity and reliability. The…

Geography: Library of Test Items. Volume II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kouimanos, John, Ed.

As one in a series of test item collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, items of value from past tests are made available to teachers for the construction of unit tests, term examinations or as a basis for class discussion. Each collection was reviewed for content validity and reliability. The…

Geography Library of Test Items. Volume One.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kouimanos, John, Ed.

As one in a series of test item collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, items of value from past tests are made available to teachers for the construction of unit tests, term examinations or as a basis for class discussion. Each collection was reviewed for content validity and reliability. The…

Geography, Years 7-10, Library of Test Items. Volume Eight. Junior Secondary Items To Be Used With 1976 to 1980 H.S.C. Geography Exam. Broadsheets.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kouimanos, John, Ed.

As one in a series of test item collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, items of value from past tests are made available to teachers for the construction of unit tests, term examinations or as a basis for class discussion. Each collection was reviewed for content validity and reliability. The…

Battalion Combat Operations Center (COC) Test. Volume II. Test Report,

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-02-08

reveal, perhaps, that item X can perform a task faster than item-Y. A utility assessment from an experienced, knowledgeable test participant, however...can ascertain whether or not item X can better enable him to accomplish his mission than item Y. 2.4 GENeRALIZED TEST FACILITY. The capabilities of...ATHE MIX D -IX AE4SY MIXES A & C MIX A .IX D M X D IMIX C RATHER DIFFICUJLT VERY DIFFICULT ABILITY TO ABILITY TO ABILITY TO CONTROL DATA EXPLOIT DATA

Australian Biology Test Item Bank, Years 11 and 12. Volume II: Year 12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, David W., Ed.; Sewell, Jeffrey J., Ed.

This document consists of test items which are applicable to biology courses throughout Australia (irrespective of course materials used); assess key concepts within course statement (for both core and optional studies); assess a wide range of cognitive processes; and are relevant to current biological concepts. These items are arranged under…

Australian Biology Test Item Bank, Years 11 and 12. Volume I: Year 11.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, David W., Ed.; Sewell, Jeffrey J., Ed.

This document consists of test items which are applicable to biology courses throughout Australia (irrespective of course materials used); assess key concepts within course statement (for both core and optional studies); assess a wide range of cognitive processes; and are relevant to current biological concepts. These items are arranged under…

Science Library of Test Items. Volume Four: Practical Testing Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New South Wales Dept. of Education, Sydney (Australia).

As one in a series of test items collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, the guide gives a wide range of questions and activities for the manipulation of scientific equipment to allow assessment of students' practical laboratory skills. Instructions are given to make norm-referenced or…

GED Items. Volume 5, Numbers 1-6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

GED Items, 1988

1988-01-01

The first of six issues of the GED Items Newsletter publishied in 1988 contains articles on General Educational Development (GED) mathematics instruction, suggestions for teaching writing, and public relations and marketing. Issue 2 has articles on GED science instruction, GED for Marines, holistic scoring, and a review of the new GED tests.…

7 CFR 28.956 - Prescribed fees.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

..., TESTING, AND STANDARDS Cotton Fiber and Processing Tests Fiber and Processing Tests § 28.956 Prescribed fees. Fees for fiber and processing tests shall be assessed as listed below: Item number and kind of test Fee per test 1.0Calibration cotton for use with High Volume Instruments, per 5 pound package: a. f...

7 CFR 28.956 - Prescribed fees.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

..., TESTING, AND STANDARDS Cotton Fiber and Processing Tests Fiber and Processing Tests § 28.956 Prescribed fees. Fees for fiber and processing tests shall be assessed as listed below: Item number and kind of test Fee per test 1.0Calibration cotton for use with High Volume Instruments, per 5 pound package: a. f...

Citizenship and Education in Twenty-Eight Countries: Civic Knowledge and Engagement at Age Fourteen.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torney-Purta, Judith; Lehmann, Rainer; Oswald, Hans; Schulz, Wolfram

In 1994 the General Assembly of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) decided to undertake a study on civic education. This volume reports on Phase 2 of the project, which consisted of a test (keyed cognitive items) and a survey (un-keyed attitudinal and behavioral items) administered in each…

Science Library of Test Items. Volume Three. Mastery Testing Programme. Introduction and Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New South Wales Dept. of Education, Sydney (Australia).

A set of short tests aimed at measuring student mastery of specific skills in the natural sciences are presented with a description of the mastery program's purposes, development, and methods. Mastery learning, criterion-referenced testing, and the scope of skills to be tested are defined. Each of the multiple choice tests for grades 7 through 10…

Science Library of Test Items. Volume Eleven. Mastery Testing Programme. [Mastery Tests Series 3.] Tests M27-M38.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New South Wales Dept. of Education, Sydney (Australia).

As part of a series of tests to measure mastery of specific skills in the natural sciences, copies of tests 27 through 38 include: (27) reading a grid plan; (28) identifying common invertebrates; (29) characteristics of invertebrates; (30) identifying elements; (31) using scientific notation part I; (32) classifying minerals; (33) predicting the…

[Experience of a Break-Even Point Analysis for Make-or-Buy Decision.].

PubMed

Kim, Yunhee

2006-12-01

Cost containment through continuous quality improvement of medical service is required in an age of a keen competition of the medical market. Laboratory managers should examine the matters on make-or-buy decision periodically. On this occasion, a break-even point analysis can be useful as an analyzing tool. In this study, cost accounting and break-even point (BEP) analysis were performed in case that the immunoassay items showing a recent increase in order volume were to be in-house made. Fixed and variable costs were calculated in case that alpha fetoprotein (AFP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), ferritin, free thyroxine (fT4), triiodothyronine (T3), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), CA 125, CA 19-9, and hepatitis B envelope antibody (HBeAb) were to be tested with Abbott AxSYM instrument. Break-even volume was calculated as fixed cost per year divided by purchasing cost per test minus variable cost per test and BEP ratio as total purchasing costs at break-even volume divided by total purchasing costs at actual annual volume. The average fixed cost per year of AFP, CEA, PSA, ferritin, fT4, T3, TSH, CA 125, CA 19-9, and HBeAb was 8,279,187 won and average variable cost per test, 3,786 won. Average break-even volume was 1,599 and average BEP ratio was 852%. Average BEP ratio without including quality costs such as calibration and quality control was 74%. Because the quality assurance of clinical tests cannot be waived, outsourcing all of 10 items was more adequate than in-house make at the present volume in financial aspect. BEP analysis was useful as a financial tool for make-or-buy decision, the common matter which laboratory managers meet with.

Learner-Centered Instruction (LCI). Volume 5. Description of the Job Performance Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pieper, William J.; And Others

An account is presented of the development of a job performance test for the Learner Centered Instruction (LCI) weapon control systems mechanic/technician Air Force course. The performance test was administered to the LCI experimental course subjects as well as the control course subjects upon graduation. Test items are, for the most part, based…

Science Library of Test Items. Volume Ten. Mastery Testing Programme. [Mastery Tests Series 2.] Tests M14-M26.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New South Wales Dept. of Education, Sydney (Australia).

As part of a series of tests to measure mastery of specific skills in the natural sciences, copies of tests 14 through 26 include: (14) calculating an average; (15) identifying parts of the scientific method; (16) reading a geological map; (17) identifying elements, mixtures and compounds; (18) using Ohm's law in calculation; (19) interpreting…

Archeological Survey and Testing in the Holy Cross Historic District, New Orleans, Louisiana. Volume 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-02-01

467 Table 4 Personal Items from Shovel Tests, 160R130. SURF SURF SURF N15 N5 NO NO $5 S5 1 2 3 W20 El5 E20 W10 E20 EO Bone button, Type B-5 Ceramic...Table 4 . Personal Items from Shovel Tests, 160R130. S15 S20 S20 S25 S25 S30 S30 S30 S32.5 E5 E35 E20 E50 E25 E50 E35 E20 E35 Bone button, Type B-5...1 1 1 7 1 471 Table 4 Personal Items from Shovel Tests, 160R130. S30 S34 S35 S45 S50 TOTAL El0 E35 E30 E30 E55 Bone button, Type B-5 1 1 Ceramic

Development of Two-Tier Diagnostic Test Pictorial-Based for Identifying High School Students Misconceptions on the Mole Concept

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siswaningsih, W.; Firman, H.; Zackiyah; Khoirunnisa, A.

2017-02-01

The aim of this study was to develop the two-tier pictorial-based diagnostic test for identifying student misconceptions on mole concept. The method of this study is used development and validation. The development of the test Obtained through four phases, development of any items, validation, determination key, and application test. Test was developed in the form of pictorial consisting of two tier, the first tier Consist of four possible answers and the second tier Consist of four possible reasons. Based on the results of content validity of 20 items using the CVR (Content Validity Ratio), a number of 18 items declared valid. Based on the results of the reliability test using SPSS, Obtained 17 items with Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0703, the which means that items have accepted. A total of 10 items was conducted to 35 students of senior high school students who have studied the mole concept on one of the high schools in Cimahi. Based on the results of the application test, student misconceptions were identified in each label concept in mole concept with the percentage of misconceptions on the label concept of mole (60.15%), Avogadro’s number (34.28%), relative atomic mass (62, 84%), relative molecule mass (77.08%), molar mass (68.53%), molar volume of gas (57.11%), molarity (71.32%), chemical equation (82.77%), limiting reactants (91.40%), and molecular formula (77.13%).

The role of difficulty and gender in numbers, algebra, geometry and mathematics achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabab'h, Belal Sadiq Hamed; Veloo, Arsaythamby; Perumal, Selvan

2015-05-01

This study aims to identify the role of difficulty and gender in numbers, algebra, geometry and mathematics achievement among secondary schools students in Jordan. The respondent of the study were 337 students from eight public secondary school in Alkoura district by using stratified random sampling. The study comprised of 179 (53%) males and 158 (47%) females students. The mathematics test comprises of 30 items which has eight items for numbers, 14 items for algebra and eight items for geometry. Based on difficulties among male and female students, the findings showed that item 4 (fractions - 0.34) was most difficult for male students and item 6 (square roots - 0.39) for females in numbers. For the algebra, item 11 (inequality - 0.23) was most difficult for male students and item 6 (algebraic expressions - 0.35) for female students. In geometry, item 3 (reflection - 0.34) was most difficult for male students and item 8 (volume - 0.33) for female students. Based on gender differences, female students showed higher achievement in numbers and algebra compare to male students. On the other hand, there was no differences between male and female students achievement in geometry test. This study suggest that teachers need to give more attention on numbers and algebra when teaching mathematics.

Correlation between remnant inferior turbinate volume and symptom severity of empty nose syndrome.

PubMed

Hong, Hye Ran; Jang, Yong Ju

2016-06-01

Empty nose syndrome (ENS) is an iatrogenic disorder caused by turbinate reduction procedures, which results in considerable nasal dysfunction and severely impaired quality of life. However, there is a lack of data that explains the relationship between the degree of turbinate reduction and subjective symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of remnant inferior turbinate volume on symptom severity. We retrospectively analyzed data from 34 patients who were diagnosed with ENS. All patients underwent computed tomography scanning and completed the SNOT-25 questionnaire. The control group consisted of 10 patients with pituitary adenoma who did not have any sinonasal symptoms or abnormalities. The inferior turbinate volumes were compared between groups, and the correlation between inferior turbinate volumes (ITVs) and Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-25 (SNOT-25) was also evaluated. The ENS group presented with a significantly smaller inferior turbinate volume than the control group (P < 0.001). The overall SNOT-25 score demonstrated no statistically significant correlation with anterior, posterior, or total ITV (P > 0.05, respectively). Among the various items on SNOT-25, a high dryness score was significantly correlated with a smaller total inferior turbinate volume (P = 0.030). Facial pain was significantly correlated with smaller anterior ITV (P = 0.011). In addition, patients who had smaller posterior inferior turbinate volume demonstrated higher scores on specific SNOT-25 items. A smaller inferior turbinate volume is significantly associated with specific SNOT-25 items in ENS patients. 4. Laryngoscope, 126:1290-1295, 2016. © 2015 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Conceptual elaboration versus direct lexical access in WAIS-similarities: differential effects of white-matter lesions and gray matter volumes.

PubMed

Fernaeus, Sven-Erik; Hellström, Åke

2017-09-18

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) subscale Similarities have been classified as a test of either verbal comprehension or of inductive reasoning. The reason may be that items divide into two categories. We tested the hypothesis of heterogeneity of items in WAIS-Similarities. Consecutive patients at a memory clinic and healthy controls participated in the study. White-matter hyperintensities (WMHs) and normalized temporal lobe volumes were measured based on Magnetic resonance Imaging (MRI), and tests of verbal memory and attention were used in addition to WAIS-Similarities to collect behavioural data. Factor analysis supported the hypothesis that two factors are involved in the performance of WAIS-similarities: (1) semiautomatic lexical access and (2) conceptual elaboration. These factors were highly correlated but provided discriminative diagnostic information: In logistic regression analyses, scores of the lexical access factor and of the conceptual elaboration factor discriminated patients with mild cognitive impairment from Alzheimer's disease patients and from healthy controls, respectively. High scores of WMH, indicating periventricular white-matter lesions, predicted factor scores of direct lexical access but not those of conceptual elaboration, which were predicted only by medial and lateral temporal lobe volumes.

Science Library of Test Items. Volume Nine. Mastery Testing Programme. [Mastery Tests Series 1.] Tests M1-M13.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New South Wales Dept. of Education, Sydney (Australia).

As part of a series of tests to measure mastery of specific skills in the natural sciences, copies of the first 13 tests are provided. Skills to be tested include: (1) reading a table; (2) using a biological key; (3) identifying chemical symbols; (4) identifying parts of a human body; (5) reading a line graph; (6) identifying electronic and…

The discrimination of discrete and continuous amounts in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus).

PubMed

Aïn, Syrina Al; Giret, Nicolas; Grand, Marion; Kreutzer, Michel; Bovet, Dalila

2009-01-01

A wealth of research in infants and animals demonstrates discrimination of quantities, in some cases nonverbal numerical perception, and even elementary calculation capacities. We investigated the ability of three African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) to select the largest amount of food between two sets, either discrete food items (experiment 1) or as volume of a food substance (experiment 2). The two amounts were presented simultaneously and were visible at the time of choice. Parrots were tested several times for all possible combinations between 1 and 5 seeds or 0.2 and 1 ml of food substance. In both conditions, subjects performed above chance for almost all combinations. Accuracy was negatively correlated with the ratio, that is performance improved with greater differences between amounts. Therefore, these results with both individual items and volume discrimination suggest that parrots use an analogue of magnitude, rather than object-file mechanisms to quantify items and substances.

Direct amplification of casework bloodstains using the Promega PowerPlex(®) 21 PCR amplification system.

PubMed

Gray, Kerryn; Crowle, Damian; Scott, Pam

2014-09-01

A significant number of evidence items submitted to Forensic Science Service Tasmania (FSST) are blood swabs or bloodstained items. Samples from these items routinely undergo phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol organic extraction and quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) testing prior to PowerPlex(®) 21 amplification. This multi-step process has significant cost and timeframe implications in a fiscal climate of tightening government budgets, pressure towards improved operating efficiencies, and an increasing emphasis on rapid techniques better supporting intelligence-led policing. Direct amplification of blood and buccal cells on cloth and Whatman FTA™ card with PowerPlex(®) 21 has already been successfully implemented for reference samples, eliminating the requirement for sample pre-treatment. Scope for expanding this method to include less pristine casework blood swabs and samples from bloodstained items was explored in an endeavour to eliminate lengthy DNA extraction, purification and qPCR steps for a wider subset of samples. Blood was deposited onto a range of substrates including those historically found to inhibit STR amplification. Samples were collected with micro-punch, micro-swab, or both. The potential for further fiscal savings via reduced volume amplifications was assessed by amplifying all samples at full and reduced volume (25 and 13μL). Overall success rate data showed 80% of samples yielded a complete profile at reduced volume, compared to 78% at full volume. Particularly high success rates were observed for the blood on fabric/textile category with 100% of micro-punch samples yielding complete profiles at reduced volume and 85% at full volume. Following the success of this trial, direct amplification of suitable casework blood samples has been implemented at reduced volume. Significant benefits have been experienced, most noticeably where results from crucial items have been provided to police investigators prior to interview of suspects, and a coronial identification has been successfully completed in a short timeframe to avoid delay in the release of human remains to family members. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Science Library of Test Items. Volume Twelve. Mastery Testing Programme. [Mastery Tests Series 4.] Tests M39-M50.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New South Wales Dept. of Education, Sydney (Australia).

As part of a series of tests to measure mastery of specific skills in the natural sciences, copies of tests 39 through 50 include: (39) using a code; (40) naming the parts of a microscope; (41) calculating density and predicting flotation; (42) estimating metric length; (43) using SI symbols; (44) using s=vt; (45) applying a novel theory; (46)…

Science Library of Test Items. Volume Thirteen. Mastery Testing Program. [Mastery Tests Series 5.] Tests M51-M65.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New South Wales Dept. of Education, Sydney (Australia).

As part of a series of tests to measure mastery of specific skills in the natural sciences, copies of tests 51 through 65 include: (51) interpreting atomic and mass numbers; (52) extrapolating from a geological map; (53) matching geological sections and maps; (54) identifying parts of the human eye; (55) identifying the functions of parts of a…

Nondestructive testing techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bray, Don E.; McBride, Don

A comprehensive reference covering a broad range of techniques in nondestructive testing is presented. Based on years of extensive research and application at NASA and other government research facilities, the book provides practical guidelines for selecting the appropriate testing methods and equipment. Topics discussed include visual inspection, penetrant and chemical testing, nuclear radiation, sonic and ultrasonic, thermal and microwave, magnetic and electromagnetic techniques, and training and human factors. (No individual items are abstracted in this volume)

Does size and buoyancy affect the long-distance transport of floating debris?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryan, Peter G.

2015-08-01

Floating persistent debris, primarily made from plastic, disperses long distances from source areas and accumulates in oceanic gyres. However, biofouling can increase the density of debris items to the point where they sink. Buoyancy is related to item volume, whereas fouling is related to surface area, so small items (which have high surface area to volume ratios) should start to sink sooner than large items. Empirical observations off South Africa support this prediction: moving offshore from coastal source areas there is an increase in the size of floating debris, an increase in the proportion of highly buoyant items (e.g. sealed bottles, floats and foamed plastics), and a decrease in the proportion of thin items such as plastic bags and flexible packaging which have high surface area to volume ratios. Size-specific sedimentation rates may be one reason for the apparent paucity of small plastic items floating in the world’s oceans.

Small-Item Vapor Test Method, FY11 Release

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-07-01

to this test procedure is provided alphabetically in the following list: absorption: The uptake of a contaminant INTO the volume of a material. The... powders , wipes), or gas-phase (fumigants, including aerosols). decontamination process: The process of making any person, object, or area safe by...with another contaminant. Generally, bare metals and glass are nonsorptive materials for some agents. operational decontamination: Decontamination

A novel multi-item joint replenishment problem considering multiple type discounts.

PubMed

Cui, Ligang; Zhang, Yajun; Deng, Jie; Xu, Maozeng

2018-01-01

In business replenishment, discount offers of multi-item may either provide different discount schedules with a single discount type, or provide schedules with multiple discount types. The paper investigates the joint effects of multiple discount schemes on the decisions of multi-item joint replenishment. In this paper, a joint replenishment problem (JRP) model, considering three discount (all-unit discount, incremental discount, total volume discount) offers simultaneously, is constructed to determine the basic cycle time and joint replenishment frequencies of multi-item. To solve the proposed problem, a heuristic algorithm is proposed to find the optimal solutions and the corresponding total cost of the JRP model. Numerical experiment is performed to test the algorithm and the computational results of JRPs under different discount combinations show different significance in the replenishment cost reduction.

Reading Ability and Print Exposure: Item Response Theory Analysis of the Author Recognition Test

PubMed Central

Moore, Mariah; Gordon, Peter C.

2015-01-01

In the Author Recognition Test (ART) participants are presented with a series of names and foils and are asked to indicate which ones they recognize as authors. The test is a strong predictor of reading skill, with this predictive ability generally explained as occurring because author knowledge is likely acquired through reading or other forms of print exposure. This large-scale study (1012 college student participants) used Item Response Theory (IRT) to analyze item (author) characteristics to facilitate identification of the determinants of item difficulty, provide a basis for further test development, and to optimize scoring of the ART. Factor analysis suggests a potential two factor structure of the ART differentiating between literary vs. popular authors. Effective and ineffective author names were identified so as to facilitate future revisions of the ART. Analyses showed that the ART is a highly significant predictor of time spent encoding words as measured using eye-tracking during reading. The relationship between the ART and time spent reading provided a basis for implementing a higher penalty for selecting foils, rather than the standard method of ART scoring (names selected minus foils selected). The findings provide novel support for the view that the ART is a valid indicator of reading volume. Further, they show that frequency data can be used to select items of appropriate difficulty and that frequency data from corpora based on particular time periods and types of text may allow test adaptation for different populations. PMID:25410405

Reading ability and print exposure: item response theory analysis of the author recognition test.

PubMed

Moore, Mariah; Gordon, Peter C

2015-12-01

In the author recognition test (ART), participants are presented with a series of names and foils and are asked to indicate which ones they recognize as authors. The test is a strong predictor of reading skill, and this predictive ability is generally explained as occurring because author knowledge is likely acquired through reading or other forms of print exposure. In this large-scale study (1,012 college student participants), we used item response theory (IRT) to analyze item (author) characteristics in order to facilitate identification of the determinants of item difficulty, provide a basis for further test development, and optimize scoring of the ART. Factor analysis suggested a potential two-factor structure of the ART, differentiating between literary and popular authors. Effective and ineffective author names were identified so as to facilitate future revisions of the ART. Analyses showed that the ART is a highly significant predictor of the time spent encoding words, as measured using eyetracking during reading. The relationship between the ART and time spent reading provided a basis for implementing a higher penalty for selecting foils, rather than the standard method of ART scoring (names selected minus foils selected). The findings provide novel support for the view that the ART is a valid indicator of reading volume. Furthermore, they show that frequency data can be used to select items of appropriate difficulty, and that frequency data from corpora based on particular time periods and types of texts may allow adaptations of the test for different populations.

Volume 42, Issue5 (May 2005)Articles in the Current Issue:Developmental growth in students' concept of energy: Analysis of selected items from the TIMSS database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Xiufeng; McKeough, Anne

2005-05-01

The aim of this study was to develop a model of students' energy concept development. Applying Case's (1985, 1992) structural theory of cognitive development, we hypothesized that students' concept of energy undergoes a series of transitions, corresponding to systematic increases in working memory capacity. The US national sample from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) database was used to test our hypothesis. Items relevant to the energy concept in the TIMSS test booklets for three populations were identified. Item difficulty from Rasch modeling was used to test the hypothesized developmental sequence, and percentage of students' correct responses was used to test the correspondence between students' age/grade level and level of the energy concepts. The analysis supported our hypothesized sequence of energy concept development and suggested mixed effects of maturation and schooling on energy concept development. Further, the results suggest that curriculum and instruction design take into consideration the developmental progression of students' concept of energy.

Synthetic Vision Technology Demonstration. Volume 4. Appendices

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-12-01

Synthetic Vision System and where advanced miaoebaro. tehnology would make signditcan oiprovements in capgwy or poduction cost. 2-6 SVSTDISIED Program Plan...achievement. 4. Determination of the pilot (test subject) mix and the test repetition needed to assure reasonable confidence In the results. 5...will contain the following elements: 1. Description - statement of what is to be accomplished. 2. Initial Conditions - items which must be accomplished

Tabular Summary of the Third Follow-Up Questionnaire Data. Volume 1 [and] Volume 2 [and] Volume 3 [and] Volume 4. Sponsored Report Series NCES 79-228.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peng, Samuel S.; And Others

Tabular summaries of the 153 numerical responses to the Second Followup Questionnaire items of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 are presented--20,872 individuals responded. These items summarize participants' educational experiences and occupational attainments from October 1973 to October 1974; continuing or…

ISAARE: Information System for Adaptive, Assistive, and Recreational Equipment: Volume I: Existence; Volume II, Communication; Volume V, Adaptation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melichar, Joseph F.

Described as part of the Information System for Adaptive, Assistive and Recreational Equipment are equipment items for physically handicapped pupils in the functional areas of existence, equipment and adaptation. Reviewed in the existence section are such items as assistive food containers and container stabilizers, feeder accessories, bowel and…

The Dawn of Development: A Guide for Educating Visually Impaired Young Children. Volume I: Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Umansky, Warren; And Others

The guide offers a means for evaluating specific learning characteristics of visually impaired children at three levels: prereadiness (prekindergarten), readiness (kindergarten), and academic (primary grades). Items are designed to be administered by informal observation and structured testing. Score sheets contain space for reporting two testing…

Power Extension Package (PEP) system definition extension, orbital service module systems analysis study. Volume 12: PEP data item descriptions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Contractor information requirements necessary to support the power extension package project of the space shuttle program are specified for the following categories of data: project management; configuration management; systems engineering and test; manufacturing; reliability, quality assurance and safety; logistics; training; and operations.

Life sciences payload definition and integration study. Volume 3: Preliminary equipment item specification catalog for the carry-on laboratories. [for Spacelab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

All general purpose equipment items contained in the final carry-on laboratory (COL) design concepts are described in terms of specific requirements identified for COL use, hardware status, and technical parameters such as weight, volume, power, range, and precision. Estimated costs for each item are given, along with projected development times.

Biomechanical Analysis of Military Boots: Phase 2. Volume 1. Human User Testing of Military and Commercial Footwear

DTIC Science & Technology

1996-02-01

jungle boots, were subjected to tests of forefoot flexibility, rearfoot stability, outsole wear, water penetration, outsole friction, and impact...Testing of forefoot flexibility with the uppers in place revealed that the combat and the jungle boots were less flexible than all commercial items...began at the time of foot strike , or initial contact of the foot with the ground, and continued through toe-off, or termination of contact of the foot

Engineering Test and Evaluation During High G. Volume III, Anti-G Suits.

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-06-01

items are: 3 inservice units from USAF and IJSN; an RAF unit; and 2 experimental units (lower body full pressure, and capstan). The study of the capstan...inspections are performed by life-support techni- cians whose training and expertise best enable them to evaluate the anti-G suit condition. The TEHG...of testing in one minute." At some installations this test has been waived by USAF Air Training Command (ATC) to "l psig drop from 5 psig in 20 sec

Management of Electronic Test Equipment. Volume 4. DoD Policy.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-07-01

sources of supply , the PIL should not mandate sole source dependenc . but rather limit the variety to a minimum of two items. To clarify the controversy...equipment/ supplies on-hand, equipment readiness, and training. The resource area C-ratings are based on stated criteria. The criteria for equipment...respectively). The UNITREP leaves it up to the Military Services whether to include test equipment in the equipment/ supplies on-hand resource area. Although

Defense AT&L. Volume 40, Number 4, July-August 2011

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-08-01

First Article Test First article testing ( FAT ) can ensure that the contractor can furnish a product that conforms to all contract requirements...for acceptance. It allows you to verify capability before com- mitting to a single vendor for a large quantity. On most occa- sions, FAT will increase...schedule and cost. To manufacture one item is usually very inefficient, so the cost to include FAT has to be considered. On the other hand, if you

Product specification documentation standard and Data Item Descriptions (DID). Volume of the information system life-cycle and documentation standards, volume 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callender, E. David; Steinbacher, Jody

1989-01-01

This is the third of five volumes on Information System Life-Cycle and Documentation Standards which present a well organized, easily used standard for providing technical information needed for developing information systems, components, and related processes. This volume states the Software Management and Assurance Program documentation standard for a product specification document and for data item descriptions. The framework can be applied to any NASA information system, software, hardware, operational procedures components, and related processes.

Statistical/Documentary Report, 1974 and 1975 Assessments of 17-Year-Old Students, Summary Volume; Functional Literacy Basic Reading Performance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gadway, Charles J.; Wilson, H.A.

This document provides statistical data on the 1974 and 1975 Mini-Assessment of Functional Literacy, which was designed to determine the extent of functional literacy among seventeen year olds in America. Also presented are data from comparable test items from the 1971 assessment. Three standards are presented, to allow different methods of…

Information management system study results. Volume 2: IMS study results appendixes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1971-01-01

Computer systems program specifications are presented for the modular space station information management system. These are the computer program contract end item, data bus system, data bus breadboard, and display interface adapter specifications. The performance, design, tests, and qualification requirements are established for the implementation of the information management system. For Vol. 1, see N72-19972.

Corrosion-Control (CC) Program SIMA (Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity) Pilot CC (Corrosion-Control) Shop Service Test and Technical Support. Volume 1. Final Report. Sections 1 to 8.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-11-30

fri 11 41 CC -j L ii La u 6: Kl9 L : 1 V)VI Go L...COPELAND) were conducted and 211 items were inspected. Of those degraded items, 64 required rework . Lessons learned from the inspections are proving...8217,," " "-" " ".’...’ " "-’,’-’** .* ". " -.- ".’’-"-*"-.-- " "- -" "- .. ’ ."’. . . ". ".".".. .. . . ." "’ "" .""""-"","" * r DISTRIBUTION (Cont’d) NO. OF COPES Commanding Officer, USS

Logistics Reduction Technologies for Exploration Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Broyan, James L., Jr.; Ewert, Michael K.; Fink, Patrick W.

2014-01-01

Human exploration missions under study are limited by the launch mass capacity of existing and planned launch vehicles. The logistical mass of crew items is typically considered separate from the vehicle structure, habitat outfitting, and life support systems. Although mass is typically the focus of exploration missions, due to its strong impact on launch vehicle and habitable volume for the crew, logistics volume also needs to be considered. NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Logistics Reduction and Repurposing (LRR) Project is developing six logistics technologies guided by a systems engineering cradle-to-grave approach to enable after-use crew items to augment vehicle systems. Specifically, AES LRR is investigating the direct reduction of clothing mass, the repurposing of logistical packaging, the use of autonomous logistics management technologies, the processing of spent crew items to benefit radiation shielding and water recovery, and the conversion of trash to propulsion gases. Reduction of mass has a corresponding and significant impact to logistical volume. The reduction of logistical volume can reduce the overall pressurized vehicle mass directly, or indirectly benefit the mission by allowing for an increase in habitable volume during the mission. The systematic implementation of these types of technologies will increase launch mass efficiency by enabling items to be used for secondary purposes and improve the habitability of the vehicle as mission durations increase. Early studies have shown that the use of advanced logistics technologies can save approximately 20 m(sup 3) of volume during transit alone for a six-person Mars conjunction class mission.

Remedial Investigation Addendum Report Data Item A009. Volume 1: Report Test

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-12-01

depending on chemical form and oxidation state. Environmentally, chromium exists primarily as trivalent and hexavalent compounds. Hexavalent forms are...intracellularly (Goyer, 1991). Hexavalent chromium compounds are found to predominate in air, surface waters, and groundwaters, while the trivalent forms dominate...in sediments and soils (USEPA, 1984b). Chromium in biological samples and foods exists almost exclusively in the trivalent state because of the rapid

Study on a novel core module based on optical fiber bundles for urine dry-chemistry analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Gaiqin; Ma, Zengwei; Li, Rui; Hu, Nan; Chen, Ping; Wang, Fei; Zhang, Ruiying; Chen, Longcong

2017-09-01

A core module with a novel optical structure is presented to analyze urine by the dry-chemistry method in this paper. It consists of a 32-bit microprocessor, optical fiber bundles, a high precision color sensor and a temperature sensor. The optical fiber bundles are adopted to control the spread path of light and reduce the influence of ambient light and the distance between the strip and sensor effectively. And the temperature sensor is applied to detect the environmental temperature to calibrate the measurement results. Therefore, all these can bring a lot of benefits to the core module, such as improving its test accuracy, reducing its volume and cost, and simplifying its assembly. Additionally, some parameters, including the calculation coefficient about reflectivity of each item, semi-quantitative intervals, the number of test items, may be modified by corresponding instructions in order to enhance its applicability. Meanwhile, its outputs can be chosen among the original data, normalized color values, reflectivity, and the semi-quantitative level of each test item by available instructions. Our results show that the module has high measurement accuracy of more than 95%, good stability, reliability, and consistency and can be easily used in various types of urine analyzers.

The Joint Logistics-Over-the-Shore (LOTS) Test and Evaluation Report. Volume I. Conduct of the Test.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-01-05

and deployed with available Military Sealift Command (MSC) shipping. The Army LOTS equipment inventory includes DeLong barges/piers which exceed all...main components of the facility, all items in the Army inventory , can be seen in Figure 2.17. They are: 0 The B DeLong barge, * The 300-ton capacity P&H...only) (1) 8-9 Preliminary Operatio s. The administrative move from Ft. Eustis to the Norfolk Naval Suppiy Center for ship loading and the subsequent

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the main propulsion subsystem FMEA/CIL, volume 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holden, K. A.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the Main Propulsion System (MPS) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to available data from the Rockwell Downey/NASA JSC FMEA/CIL review. Volume 3 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets and includes the potential critical items list.

Apparatus and method for identification and recognition of an item with ultrasonic patterns from item subsurface micro-features

DOEpatents

Perkins, Richard W.; Fuller, James L.; Doctor, Steven R.; Good, Morris S.; Heasler, Patrick G.; Skorpik, James R.; Hansen, Norman H.

1995-01-01

The present invention is a means and method for identification and recognition of an item by ultrasonic imaging of material microfeatures and/or macrofeatures within the bulk volume of a material. The invention is based upon ultrasonic interrogation and imaging of material microfeatures within the body of material by accepting only reflected ultrasonic energy from a preselected plane or volume within the material. An initial interrogation produces an identification reference. Subsequent new scans are statistically compared to the identification reference for making a match/non-match decision.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the main propulsion subsystem FMEA/CIL, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holden, K. A.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the Main Propulsion System (MPS) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were than compared to available data from the Rockwell Downey/NASA JSC FMEA/CIL review. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets for MPS hardware items.

Apparatus and method for identification and recognition of an item with ultrasonic patterns from item subsurface micro-features

DOEpatents

Perkins, R.W.; Fuller, J.L.; Doctor, S.R.; Good, M.S.; Heasler, P.G.; Skorpik, J.R.; Hansen, N.H.

1995-09-26

The present invention is a means and method for identification and recognition of an item by ultrasonic imaging of material microfeatures and/or macrofeatures within the bulk volume of a material. The invention is based upon ultrasonic interrogation and imaging of material microfeatures within the body of material by accepting only reflected ultrasonic energy from a preselected plane or volume within the material. An initial interrogation produces an identification reference. Subsequent new scans are statistically compared to the identification reference for making a match/non-match decision. 15 figs.

Volume of the human septal forebrain region is a predictor of source memory accuracy.

PubMed

Butler, Tracy; Blackmon, Karen; Zaborszky, Laszlo; Wang, Xiuyuan; DuBois, Jonathan; Carlson, Chad; Barr, William B; French, Jacqueline; Devinsky, Orrin; Kuzniecky, Ruben; Halgren, Eric; Thesen, Thomas

2012-01-01

Septal nuclei, components of basal forebrain, are strongly and reciprocally connected with hippocampus, and have been shown in animals to play a critical role in memory. In humans, the septal forebrain has received little attention. To examine the role of human septal forebrain in memory, we acquired high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans from 25 healthy subjects and calculated septal forebrain volume using recently developed probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps. We indexed memory with the California Verbal Learning Test-II. Linear regression showed that bilateral septal forebrain volume was a significant positive predictor of recognition memory accuracy. More specifically, larger septal forebrain volume was associated with the ability to recall item source/context accuracy. Results indicate specific involvement of septal forebrain in human source memory, and recall the need for additional research into the role of septal nuclei in memory and other impairments associated with human diseases.

The language of science and the high school student: The recognition of concept definitions: A comparison between hindi speaking students in India and english speaking students in Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lynch, P. P.; Chipman, H. H.; Pachaury, A. C.

Sixteen concept words (mass, length, area, volume, solid, liquid, gas, element, compound, mixture, electron, proton, neutron, atom, molecule, and ion) associated with the theme, the nature of matter were described as simple text book definitions after examination of classroom notes and school texts of the last three decades. Sixteen multiple-choice items all of the same form were constructed for each of the concept definitions. The English version of the sixteen item test was given to 1635 high school students in Tasmania (where the language of instruction and the home language is English) and the Hindi version of the test was given to 826 students from the Bhopal/Barwani region of India where the medium of instruction is Hindi. The English and Hindi speaking data are compared from the point of view of development, performance for individual items, and overall performance at grade 10. A number of linguistic hypotheses are examined and reported upon. Although the overall score at grade 10 was identical (10.8/16) for both groups there are differences in development overall and for individual items which are of interest. Overall, the science specificity of the Hindi words does not appear to confer any clearly defined advantage or disadvantage though again there are some interesting individual anomolies.

Software For Nearly Optimal Packing Of Cargo

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fennel, Theron R.; Daughtrey, Rodney S.; Schwaab, Doug G.

1994-01-01

PACKMAN computer program used to find nearly optimal arrangements of cargo items in storage containers, subject to such multiple packing objectives as utilization of volumes of containers, utilization of containers up to limits on weights, and other considerations. Automatic packing algorithm employed attempts to find best positioning of cargo items in container, such that volume and weight capacity of container both utilized to maximum extent possible. Written in Common LISP.

Department of Defense Logistics Roadmap 2008. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-07-01

machine readable identification mark on the Department’s tangible qualifying assets, and establishes the data management protocols needed to...uniquely identify items with a Unique Item Identifier (UII) via machine - readable information (MRI) marking represented by a two-dimensional data...property items with a machine -readable Unique Item Identifier (UII), which is a set of globally unique data elements. The UII is used in functional

Federal Logistics Information System. FLIS Procedures Manual Publications. Volume 15.

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-01-01

which provides for the processing of adjustments/revisions to established item identifications and characteristics in the FLIS Data Base. Item Logistics...A function in FLIS which provides for the processing of adjustments/revisions to established item identifications and characteristics in the FLIS...the materiel management functions for assigned items. Mechanization of Warehousing and Shipment Processing (MOWASP). A uniform data 6 system designed

Journal of Special Operations Medicine, Volume 3, Edition 1

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-01-01

manufacturing processes. They can also require special in- plant test- ing procedures before the item or system is finally turned over to the military for further...trials of aspirin for treatment or of ibuprofen for prevention; naproxen ineffective Aspirin Ibuprofen Prevention of headache 400 or 600 mg orally once...and is the Installation Medical Authority for the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant , McAlester, Oklahoma. 1) Vedder, James A., Combat Surgeon: Up

Army Communicator. Volume 35, Number 2

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

official U.S. Army position and does not change or supersede any information in other official U.S. Army publications. Use of news items constitutes...familiar with the Bain electrochemical telegraph system. Myer used this experience to devise A New Sign Language for Deaf Mutes, the subject of his...Signal officer on 27 June thus becoming the first Signal officer in the U.S. Army. Myer tested his wigwag system during operations in New

The 25 kW power module evolution study. Part 3: Conceptual designs for power module evolution. Volume 2: Program plans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

A plan is presented for the evolutionary development and deployment of the power module system with performance capabilities required to support the 1983 to 1990 user requirements. Aspects summarized include program functional, operational, and hardware elements; program work breakdown and specification items; development plans and schedules for developmental and technology milestones; test concepts and timeliness; and ground and orbit operations concepts.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the reaction control system, volume 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prust, Chet D.; Hartman, Dan W.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the aft and forward Reaction Control System (RCS) hardware and Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C), generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. The IOA results were then compared to the proposed Post 51-L NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter RCS hardware and EPD and C systems. Volume 4 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets and contains the potential critical items list.

A Sixteen Item Trait Anxiety Scale for Children and Children, Physiological Sweating, Teaching Approaches and Anxiety. Research Reports, Volume III, Issue IV.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rupnow, Allan A.

Two research reports are included in this document. The first is a study of children's anxiety. A sixteen-item trait anxiety scale was used on a population of students in grades 4 through 6. The first ten items measured anxiety about making mistakes in performing physical education activities, and the remaining six items measured general anxiety.…

Selecting Items for Criterion-Referenced Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mellenbergh, Gideon J.; van der Linden, Wim J.

1982-01-01

Three item selection methods for criterion-referenced tests are examined: the classical theory of item difficulty and item-test correlation; the latent trait theory of item characteristic curves; and a decision-theoretic approach for optimal item selection. Item contribution to the standardized expected utility of mastery testing is discussed. (CM)

Room to Live: the sizing of Lunar and Martian Habitats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGregor, Walter L.

2006-01-01

In order for man to return to space or extra terrestrial bodies for long duration missions it is important that adequate habitat volume be defined early to avoid costly delays and redesign. To properly define a habitat volume two major factors need to be considered. The first factor is the free or open space. This is the space that allows the crew room to move about the habitat. This space will vary based on crew size and length of the mission. The second major factor is the stowage space required for equipment and supplies. This includes both fixed volumes and consumables. Fixed volumes include items such as tools, communication equipment, Advanced Life Support (ALS) equipment, and support equipment. Consumables include items like filters, food, water and oxygen. This space is also dependent on crew size and mission length. A review of past missions into alien environments, such as deep sea habitats as well as space based habitats will be used to validate the assumption made in this paper. Once these key factors are defined trades must be run to optimize the overall volume of a habitat. This includes trades of disposable vs. reusable for items such as clothing, dishes, and water. Another factor to consider is the availability of in situ resources to aid in the construction of the habitat structure as well as re-supply of consumable items. A review of past missions into alien environments, such as deep sea habitats as well as space based habitats will be used to validate the assumption made in this paper. The result is a habitat sizing tool to provide a first order estimate of habitat volumes for extended mission to the surface of the moon and Mars.

ISS Asset Tracking Using SAW RFID Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schellhase, Amy; Powers, Annie

2004-01-01

A team at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is undergoing final preparations to test Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to track assets aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Currently, almost 10,000 U.S. items onboard the ISS are tracked within a database maintained by both the JSC ground teams and crew onboard the ISS. This barcode-based inventory management system has successfully tracked the location of 97% of the items onboard, but its accuracy is dependant on the crew to report hardware movements, taking valuable time away from science and other activities. With the addition of future modules, the volume of inventory to be tracked is expected to increase significantly. The first test of RFID technology on ISS, which will be conducted by the Expedition 16 crew later this year, will evaluate the ability of RFID technology to track consumable items. These consumables, which include office supplies and clothing, are regularly supplied to ISS and can be tagged on the ground. Automation will eliminate line-of-sight auditing requirements, directly saving crew time. This first step in automating an inventory tracking system will pave the way for future uses of RFID for inventory tracking in space. Not only are there immediate benefits for ISS applications, it is a crucial step to ensure efficient logistics support for future vehicles and exploration missions where resupplies are not readily available. Following a successful initial test, the team plans to execute additional tests for new technology, expanded operations concepts, and increased automation.

JPRS Report, East Europe.

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-01-26

9 Dec 92 p 4 [Article by B. Dicevska: "A Test of the New Efficiency"] [Text] Next year’s volume of exports, when actually the ... living expenses is gradually beginning to affect Czech and Slovak households. New items are being added to the families’ expenses, which earlier...Months Fall 1992 CR SR Do Not Know 10 16 Prices Will Fall 5 4 Economic Developments in the Next 12 Months A stable share of about 40 percent of the

Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Military Testing Association (22nd) held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 27-31 October 1980. Volume 2.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-12-01

instructional skills and tasks viewed in greater accord with student learning and retention performance objectives, their instruction has gained added...research reports to evaluate higher levels of cognitive learning and communications abilities . However, the primary interest of this paper is the use of...would gain freedom of expression in answering items. c. Students could better demonstrate higher levels of cognitive learning . d. Students could

An Evaluation of Non-Formal Education in Ecuador. Volume 4: Appendices. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laosa, Luis M.; And Others

As the final volume in a 4-volume evaluation report on the University of Massachusetts Non-Formal Education Project (UMass NFEP) initiated in rural Ecuador in 1973, this volume presents appendices to volumes I-III. Appendix A includes the following items: (1) Community Demographic Profile; (2) Description of Introduction to the Community; (3)…

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the communication and tracking subsystem, volume 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Long, W. C.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed and analysis of the Communication and Tracking hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison is provided through additional analysis as required. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter Communication and Tracking hardware. Volume 3 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets and contains the potential critical items list, detailed analysis, and the NASA FMEA to IOA worksheet cross reference and recommendations.

An evaluation of the NASA Tech House, including live-in test results, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, I. H. A.; Hopping, K. A.; Hypes, W. D.

1979-01-01

The NASA Tech House was designed and constructed at the NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, to demonstrate and evaluate new technology potentially applicable for conservation of energy and resources and for improvements in safety and security in a single-family residence. All technology items, including solar-energy systems and a waste-water-reuse system, were evaluated under actual living conditions for a 1 year period with a family of four living in the house in their normal lifestyle. Results are presented which show overall savings in energy and resources compared with requirements for a defined similar conventional house under the same conditions. General operational experience and performance data are also included for all the various items and systems of technology incorporated into the house design.

Australian Item Bank Program: Science Item Bank. Book 3: Biology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Australian Council for Educational Research, Hawthorn.

The Australian Science Item Bank consists of three volumes of multiple-choice questions. Book 3 contains questions on the biological sciences. The questions are designed to be suitable for high school students (year 8 to year 12 in Australian schools). The questions are classified by the subject content of the question, the cognitive skills…

An Item Gains and Losses Analysis of False Memories Suggests Critical Items Receive More Item-Specific Processing than List Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Daniel J.; Martens, Nicholas J.; Bertoni, Alicia A.; Sweeney, Emily J.; Lividini, Michelle D.

2006-01-01

In a repeated testing paradigm, list items receiving item-specific processing are more likely to be recovered across successive tests (item gains), whereas items receiving relational processing are likely to be forgotten progressively less on successive tests. Moreover, analysis of cumulative-recall curves has shown that item-specific processing…

Unidimensional IRT Item Parameter Estimates across Equivalent Test Forms with Confounding Specifications within Dimensions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matlock, Ki Lynn; Turner, Ronna

2016-01-01

When constructing multiple test forms, the number of items and the total test difficulty are often equivalent. Not all test developers match the number of items and/or average item difficulty within subcontent areas. In this simulation study, six test forms were constructed having an equal number of items and average item difficulty overall.…

Readability Level of Standardized Test Items and Student Performance: The Forgotten Validity Variable

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hewitt, Margaret A.; Homan, Susan P.

2004-01-01

Test validity issues considered by test developers and school districts rarely include individual item readability levels. In this study, items from a major standardized test were examined for individual item readability level and item difficulty. The Homan-Hewitt Readability Formula was applied to items across three grade levels. Results of…

Logistics Reduction and Repurposing Technology for Long Duration Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Broyan, James L.; Chu, Andrew; Ewert, Michael K.

2014-01-01

One of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) projects is the Logistics Reduction and Repurposing (LRR) project, which has the goal of reducing logistics resupply items through direct and indirect means. Various technologies under development in the project will reduce the launch mass of consumables and their packaging, enable reuse and repurposing of items and make logistics tracking more efficient. Repurposing also reduces the trash burden onboard spacecraft and indirectly reduces launch mass by replacing some items on the manifest. Examples include reuse of trash as radiation shielding or propellant. This paper provides the status of the LRR technologies in their third year of development under AES. Advanced clothing systems (ACS) are being developed to enable clothing to be worn longer, directly reducing launch mass. ACS has completed a ground exercise clothing study in preparation for an International Space Station (ISS) technology demonstration in 2014. Development of launch packaging containers and other items that can be repurposed on-orbit as part of habitation outfitting has resulted in a logistics-to-living (L2L) concept. L2L has fabricated and evaluated several multi-purpose cargo transfer bags (MCTBs) for potential reuse on orbit. Autonomous logistics management (ALM) is using radio frequency identification (RFID) to track items and thus reduce crew requirements for logistics functions. An RFID dense reader prototype is under construction and plans for integrated testing are being made. Development of a heat melt compactor (HMC) second generation unit for processing trash into compact and stable tiles is nearing completion. The HMC prototype compaction chamber has been completed and system development testing is underway. Research has been conducted on the conversion of trash-to-gas (TtG) for high levels of volume reduction and for use in propulsion systems. A steam reformation system was selected for further system definition of the TtG technology. And benefits analysis of all LRR technologies have been updated with the latest test and analysis results.

Dual Tasking and Working Memory in Alcoholism: Relation to Frontocerebellar Circuitry

PubMed Central

Chanraud, Sandra; Pitel, Anne-Lise; Rohlfing, Torsten; Pfefferbaum, Adolf; Sullivan, Edith V

2010-01-01

Controversy exists regarding the role of cerebellar systems in cognition and whether working memory compromise commonly marking alcoholism can be explained by compromise of nodes of corticocerebellar circuitry. We tested 17 alcoholics and 31 age-matched controls with dual-task, working memory paradigms. Interference tasks competed with verbal and spatial working memory tasks using low (three item) or high (six item) memory loads. Participants also underwent structural MRI to obtain volumes of nodes of the frontocerebellar system. On the verbal working memory task, both groups performed equally. On the spatial working memory with the high-load task, the alcoholic group was disproportionately more affected by the arithmetic distractor than were controls. In alcoholics, volumes of the left thalamus and left cerebellar Crus I volumes were more robust predictors of performance in the spatial working memory task with the arithmetic distractor than the left frontal superior cortex. In controls, volumes of the right middle frontal gyrus and right cerebellar Crus I were independent predictors over the left cerebellar Crus I, left thalamus, right superior parietal cortex, or left middle frontal gyrus of spatial working memory performance with tracking interference. The brain–behavior correlations suggest that alcoholics and controls relied on the integrity of certain nodes of corticocerebellar systems to perform these verbal and spatial working memory tasks, but that the specific pattern of relationships differed by group. The resulting brain structure–function patterns provide correlational support that components of this corticocerebellar system not typically related to normal performance in dual-task conditions may be available to augment otherwise dampened performance by alcoholics. PMID:20410871

The Effect of the Position of an Item within a Test on the Item Difficulty Value.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rubin, Lois S.; Mott, David E. W.

An investigation of the effect on the difficulty value of an item due to position placement within a test was made. Using a 60-item operational test comprised of 5 subtests, 60 items were placed as experimental items on a number of spiralled test forms in three different positions (first, middle, last) within the subtest composed of like items.…

Relevance of Item Analysis in Standardizing an Achievement Test in Teaching of Physical Science in B.Ed Syllabus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marie, S. Maria Josephine Arokia; Edannur, Sreekala

2015-01-01

This paper focused on the analysis of test items constructed in the paper of teaching Physical Science for B.Ed. class. It involved the analysis of difficulty level and discrimination power of each test item. Item analysis allows selecting or omitting items from the test, but more importantly item analysis is a tool to help the item writer improve…

Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Military Testing Association (23rd) held at Arlington, Virginia on 25-30 October 1981. Volume 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-10-01

differentiated the high from low performers on * the criterion. Once a total score based on the differentiating items was computed, this score was... high school or worked a certain number of hours while in school, perform better on the FST, receive higher ratings on training school criteria and...closets are not related to performance on the FST, even though they would have a high probability of correlating with job proficiency measures. From

The 25 kW power module evolution study. Part 3: Conceptual design for power module evolution. Volume 6: WBS and dictionary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Program elements of the power module (PM) system, are identified, structured, and defined according to the planned work breakdown structure. Efforts required to design, develop, manufacture, test, checkout, launch and operate a protoflight assembled 25 kW, 50 kW and 100 kW PM include the preparation and delivery of related software, government furnished equipment, space support equipment, ground support equipment, launch site verification software, orbital verification software, and all related data items.

Mixed-Format Test Score Equating: Effect of Item-Type Multidimensionality, Length and Composition of Common-Item Set, and Group Ability Difference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Wei

2013-01-01

Mixed-format tests containing both multiple-choice (MC) items and constructed-response (CR) items are now widely used in many testing programs. Mixed-format tests often are considered to be superior to tests containing only MC items although the use of multiple item formats leads to measurement challenges in the context of equating conducted under…

Test item linguistic complexity and assessments for deaf students.

PubMed

Cawthon, Stephanie

2011-01-01

Linguistic complexity of test items is one test format element that has been studied in the context of struggling readers and their participation in paper-and-pencil tests. The present article presents findings from an exploratory study on the potential relationship between linguistic complexity and test performance for deaf readers. A total of 64 students completed 52 multiple-choice items, 32 in mathematics and 20 in reading. These items were coded for linguistic complexity components of vocabulary, syntax, and discourse. Mathematics items had higher linguistic complexity ratings than reading items, but there were no significant relationships between item linguistic complexity scores and student performance on the test items. The discussion addresses issues related to the subject area, student proficiency levels in the test content, factors to look for in determining a "linguistic complexity effect," and areas for further research in test item development and deaf students.

The Selection of Test Items for Decision Making with a Computer Adaptive Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spray, Judith A.; Reckase, Mark D.

The issue of test-item selection in support of decision making in adaptive testing is considered. The number of items needed to make a decision is compared for two approaches: selecting items from an item pool that are most informative at the decision point or selecting items that are most informative at the examinee's ability level. The first…

Development and psychometric evaluation of an information literacy self-efficacy survey and an information literacy knowledge test.

PubMed

Tepe, Rodger; Tepe, Chabha

2015-03-01

To develop and psychometrically evaluate an information literacy (IL) self-efficacy survey and an IL knowledge test. In this test-retest reliability study, a 25-item IL self-efficacy survey and a 50-item IL knowledge test were developed and administered to a convenience sample of 53 chiropractic students. Item analyses were performed on all questions. The IL self-efficacy survey demonstrated good reliability (test-retest correlation = 0.81) and good/very good internal consistency (mean κ = .56 and Cronbach's α = .92). A total of 25 questions with the best item analysis characteristics were chosen from the 50-item IL knowledge test, resulting in a 25-item IL knowledge test that demonstrated good reliability (test-retest correlation = 0.87), very good internal consistency (mean κ = .69, KR20 = 0.85), and good item discrimination (mean point-biserial = 0.48). This study resulted in the development of three instruments: a 25-item IL self-efficacy survey, a 50-item IL knowledge test, and a 25-item IL knowledge test. The information literacy self-efficacy survey and the 25-item version of the information literacy knowledge test have shown preliminary evidence of adequate reliability and validity to justify continuing study with these instruments.

A New Item Selection Procedure for Mixed Item Type in Computerized Classification Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lau, C. Allen; Wang, Tianyou

This paper proposes a new Information-Time index as the basis for item selection in computerized classification testing (CCT) and investigates how this new item selection algorithm can help improve test efficiency for item pools with mixed item types. It also investigates how practical constraints such as item exposure rate control, test…

Management plan documentation standard and Data Item Descriptions (DID). Volume of the information system life-cycle and documentation standards, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callender, E. David; Steinbacher, Jody

1989-01-01

This is the second of five volumes of the Information System Life-Cycle and Documentation Standards. This volume provides a well-organized, easily used standard for management plans used in acquiring, assuring, and developing information systems and software, hardware, and operational procedures components, and related processes.

LEARN JAPANESE--ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEXT, VOLUME II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

SATO, YAEKO; AND OTHERS

THIS TEXT WAS WRITTEN FOR THE USE OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER OF JAPANESE. IT IS TO BE USED IN THE SECOND SEMESTER OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDY AND FOLLOWS THE AUDIO-LINGUAL ORIENTATION OF VOLUME I. THE MAIN GOAL OF BOTH VOLUMES IS "TO ELEVATE THE PUPIL'S MOTIVATION AND TO CULTIVATE PROPER PRONUNCIATION HABITS." THE NEW ITEMS IN VOLUME II…

A Process for Reviewing and Evaluating Generated Test Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gierl, Mark J.; Lai, Hollis

2016-01-01

Testing organization needs large numbers of high-quality items due to the proliferation of alternative test administration methods and modern test designs. But the current demand for items far exceeds the supply. Test items, as they are currently written, evoke a process that is both time-consuming and expensive because each item is written,…

What's in a Topic? Exploring the Interaction between Test-Taker Age and Item Content in High-Stakes Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banerjee, Jayanti; Papageorgiou, Spiros

2016-01-01

The research reported in this article investigates differential item functioning (DIF) in a listening comprehension test. The study explores the relationship between test-taker age and the items' language domains across multiple test forms. The data comprise test-taker responses (N = 2,861) to a total of 133 unique items, 46 items of which were…

Item validity vs. item discrimination index: a redundancy?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panjaitan, R. L.; Irawati, R.; Sujana, A.; Hanifah, N.; Djuanda, D.

2018-03-01

In several literatures about evaluation and test analysis, it is common to find that there are calculations of item validity as well as item discrimination index (D) with different formula for each. Meanwhile, other resources said that item discrimination index could be obtained by calculating the correlation between the testee’s score in a particular item and the testee’s score on the overall test, which is actually the same concept as item validity. Some research reports, especially undergraduate theses tend to include both item validity and item discrimination index in the instrument analysis. It seems that these concepts might overlap for both reflect the test quality on measuring the examinees’ ability. In this paper, examples of some results of data processing on item validity and item discrimination index were compared. It would be discussed whether item validity and item discrimination index can be represented by one of them only or it should be better to present both calculations for simple test analysis, especially in undergraduate theses where test analyses were included.

Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military: Annex to Volume 2. Tabular Results from the 2014 RAND Military Workplace Study for Department of Defense Service Members

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

and OB items as described in the report. For respondents with multiple assaults, classification is based on what happened in the most serious assault...respondents with a single assault, classification is based on answers to SA1–SA6, PF items, and OB items as described in the report. For respondents with...answers to SA1–SA6, PF items, and OB items as described in the report. For respondents with multiple assaults, classification is based on what happened

A Comparison of Three Types of Test Development Procedures Using Classical and Latent Trait Methods.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Jeri; Wilson, Michael

Three methods of item selection were used to select sets of 38 items from a 50-item verbal analogies test and the resulting item sets were compared for internal consistency, standard errors of measurement, item difficulty, biserial item-test correlations, and relative efficiency. Three groups of 1,500 cases each were used for item selection. First…

Examining Differential Item Functions of Different Item Ordered Test Forms According to Item Difficulty Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çokluk, Ömay; Gül, Emrah; Dogan-Gül, Çilem

2016-01-01

The study aims to examine whether differential item function is displayed in three different test forms that have item orders of random and sequential versions (easy-to-hard and hard-to-easy), based on Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) methods and bearing item difficulty levels in mind. In the correlational research, the…

Logistics Reduction and Repurposing Technology for Long Duration Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Broyan, James Lee, Jr.; Chu, Andrew; Ewert, Michael K.

2014-01-01

One of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) projects is the Logistics Reduction and Repurposing (LRR) project, which has the goal of reducing logistics resupply items through direct and indirect means. Various technologies under development in the project will reduce the launch mass of consumables and their packaging, enable reuse and repurposing of items, and make logistics tracking more efficient. Repurposing also reduces the trash burden onboard spacecraft and indirectly reduces launch mass by one manifest item having two purposes rather than two manifest items each having only one purpose. This paper provides the status of each of the LRR technologies in their third year of development under AES. Advanced clothing systems (ACSs) are being developed to enable clothing to be worn longer, directly reducing launch mass. ACS has completed a ground exercise clothing study in preparation for an International Space Station technology demonstration in 2014. Development of launch packaging containers and other items that can be repurposed on-orbit as part of habitation outfitting has resulted in a logistics-to-living (L2L) concept. L2L has fabricated and evaluated several multi-purpose cargo transfer bags for potential reuse on-orbit. Autonomous logistics management is using radio frequency identification (RFID) to track items and thus reduce crew time for logistics functions. An RFID dense reader prototype is under construction and plans for integrated testing are being made. A heat melt compactor (HMC) second generation unit for processing trash into compact and stable tiles is nearing completion. The HMC prototype compaction chamber has been completed and system development testing is under way. Research has been conducted on the conversion of trash-to-gas (TtG) for high levels of volume reduction and for use in propulsion systems. A steam reformation system was selected for further system definition of the TtG technology.

The Effects of Test Length and Sample Size on Item Parameters in Item Response Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin, Alper; Anil, Duygu

2017-01-01

This study investigates the effects of sample size and test length on item-parameter estimation in test development utilizing three unidimensional dichotomous models of item response theory (IRT). For this purpose, a real language test comprised of 50 items was administered to 6,288 students. Data from this test was used to obtain data sets of…

[Perceptions on item disclosure for the Korean medical licensing examination].

PubMed

Yang, Eunbae B

2015-09-01

This study analyzed the perceptions of medical students and faculty regarding disclosure of test items on the Korean medical licensing examination. I conducted a survey of medical students from medical colleges and professional medical schools nationwide. Responses were analyzed from 718 participants as well as 69 faculty members who participated in creating the medical licensing examination item sets. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test. It is important to maintain test quality and to keep the test items unavailable to the public. There are also concerns among students that disclosure of test items would prompt increasing difficulty of test items (48.3%). Further, few students found it desirable to disclose test items regardless of any considerations (28.5%). The professors, who had experience in designing the test items, also expressed their opposition to test item disclosure (60.9%). It is desirable not to disclose the test items of the Korean medical licensing examination to the public on the condition that students are provided with a sufficient amount of information regarding the examination. This is so that the exam can appropriately identify candidates with the required qualifications.

Structural brain correlates of associative memory in older adults.

PubMed

Becker, Nina; Laukka, Erika J; Kalpouzos, Grégoria; Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe; Bäckman, Lars; Brehmer, Yvonne

2015-09-01

Associative memory involves binding two or more items into a coherent memory episode. Relative to memory for single items, associative memory declines greatly in aging. However, older individuals vary substantially in their ability to memorize associative information. Although functional studies link associative memory to the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), little is known about how volumetric differences in MTL and PFC might contribute to individual differences in associative memory. We investigated regional gray-matter volumes related to individual differences in associative memory in a sample of healthy older adults (n=54; age=60years). To differentiate item from associative memory, participants intentionally learned face-scene picture pairs before performing a recognition task that included single faces, scenes, and face-scene pairs. Gray-matter volumes were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry region-of-interest (ROI) analyses. To examine volumetric differences specifically for associative memory, item memory was controlled for in the analyses. Behavioral results revealed large variability in associative memory that mainly originated from differences in false-alarm rates. Moreover, associative memory was independent of individuals' ability to remember single items. Older adults with better associative memory showed larger gray-matter volumes primarily in regions of the left and right lateral PFC. These findings provide evidence for the importance of PFC in intentional learning of associations, likely because of its involvement in organizational and strategic processes that distinguish older adults with good from those with poor associative memory. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Review of Classical Methods of Item Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

French, Christine L.

Item analysis is a very important consideration in the test development process. It is a statistical procedure to analyze test items that combines methods used to evaluate the important characteristics of test items, such as difficulty, discrimination, and distractibility of the items in a test. This paper reviews some of the classical methods for…

Modeling Item-Position Effects within an IRT Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Debeer, Dries; Janssen, Rianne

2013-01-01

Changing the order of items between alternate test forms to prevent copying and to enhance test security is a common practice in achievement testing. However, these changes in item order may affect item and test characteristics. Several procedures have been proposed for studying these item-order effects. The present study explores the use of…

ACER Chemistry Test Item Collection. ACER Chemtic Year 12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Australian Council for Educational Research, Hawthorn.

The chemistry test item banks contains 225 multiple-choice questions suitable for diagnostic and achievement testing; a three-page teacher's guide; answer key with item facilities; an answer sheet; and a 45-item sample achievement test. Although written for the new grade 12 chemistry course in Victoria, Australia, the items are widely applicable.…

Development of an Itemwise Efficiency Scoring Method: Concurrent, Convergent, Discriminant, and Neuroimaging-Based Predictive Validity Assessed in a Large Community Sample

PubMed Central

Moore, Tyler M.; Reise, Steven P.; Roalf, David R.; Satterthwaite, Theodore D.; Davatzikos, Christos; Bilker, Warren B.; Port, Allison M.; Jackson, Chad T.; Ruparel, Kosha; Savitt, Adam P.; Baron, Robert B.; Gur, Raquel E.; Gur, Ruben C.

2016-01-01

Traditional “paper-and-pencil” testing is imprecise in measuring speed and hence limited in assessing performance efficiency, but computerized testing permits precision in measuring itemwise response time. We present a method of scoring performance efficiency (combining information from accuracy and speed) at the item level. Using a community sample of 9,498 youths age 8-21, we calculated item-level efficiency scores on four neurocognitive tests, and compared the concurrent, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of these scores to simple averaging of standardized speed and accuracy-summed scores. Concurrent validity was measured by the scores' abilities to distinguish men from women and their correlations with age; convergent and discriminant validity were measured by correlations with other scores inside and outside of their neurocognitive domains; predictive validity was measured by correlations with brain volume in regions associated with the specific neurocognitive abilities. Results provide support for the ability of itemwise efficiency scoring to detect signals as strong as those detected by standard efficiency scoring methods. We find no evidence of superior validity of the itemwise scores over traditional scores, but point out several advantages of the former. The itemwise efficiency scoring method shows promise as an alternative to standard efficiency scoring methods, with overall moderate support from tests of four different types of validity. This method allows the use of existing item analysis methods and provides the convenient ability to adjust the overall emphasis of accuracy versus speed in the efficiency score, thus adjusting the scoring to the real-world demands the test is aiming to fulfill. PMID:26866796

Assembling a Computerized Adaptive Testing Item Pool as a Set of Linear Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Linden, Wim J.; Ariel, Adelaide; Veldkamp, Bernard P.

2006-01-01

Test-item writing efforts typically results in item pools with an undesirable correlational structure between the content attributes of the items and their statistical information. If such pools are used in computerized adaptive testing (CAT), the algorithm may be forced to select items with less than optimal information, that violate the content…

Evaluation of Northwest University, Kano Post-UTME Test Items Using Item Response Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bichi, Ado Abdu; Hafiz, Hadiza; Bello, Samira Abdullahi

2016-01-01

High-stakes testing is used for the purposes of providing results that have important consequences. Validity is the cornerstone upon which all measurement systems are built. This study applied the Item Response Theory principles to analyse Northwest University Kano Post-UTME Economics test items. The developed fifty (50) economics test items was…

Item Specifications, Science Grade 8. Blue Prints for Testing Minimum Performance Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arkansas State Dept. of Education, Little Rock.

These item specifications were developed as a part of the Arkansas "Minimum Performance Testing Program" (MPT). There is one item specification for each instructional objective included in the MPT. The purpose of an item specification is to provide an overview of the general content and format of test items used to measure an…

Item Specifications, Science Grade 6. Blue Prints for Testing Minimum Performance Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arkansas State Dept. of Education, Little Rock.

These item specifications were developed as a part of the Arkansas "Minimum Performance Testing Program" (MPT). There is one item specification for each instructional objective included in the MPT. The purpose of an item specification is to provide an overview of the general content and format of test items used to measure an…

Criterion-Referenced Test Items for Welding.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Diane, Ed.

This test item bank on welding contains test questions based upon competencies found in the Missouri Welding Competency Profile. Some test items are keyed for multiple competencies. These criterion-referenced test items are designed to work with the Vocational Instructional Management System. Questions have been statistically sampled and validated…

Decomposing the interaction between retention interval and study/test practice: The role of retrievability

PubMed Central

Jang, Yoonhee; Wixted, John T.; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, René; Huber, David E.

2012-01-01

Even without feedback, test practice enhances delayed performance compared to study practice, but the size of the effect is variable across studies. We investigated the benefit of testing, separating initially retrievable items from initially non-retrievable items. In two experiments, an initial test determined item retrievability. Retrievable or non-retrievable items were subsequently presented for repeated study or test practice. Collapsing across items, in Experiment 1, we obtained the typical crossover interaction between retention interval and practice type. For retrievable items, however, the crossover interaction was quantitatively different, with a small study benefit for an immediate test and a larger testing benefit after a delay. For non-retrievable items, there was a large study benefit for an immediate test, but one week later there was no difference between the study and test practice conditions. In Experiment 2, initially non-retrievable items were given additional study followed by either an immediate test or even more additional study, and one week later performance did not differ between the two conditions. These results indicate that the effect size of study/test practice is due to the relative contribution of retrievable and non-retrievable items. PMID:22304454

Decomposing the interaction between retention interval and study/test practice: the role of retrievability.

PubMed

Jang, Yoonhee; Wixted, John T; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, René; Huber, David E

2012-01-01

Even without feedback, test practice enhances delayed performance compared to study practice, but the size of the effect is variable across studies. We investigated the benefit of testing, separating initially retrievable items from initially nonretrievable items. In two experiments, an initial test determined item retrievability. Retrievable or nonretrievable items were subsequently presented for repeated study or test practice. Collapsing across items, in Experiment 1, we obtained the typical cross-over interaction between retention interval and practice type. For retrievable items, however, the cross-over interaction was quantitatively different, with a small study benefit for an immediate test and a larger testing benefit after a delay. For nonretrievable items, there was a large study benefit for an immediate test, but one week later there was no difference between the study and test practice conditions. In Experiment 2, initially nonretrievable items were given additional study followed by either an immediate test or even more additional study, and one week later performance did not differ between the two conditions. These results indicate that the effect size of study/test practice is due to the relative contribution of retrievable and nonretrievable items.

Optimal Test Design with Rule-Based Item Generation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geerlings, Hanneke; van der Linden, Wim J.; Glas, Cees A. W.

2013-01-01

Optimal test-design methods are applied to rule-based item generation. Three different cases of automated test design are presented: (a) test assembly from a pool of pregenerated, calibrated items; (b) test generation on the fly from a pool of calibrated item families; and (c) test generation on the fly directly from calibrated features defining…

2 kWe Solar Dynamic Ground Test Demonstration Project. Volume 2; Design Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alexander, Dennis

1997-01-01

Critical Design Reviews (CDR's) were held on the Solar Dynamic Ground Test Demonstrator (SDGTD). This CDR summary report will provide the following information for each of the system components and the system integration: (1) A bibliography of design/design review documentation; (2) A summary of the major discussion issues from issues from each design review; (3) A definition of the component and system detail designs along with the bottom line from the supporting analysis; (4) Status and key results from pertinent development activities on-going in the CDR time period; (5) A brief description of planned testing; and (6) A discussion of issues stiff open at the completion of CDR. Appendix 1 to this report contains a listing and status (as of 28 June 1993) of all the action items generated during all SDGTD CDRs. The reader should remember that the SDGTD program is being conducted in an open communication forum, and program participants are encouraged to ask questions or request information. Team members are allowed and encouraged to participate in the reviews on an equal basis. No request for information, as long as it is within the work scope, is refused, so many action items are generated.

The impact of rheologically controlled materials on the identification of airway compromise on the clinical and videofluoroscopic swallowing examinations.

PubMed

Groher, Michael E; Crary, Michael A; Carnaby Mann, Giselle; Vickers, Zata; Aguilar, Carlos

2006-10-01

Numerous studies have suggested that the clinical evaluation of swallowing fails to adequately identify those patients who aspirate or do not aspirate on a videofluoroscopic swallowing examination. These conclusions, however, are based on comparisons between swallowed materials that were not rheologically matched. The present study used a battery of rheologically matched test materials, involving thin and thick liquids and cohesive and adhesive semisolids. Using these test items, results from a clinical swallow evaluation were compared to the results of a videofluorographic evaluation using identical test materials. Results suggest that the use of three test materials, including thin and thick liquids given in volumes of 5 and 10 ml, demonstrated the strongest associations between cough on the clinical examination and aspiration on the videofluoroscopic examination.

Power Extension Package (PEP) system definition extension, orbital service module systems analysis study. Volume 10: PEP project plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Contents: project plan summary; project and mission objectives; related studies and technology support activities; technical summary; management; procurement approach; project definition items and schedule; resources; management review; controlled items; and safety, reliability, and quality assurance.

LLWnotes - Volume 11, Number 3

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1996-04-01

This document is the April 1996 issue of LLWnotes. It contains articles and news items on the following topics: news items related to states and compacts, Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLW) Forum activities, and court rulings and calendars. State and compact items featured include Texas licensing procedures, renewal of Envirocare`s license, and Ward Valley. Massachusetts Board suspension of some siting tasks and Massachusetts Court rules for US DOE regarding rebates are also reported.

Full-Scale Incineration System Demonstration at the Naval Construction Battalion Center, Gulfport, Mississippi. Volume 1. Project Summary

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-07-01

were kept lockf-ŕ. The only pprs-rnel a~thtorizod in thos,, areas duiring the 1off-hours 4o- the E(G daho sit-2 ontt~s ENSCO Plaot Siupprintern𔃻’nt...items, normally issued by EG&G Idaho INEL personnel, were kept in a separate Action Item Logbook from the EG&G ! daho /subcuntractor action items. The

Criterion-Referenced Test Items for Small Engines.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herd, Amon

This notebook contains criterion-referenced test items for testing students' knowledge of small engines. The test items are based upon competencies found in the Missouri Small Engine Competency Profile. The test item bank is organized in 18 sections that cover the following duties: shop procedures; tools and equipment; fasteners; servicing fuel…

An Investigation of the Impact of Guessing on Coefficient α and Reliability

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Guessing is known to influence the test reliability of multiple-choice tests. Although there are many studies that have examined the impact of guessing, they used rather restrictive assumptions (e.g., parallel test assumptions, homogeneous inter-item correlations, homogeneous item difficulty, and homogeneous guessing levels across items) to evaluate the relation between guessing and test reliability. Based on the item response theory (IRT) framework, this study investigated the extent of the impact of guessing on reliability under more realistic conditions where item difficulty, item discrimination, and guessing levels actually vary across items with three different test lengths (TL). By accommodating multiple item characteristics simultaneously, this study also focused on examining interaction effects between guessing and other variables entered in the simulation to be more realistic. The simulation of the more realistic conditions and calculations of reliability and classical test theory (CTT) item statistics were facilitated by expressing CTT item statistics, coefficient α, and reliability in terms of IRT model parameters. In addition to the general negative impact of guessing on reliability, results showed interaction effects between TL and guessing and between guessing and test difficulty.

Evaluating the Psychometric Characteristics of Generated Multiple-Choice Test Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gierl, Mark J.; Lai, Hollis; Pugh, Debra; Touchie, Claire; Boulais, André-Philippe; De Champlain, André

2016-01-01

Item development is a time- and resource-intensive process. Automatic item generation integrates cognitive modeling with computer technology to systematically generate test items. To date, however, items generated using cognitive modeling procedures have received limited use in operational testing situations. As a result, the psychometric…

Development and psychometric evaluation of an information literacy self-efficacy survey and an information literacy knowledge test*

PubMed Central

Tepe, Rodger; Tepe, Chabha

2015-01-01

Objective To develop and psychometrically evaluate an information literacy (IL) self-efficacy survey and an IL knowledge test. Methods In this test–retest reliability study, a 25-item IL self-efficacy survey and a 50-item IL knowledge test were developed and administered to a convenience sample of 53 chiropractic students. Item analyses were performed on all questions. Results The IL self-efficacy survey demonstrated good reliability (test–retest correlation = 0.81) and good/very good internal consistency (mean κ = .56 and Cronbach's α = .92). A total of 25 questions with the best item analysis characteristics were chosen from the 50-item IL knowledge test, resulting in a 25-item IL knowledge test that demonstrated good reliability (test–retest correlation = 0.87), very good internal consistency (mean κ = .69, KR20 = 0.85), and good item discrimination (mean point-biserial = 0.48). Conclusions This study resulted in the development of three instruments: a 25-item IL self-efficacy survey, a 50-item IL knowledge test, and a 25-item IL knowledge test. The information literacy self-efficacy survey and the 25-item version of the information literacy knowledge test have shown preliminary evidence of adequate reliability and validity to justify continuing study with these instruments. PMID:25517736

Integrating Test-Form Formatting into Automated Test Assembly

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diao, Qi; van der Linden, Wim J.

2013-01-01

Automated test assembly uses the methodology of mixed integer programming to select an optimal set of items from an item bank. Automated test-form generation uses the same methodology to optimally order the items and format the test form. From an optimization point of view, production of fully formatted test forms directly from the item pool using…

Instructional Topics in Educational Measurement (ITEMS) Module: Using Automated Processes to Generate Test Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gierl, Mark J.; Lai, Hollis

2013-01-01

Changes to the design and development of our educational assessments are resulting in the unprecedented demand for a large and continuous supply of content-specific test items. One way to address this growing demand is with automatic item generation (AIG). AIG is the process of using item models to generate test items with the aid of computer…

39 CFR 3050.25 - Volume and revenue data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 39 Postal Service 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Volume and revenue data. 3050.25 Section 3050.25 Postal Service POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION PERSONNEL PERIODIC REPORTING § 3050.25 Volume and revenue data. (a) The items in paragraphs (b) through (e) of this section shall be provided. (b) The Revenue...

Modern Written Arabic, Volume II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naja, A. Nashat; Snow, James A.

This second volume of Modern Written Arabic builds on the previous volume and is the second step designed to teach members of the Foreign Service to read the modern Arabic press. The student will gain recognitional mastery of an extensive set of vocabulary items and will be more intensively exposed to wider and more complex morphological and…

A Procedure To Detect Test Bias Present Simultaneously in Several Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shealy, Robin; Stout, William

A statistical procedure is presented that is designed to test for unidirectional test bias existing simultaneously in several items of an ability test, based on the assumption that test bias is incipient within the two groups' ability differences. The proposed procedure--Simultaneous Item Bias (SIB)--is based on a multidimensional item response…

An Item Response Theory Model for Test Bias.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shealy, Robin; Stout, William

This paper presents a conceptualization of test bias for standardized ability tests which is based on multidimensional, non-parametric, item response theory. An explanation of how individually-biased items can combine through a test score to produce test bias is provided. It is contended that bias, although expressed at the item level, should be…

Pharmaceutical advertising in emergency departments.

PubMed

Marco, Catherine A

2004-04-01

Promotion of prescription drugs represents a growing source of pharmaceutical marketing expenditures. This study was undertaken to identify the frequency of items containing pharmaceutical advertising in clinical emergency departments (EDs). In this observational study, emergency physician on-site investigators quantified a variety of items containing pharmaceutical advertising present at specified representative times and days, in clinical EDs. Measurements were obtained by 65 on-site investigators, representing 22 states. Most EDs in this study were community EDs (87% community and 14% university or university affiliate), and most were in urban settings (50% urban, 38% suburban, and 13% rural). Investigators measured 42 items per ED (mean = 42; median = 31; interquartile range of 14-55) containing pharmaceutical advertising in the clinical area. The most commonly observed items included pens (mean 15 per ED; median 10), product brochures (mean 5; median 3), stethoscope labels (mean 4; median 2), drug samples (mean 3; median 0), books (mean 3.4), mugs (mean 2.4), and published literature (mean 3.1). EDs with a policy restricting pharmaceutical representatives in the ED had significantly fewer items containing pharmaceutical advertising (median 7.5; 95% CI = 0 to 27) than EDs without such a policy (median 35; 95% CI = 27 to 47, p = 0.005, nonparametric Wilcoxon two-sample test). There were no differences in quantities of pharmaceutical advertising for EDs in community compared with university settings (p = 0.5), rural compared with urban settings (p = 0.3), or annual ED volumes (p = 0.9). Numerous items containing pharmaceutical advertising are frequently observed in EDs. Policies restricting pharmaceutical representatives in the ED are associated with reduced pharmaceutical advertising.

Energy efficient industrialized housing research program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Berg, R.; Brown, G.Z.; Finrow, J.

1989-01-01

This is the second volume of a two volume report on energy efficient industrialized housing. Volume II contains support documentation for Volume I. The following items are included: individual trip reports; software bibliography; industry contacts in the US, Denmark, and Japan; Cost comparison of industrialized housing in the US and Denmark; draft of the final report on the systems analysis for Fleetwood Mobile Home Manufacturers. (SM)

Using Reliability and Item Analysis to Evaluate a Teacher-Developed Test in Educational Measurement and Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quaigrain, Kennedy; Arhin, Ato Kwamina

2017-01-01

Item analysis is essential in improving items which will be used again in later tests; it can also be used to eliminate misleading items in a test. The study focused on item and test quality and explored the relationship between difficulty index (p-value) and discrimination index (DI) with distractor efficiency (DE). The study was conducted among…

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the communication and tracking subsystem, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Long, W. C.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed and analysis of the Communication and Tracking hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison is provided through additional analysis as required. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter Communication and Tracking hardware. The IOA product for the Communication and Tracking consisted of 1,108 failure mode worksheets that resulted in 298 critical items being identified. Comparison was made to the NASA baseline which consists of 697 FMEAs and 239 CIL items. The comparison determined if there were any results which had been found by IOA but were not in the NASA baseline. This comparison produced agreement on all but 407 FMEAs which caused differences in 294 CIL items. Volume 1 contains the subsystem description, assessment results, ground rules and assumptions, and some of the IOA worksheets.

Audio Adapted Assessment Data: Does the Addition of Audio to Written Items Modify the Item Calibration?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, James

2010-01-01

This dissertation research examined the changes in item RIT calibration that occurred when adding audio to a set of currently calibrated RIT items and then placing these new items as field test items in the modified assessments on the NWEA MAP test platform. The researcher used test results from over 600 students in the Poway School District in…

Student science achievement and the integration of Indigenous knowledge on standardized tests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dupuis, Juliann; Abrams, Eleanor

2017-09-01

In this article, we examine how American Indian students in Montana performed on standardized state science assessments when a small number of test items based upon traditional science knowledge from a cultural curriculum, "Indian Education for All", were included. Montana is the first state in the US to mandate the use of a culturally relevant curriculum in all schools and to incorporate this curriculum into a portion of the standardized assessment items. This study compares White and American Indian student test scores on these particular test items to determine how White and American Indian students perform on culturally relevant test items compared to traditional standard science test items. The connections between student achievement on adapted culturally relevant science test items versus traditional items brings valuable insights to the fields of science education, research on student assessments, and Indigenous studies.

Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT) Applications and Item Response Theory Models for Polytomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aybek, Eren Can; Demirtasli, R. Nukhet

2017-01-01

This article aims to provide a theoretical framework for computerized adaptive tests (CAT) and item response theory models for polytomous items. Besides that, it aims to introduce the simulation and live CAT software to the related researchers. Computerized adaptive test algorithm, assumptions of item response theory models, nominal response…

An Effect Size Measure for Raju's Differential Functioning for Items and Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Keith D.; Oshima, T. C.

2015-01-01

This study established an effect size measure for differential functioning for items and tests' noncompensatory differential item functioning (NCDIF). The Mantel-Haenszel parameter served as the benchmark for developing NCDIF's effect size measure for reporting moderate and large differential item functioning in test items. The effect size of…

Detecting a Gender-Related DIF Using Logistic Regression and Transformed Item Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abedlaziz, Nabeel; Ismail, Wail; Hussin, Zaharah

2011-01-01

Test items are designed to provide information about the examinees. Difficult items are designed to be more demanding and easy items are less so. However, sometimes, test items carry with their demands other than those intended by the test developer (Scheuneman & Gerritz, 1990). When personal attributes such as gender systematically affect…

Influence of Fallible Item Parameters on Test Information During Adaptive Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wetzel, C. Douglas; McBride, James R.

Computer simulation was used to assess the effects of item parameter estimation errors on different item selection strategies used in adaptive and conventional testing. To determine whether these effects reduced the advantages of certain optimal item selection strategies, simulations were repeated in the presence and absence of item parameter…

A Guide to Item Banking in Education. (Third Edition).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naccarato, Richard W.

The current status of banks of test items existing across the United States was determined through a survey conducted between September and December 1987. Item "bank" in this context does not imply that the test items are available in computerized form, but simply that "deposited" test items can be withdrawn for use. Emphasis…

Space Tug Docking Study. Volume 5: Cost Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

The cost methodology, summary cost data, resulting cost estimates by Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), technical characteristics data, program funding schedules and the WBS for the costing are discussed. Cost estimates for two tasks of the study are reported. The first, developed cost estimates for design, development, test and evaluation (DDT&E) and theoretical first unit (TFU) at the component level (Level 7) for all items reported in the data base. Task B developed total subsystem DDT&E costs and funding schedules for the three candidate Rendezvous and Docking Systems: manual, autonomous, and hybrid.

Development and validation of an energy-balance knowledge test for fourth- and fifth-grade students.

PubMed

Chen, Senlin; Zhu, Xihe; Kang, Minsoo

2017-05-01

A valid test measuring children's energy-balance (EB) knowledge is lacking in research. This study developed and validated the energy-balance knowledge test (EBKT) for fourth and fifth grade students. The original EBKT contained 25 items but was reduced to 23 items based on pilot result and intensive expert panel discussion. De-identified data were collected from 468 fourth and fifth grade students enrolled in four schools to examine the psychometric properties of the EBKT items. The Rasch model analysis was conducted using the Winstep 3.65.0 software. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis flagged 1 item (item #4) functioning differently between boys and girls, which was deleted. The final 22-item EBKT showed desirable model-data fit indices. The items had large variability ranging from -3.58 logit (item #10, the easiest) to 1.70 logit (item #3, the hardest). The average person ability on the test was 0.28 logit (SD = .78). Additional analyses supported known-group difference validity of the EBKT scores in capturing gender- and grade-based ability differences. The test was overall valid but could be further improved by expanding test items to discern various ability levels. For lack of a better test, researchers and practitioners may use the EBKT to assess fourth- and fifth-grade students' EB knowledge.

Analysis test of understanding of vectors with the three-parameter logistic model of item response theory and item response curves technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rakkapao, Suttida; Prasitpong, Singha; Arayathanitkul, Kwan

2016-12-01

This study investigated the multiple-choice test of understanding of vectors (TUV), by applying item response theory (IRT). The difficulty, discriminatory, and guessing parameters of the TUV items were fit with the three-parameter logistic model of IRT, using the parscale program. The TUV ability is an ability parameter, here estimated assuming unidimensionality and local independence. Moreover, all distractors of the TUV were analyzed from item response curves (IRC) that represent simplified IRT. Data were gathered on 2392 science and engineering freshmen, from three universities in Thailand. The results revealed IRT analysis to be useful in assessing the test since its item parameters are independent of the ability parameters. The IRT framework reveals item-level information, and indicates appropriate ability ranges for the test. Moreover, the IRC analysis can be used to assess the effectiveness of the test's distractors. Both IRT and IRC approaches reveal test characteristics beyond those revealed by the classical analysis methods of tests. Test developers can apply these methods to diagnose and evaluate the features of items at various ability levels of test takers.

Modeling Local Item Dependence in Cloze and Reading Comprehension Test Items Using Testlet Response Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baghaei, Purya; Ravand, Hamdollah

2016-01-01

In this study the magnitudes of local dependence generated by cloze test items and reading comprehension items were compared and their impact on parameter estimates and test precision was investigated. An advanced English as a foreign language reading comprehension test containing three reading passages and a cloze test was analyzed with a…

Machine Shop. Criterion-Referenced Test (CRT) Item Bank.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Diane, Ed.

This drafting criterion-referenced test item bank is keyed to the machine shop competency profile developed by industry and education professionals in Missouri. The 16 references used for drafting the test items are listed. Test items are arranged under these categories: orientation to machine shop; performing mathematical calculations; performing…

Rescuing Computerized Testing by Breaking Zipf's Law.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wainer, Howard

2000-01-01

Suggests that because of the nonlinear relationship between item usage and item security, the problems of test security posed by continuous administration of standardized tests cannot be resolved merely by increasing the size of the item pool. Offers alternative strategies to overcome these problems, distributing test items so as to avoid the…

GED Items. Volume 4, Numbers 1-6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

GED Items, 1987

1987-01-01

The first of six issues of the GED Items newsletter published in 1987 contains articles on one company's approach to literacy in the workplace, General Educational Development (GED) teacher training videotapes, and a process model for improving thinking skills. Articles in issue 2 address military recruiting, synthesis thinking skills, and GED in…

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Analysis of the reaction control system, volume 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burkemper, V. J.; Haufler, W. A.; Odonnell, R. A.; Paul, D. J.

1987-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA approach features a top-down analysis of the hardware to determine failure modes, criticality, and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. This report documents the independent analysis results for the Reaction Control System (RCS). The RCS is situated in three independent modules, one forward in the orbiter nose and one in each OMS/RCS pod. Each RCS module consists of the following subsystems: Helium Pressurization Subsystem; Propellant Storage and Distribution Subsystem; Thruster Subsystem; and Electrical Power Distribution and Control Subsystem. Volume 3 continues the presentation of IOA analysis worksheets and the potential critical items list.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the orbital maneuvering subsystem, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haufler, W. A.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) hardware and electrical power distribution and control (EPD and C), generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the proposed Post 51-L NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter OMS hardware and EPD and C systems. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets and contains the critical items list and the NASA FMEA to IOA worksheet cross reference and recommendations.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the extravehicular mobility unit, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Raffaelli, Gary G.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort performed an independent analysis of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) hardware and system, generating draft failure modes criticalities and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the most recent proposed Post 51-L NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison was provided through additional analysis as required. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter EMU hardware. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA analysis worksheets and contains the potential critical items list and NASA FMEA to IOA worksheet cross references and recommendations.

An Evaluation of "Intentional" Weighting of Extended-Response or Constructed-Response Items in Tests with Mixed Item Types.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ito, Kyoko; Sykes, Robert C.

This study investigated the practice of weighting a type of test item, such as constructed response, more than other types of items, such as selected response, to compute student scores for a mixed-item type of test. The study used data from statewide writing field tests in grades 3, 5, and 8 and considered two contexts, that in which a single…

Do the Guideline Violations Influence Test Difficulty of High-Stake Test?: An Investigation on University Entrance Examination in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atalmis, Erkan Hasan

2016-01-01

Multiple-choice (MC) items are commonly used in high-stake tests. Thus, each item of such tests should be meticulously constructed to increase the accuracy of decisions based on test results. Haladyna and his colleagues (2002) addressed the valid item-writing guidelines to construct high quality MC items in order to increase test reliability and…

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the communication and tracking subsystem, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Long, W. C.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed and analysis of the Communication and Tracking hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison is provided through additional analysis as required. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter Communication and Tracking hardware. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the reaction control system, volume 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prust, Chet D.; Hartman, Dan W.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the aft and forward Reaction Control System (RCS) hardware and Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C), generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. The IOA results were then compared to the proposed Post 51-L NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter RCS hardware and EPD and C systems. Volume 3 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the reaction control system, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prust, Chet D.; Hartman, Dan W.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the aft and forward Reaction Control System (RCS) hardware and Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C), generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. The IOA results were then compared to the proposed Post 51-L NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter RCS hardware and EPD and C systems. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets.

Item difficulty and item validity for the Children's Group Embedded Figures Test.

PubMed

Rusch, R R; Trigg, C L; Brogan, R; Petriquin, S

1994-02-01

The validity and reliability of the Children's Group Embedded Figures Test was reported for students in Grade 2 by Cromack and Stone in 1980; however, a search of the literature indicates no evidence for internal consistency or item analysis. Hence the purpose of this study was to examine the item difficulty and item validity of the test with children in Grades 1 and 2. Confusion in the literature over development and use of this test was seemingly resolved through analysis of these descriptions and through an interview with the test developer. One early-appearing item was unreasonably difficult. Two or three other items were quite difficult and made little contribution to the total score. Caution is recommended, however, in any reordering or elimination of items based on these findings, given the limited number of subjects (n = 84).

Weapon Performance Testing and Analysis: The MODI-PAC Round, the Number 4 Lead-Shot Round, and the Flying Baton

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-01-01

items. The items tested were the MODI-PAC, a proprietary item of Reming)on Arms Company, a standard 12 - gauge round of No. 4 lead shot, and an...to refrain from testing this item. Therefore, the final selection of items for testing were (1) the MODI-PAC, (2) a standard 12 - gauge shotgun round of...The first item evaluated was the MODI-PAC5. The MOQ1-PAC which standsfor “modified impact “ is a 12 - gauge shotgun shell loaded with approximately 320

Interactions Between Item Content And Group Membership on Achievement Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linn, Robert L.; Harnisch, Delwyn L.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the interaction of item content and group membership on achievement test items. Estimates of the parameters of the three parameter logistic model were obtained on the 46 item math test for the sample of eighth grade students (N = 2055) participating in the Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress,…

Effects of Item Exposure for Conventional Examinations in a Continuous Testing Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hertz, Norman R.; Chinn, Roberta N.

This study explored the effect of item exposure on two conventional examinations administered as computer-based tests. A principal hypothesis was that item exposure would have little or no effect on average difficulty of the items over the course of an administrative cycle. This hypothesis was tested by exploring conventional item statistics and…

Preferred Reporting Items for a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Diagnostic Test Accuracy Studies: The PRISMA-DTA Statement.

PubMed

McInnes, Matthew D F; Moher, David; Thombs, Brett D; McGrath, Trevor A; Bossuyt, Patrick M; Clifford, Tammy; Cohen, Jérémie F; Deeks, Jonathan J; Gatsonis, Constantine; Hooft, Lotty; Hunt, Harriet A; Hyde, Christopher J; Korevaar, Daniël A; Leeflang, Mariska M G; Macaskill, Petra; Reitsma, Johannes B; Rodin, Rachel; Rutjes, Anne W S; Salameh, Jean-Paul; Stevens, Adrienne; Takwoingi, Yemisi; Tonelli, Marcello; Weeks, Laura; Whiting, Penny; Willis, Brian H

2018-01-23

Systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy synthesize data from primary diagnostic studies that have evaluated the accuracy of 1 or more index tests against a reference standard, provide estimates of test performance, allow comparisons of the accuracy of different tests, and facilitate the identification of sources of variability in test accuracy. To develop the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) diagnostic test accuracy guideline as a stand-alone extension of the PRISMA statement. Modifications to the PRISMA statement reflect the specific requirements for reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of diagnostic test accuracy studies and the abstracts for these reviews. Established standards from the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research (EQUATOR) Network were followed for the development of the guideline. The original PRISMA statement was used as a framework on which to modify and add items. A group of 24 multidisciplinary experts used a systematic review of articles on existing reporting guidelines and methods, a 3-round Delphi process, a consensus meeting, pilot testing, and iterative refinement to develop the PRISMA diagnostic test accuracy guideline. The final version of the PRISMA diagnostic test accuracy guideline checklist was approved by the group. The systematic review (produced 64 items) and the Delphi process (provided feedback on 7 proposed items; 1 item was later split into 2 items) identified 71 potentially relevant items for consideration. The Delphi process reduced these to 60 items that were discussed at the consensus meeting. Following the meeting, pilot testing and iterative feedback were used to generate the 27-item PRISMA diagnostic test accuracy checklist. To reflect specific or optimal contemporary systematic review methods for diagnostic test accuracy, 8 of the 27 original PRISMA items were left unchanged, 17 were modified, 2 were added, and 2 were omitted. The 27-item PRISMA diagnostic test accuracy checklist provides specific guidance for reporting of systematic reviews. The PRISMA diagnostic test accuracy guideline can facilitate the transparent reporting of reviews, and may assist in the evaluation of validity and applicability, enhance replicability of reviews, and make the results from systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy studies more useful.

An Efficiency Balanced Information Criterion for Item Selection in Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Kyung T.

2012-01-01

Successful administration of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) programs in educational settings requires that test security and item exposure control issues be taken seriously. Developing an item selection algorithm that strikes the right balance between test precision and level of item pool utilization is the key to successful implementation…

Assurance specification documentation standard and Data Item Descriptions (DID). Volume of the information system life-cycle and documentation standards, volume 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callender, E. David; Steinbacher, Jody

1989-01-01

This is the fourth of five volumes on Information System Life-Cycle and Documentation Standards. This volume provides a well organized, easily used standard for assurance documentation for information systems and software, hardware, and operational procedures components, and related processes. The specifications are developed in conjunction with the corresponding management plans specifying the assurance activities to be performed.

Management control and status reports documentation standard and Data Item Descriptions (DID). Volume of the information system life-cycle and documentation standards, volume 5

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callender, E. David; Steinbacher, Jody

1989-01-01

This is the fifth of five volumes on Information System Life-Cycle and Documentation Standards. This volume provides a well organized, easily used standard for management control and status reports used in monitoring and controlling the management, development, and assurance of informations systems and software, hardware, and operational procedures components, and related processes.

Using Automatic Item Generation to Meet the Increasing Item Demands of High-Stakes Educational and Occupational Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arendasy, Martin E.; Sommer, Markus

2012-01-01

The use of new test administration technologies such as computerized adaptive testing in high-stakes educational and occupational assessments demands large item pools. Classic item construction processes and previous approaches to automatic item generation faced the problems of a considerable loss of items after the item calibration phase. In this…

Item Purification Does Not Always Improve DIF Detection: A Counterexample with Angoff's Delta Plot

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magis, David; Facon, Bruno

2013-01-01

Item purification is an iterative process that is often advocated as improving the identification of items affected by differential item functioning (DIF). With test-score-based DIF detection methods, item purification iteratively removes the items currently flagged as DIF from the test scores to get purified sets of items, unaffected by DIF. The…

[Difference analysis among majors in medical parasitology exam papers by test item bank proposition].

PubMed

Jia, Lin-Zhi; Ya-Jun, Ma; Cao, Yi; Qian, Fen; Li, Xiang-Yu

2012-04-30

The quality index among "Medical Parasitology" exam papers and measured data for students in three majors from the university in 2010 were compared and analyzed. The exam papers were formed from the test item bank. The alpha reliability coefficients of the three exam papers were above 0.70. The knowledge structure and capacity structure of the exam papers were basically balanced. But the alpha reliability coefficients of the second major was the lowest, mainly due to quality of test items in the exam paper and the failure of revising the index of test item bank in time. This observation demonstrated that revising the test items and their index in the item bank according to the measured data can improve the quality of test item bank proposition and reduce the difference among exam papers.

The Role of Item Models in Automatic Item Generation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gierl, Mark J.; Lai, Hollis

2012-01-01

Automatic item generation represents a relatively new but rapidly evolving research area where cognitive and psychometric theories are used to produce tests that include items generated using computer technology. Automatic item generation requires two steps. First, test development specialists create item models, which are comparable to templates…

RFID-Based Asset Management for Space Habitats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fink, Patrick W.

2013-01-01

Remote habitats are often densely packed - items necessary to sustain life - items necessary to conduct work center dot Inhabitant's time is often quite valuable, if not priceless. Resupply shipments can be infrequent and expensive. Inaccurate inventory knowledge can lead to unnecessary overstocking, which can lead to insufficient work and/or living volume. Not being able to find items when they are needed can present: - safety issues - morale issues. RFID technology has the potential solve a lot of these issues.

Parts on Demand: Evaluation of Approaches to Achieve Flexible Manufacturing Systems for Navy Partson Demand. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-02-01

measurable impact if changed. The following items were included in the sample: * Mark Zero Items -Low demand insurance items which represent about three...R&D efforts reviewed. The resulting assessment highlighted the generic enabling technologies and cross- cutting R&D projects required to focus current...supplied by spot buys, and which may generate Navy Inventory Control Numbers (NICN). Random samples of data were extracted from the Master Data File ( MDF

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the reaction control system, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prust, Chet D.; Hartman, Dan W.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the aft and forward Reaction Control System (RCS) hardware, and Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C), generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the proposed Post 51-L NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter RCS hardware and EPD and C systems. The IOA product for the RCS analysis consisted of 208 hardware and 2064 EPD and C failure mode worksheets that resulted in 141 hardware and 449 EPD and C potential critical items (PCIs) being identified. A comparison was made of the IOA product to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. After comparison and discussions with the NASA subsystem manager, 96 hardware issues, 83 of which concern CIL items or PCIs, and 280 EPD and C issues, 158 of which concern CIL items or PCIs, and 280 EPD and C issues, 158 of which concern CIL items or PCIs, remain unresolved. Volume 1 contains the subsystem description, assessment results, and some of the IOA worksheets.

Advanced subsonic long-haul transport terminal area compatibility study. Volume 2: Research and technology recommendations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

The Terminal Area Compatibility (TAC) study is briefly summarized for background information. The most important research items for the areas of noise congestion, and emissions are identified. Other key research areas are also discussed. The 50 recommended research items are categorized by flight phase, technology, and compatibility benefits. The relationship of the TAC recommendations to the previous ATT recommendations is discussed. The bulk of the document contains the 50 recommended research items. For each item, the potential payoff, state of readiness, recommended action and estimated cost and schedule are given.

Item Review and the Rearrangement Procedure: Its Process and Its Results

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papanastasiou, Elena C.

2005-01-01

Permitting item review is to the benefit of the examinees who typically increase their test scores with item review. However, testing companies do not prefer item review since it does not follow the logic on which adaptive tests are based, and since it is prone to cheating strategies. Consequently, item review is not permitted in many adaptive…

A Model-Based Method for Content Validation of Automatically Generated Test Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Xinxin; Gierl, Mark

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to describe a methodology to recover the item model used to generate multiple-choice test items with a novel graph theory approach. Beginning with the generated test items and working backward to recover the original item model provides a model-based method for validating the content used to automatically generate test…

Optimal Bayesian Adaptive Design for Test-Item Calibration.

PubMed

van der Linden, Wim J; Ren, Hao

2015-06-01

An optimal adaptive design for test-item calibration based on Bayesian optimality criteria is presented. The design adapts the choice of field-test items to the examinees taking an operational adaptive test using both the information in the posterior distributions of their ability parameters and the current posterior distributions of the field-test parameters. Different criteria of optimality based on the two types of posterior distributions are possible. The design can be implemented using an MCMC scheme with alternating stages of sampling from the posterior distributions of the test takers' ability parameters and the parameters of the field-test items while reusing samples from earlier posterior distributions of the other parameters. Results from a simulation study demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed MCMC implementation for operational item calibration. A comparison of performances for different optimality criteria showed faster calibration of substantial numbers of items for the criterion of D-optimality relative to A-optimality, a special case of c-optimality, and random assignment of items to the test takers.

State Assessment Program Item Banks: Model Language for Request for Proposals (RFP) and Contracts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, Leonard C.

2010-01-01

This document provides recommendations for request for proposal (RFP) and contract language that state education agencies can use to specify their requirements for access to test item banks. An item bank is a repository for test items and data about those items. Item banks are used by state agency staff to view items and associated data; to…

The Impact of Receiving the Same Items on Consecutive Computer Adaptive Test Administrations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Neill, Thomas; Lunz, Mary E.; Thiede, Keith

2000-01-01

Studied item exposure in a computerized adaptive test when the item selection algorithm presents examinees with questions they were asked in a previous test administration. Results with 178 repeat examinees on a medical technologists' test indicate that the combined use of an adaptive algorithm to select items and latent trait theory to estimate…

Helping Poor Readers Demonstrate Their Science Competence: Item Characteristics Supporting Text-Picture Integration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saß, Steffani; Schütte, Kerstin

2016-01-01

Solving test items might require abilities in test-takers other than the construct the test was designed to assess. Item and student characteristics such as item format or reading comprehension can impact the test result. This experiment is based on cognitive theories of text and picture comprehension. It examines whether integration aids, which…

Uncertainties in the Item Parameter Estimates and Robust Automated Test Assembly

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veldkamp, Bernard P.; Matteucci, Mariagiulia; de Jong, Martijn G.

2013-01-01

Item response theory parameters have to be estimated, and because of the estimation process, they do have uncertainty in them. In most large-scale testing programs, the parameters are stored in item banks, and automated test assembly algorithms are applied to assemble operational test forms. These algorithms treat item parameters as fixed values,…

Identifying Differential Item Functioning in Multi-Stage Computer Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gierl, Mark J.; Lai, Hollis; Li, Johnson

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of CATSIB (Computer Adaptive Testing-Simultaneous Item Bias Test) for detecting differential item functioning (DIF) when items in the matching and studied subtest are administered adaptively in the context of a realistic multi-stage adaptive test (MST). MST was simulated using a 4-item…

Women's Work and Women's Studies, 1973-1974: A Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedman, Barbara, Ed.; And Others

The bibliography lists almost 4,000 books, articles, pamphlets, and research papers about women and feminism. All items in this third volume were published or in progress in 1973-1974. The items are classified by the topics of abortion, arts and media, contemporary women's movement, cultural studies, education, employment, family organization,…

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the electrical power distribution and control subsystem, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmeckpeper, K. R.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA first completed an analysis of the Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline with proposed Post 51-L updates included. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison is provided through additional analysis as required. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter EPD and C hardware. The IOA product for the EPD and C analysis consisted of 1671 failure mode analysis worksheets that resulted in 468 potential critical items being identified. Comparison was made to the proposed NASA Post 51-L baseline which consisted of FMEAs and 158 CIL items. Volume 1 contains the EPD and C subsystem description, analysis results, ground rules and assumptions, and some of the IOA worksheets.

Estimating upper-stem and limb-wood volume in northeastern hardwoods

Treesearch

Wayne G. Banks; Frederick E. Hampf

1955-01-01

In the nationwide forest survey being made by the U.S. Forest Service, one of the items required is the cubic-foot volume in limbs of hardwood trees. Pulp companies and others have shown interest in this kind of information.

A Stepwise Test Characteristic Curve Method to Detect Item Parameter Drift

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guo, Rui; Zheng, Yi; Chang, Hua-Hua

2015-01-01

An important assumption of item response theory is item parameter invariance. Sometimes, however, item parameters are not invariant across different test administrations due to factors other than sampling error; this phenomenon is termed item parameter drift. Several methods have been developed to detect drifted items. However, most of the…

The promise and challenge of including multimedia items in medical licensure examinations: some insights from an empirical trial.

PubMed

Shen, Linjun; Li, Feiming; Wattleworth, Roberta; Filipetto, Frank

2010-10-01

The Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination conducted a trial of multimedia items in the 2008-2009 Level 3 testing cycle to determine (1) if multimedia items were able to test additional elements of medical knowledge and skills and (2) how to develop effective multimedia items. Forty-four content-matched multimedia and text multiple-choice items were randomly delivered to Level 3 candidates. Logistic regression and paired-samples t tests were used for pairwise and group-level comparisons, respectively. Nine pairs showed significant differences in either difficulty or/and discrimination. Content analysis found that, if text narrations were less direct, multimedia materials could make items easier. When textbook terminologies were replaced by multimedia presentations, multimedia items could become more difficult. Moreover, a multimedia item was found not uniformly difficult for candidates at different ability levels, possibly because multimedia and text items tested different elements of a same concept. Multimedia items may be capable of measuring some constructs different from what text items can measure. Effective multimedia items with reasonable psychometric properties can be intentionally developed.

Varying levels of difficulty index of skills-test items randomly selected by examinees on the Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination.

PubMed

Koh, Bongyeun; Hong, Sunggi; Kim, Soon-Sim; Hyun, Jin-Sook; Baek, Milye; Moon, Jundong; Kwon, Hayran; Kim, Gyoungyong; Min, Seonggi; Kang, Gu-Hyun

2016-01-01

The goal of this study was to characterize the difficulty index of the items in the skills test components of the class I and II Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination (KEMTLE), which requires examinees to select items randomly. The results of 1,309 class I KEMTLE examinations and 1,801 class II KEMTLE examinations in 2013 were subjected to analysis. Items from the basic and advanced skills test sections of the KEMTLE were compared to determine whether some were significantly more difficult than others. In the class I KEMTLE, all 4 of the items on the basic skills test showed significant variation in difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as 4 of the 5 items on the advanced skills test (P<0.05). In the class II KEMTLE, 4 of the 5 items on the basic skills test showed significantly different difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as all 3 of the advanced skills test items (P<0.01). In the skills test components of the class I and II KEMTLE, the procedure in which examinees randomly select questions should be revised to require examinees to respond to a set of fixed items in order to improve the reliability of the national licensing examination.

An investigation of wing buffeting response at subsonic and transonic speeds. Phase 1: F-111A flight data analysis. Volume 2: Plotted power spectra

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benepe, D. B.; Cunningham, A. M., Jr.; Dunmyer, W. D.

1978-01-01

Volume 2 of this three volume report is presented. This volume presents plotted variations of power spectral density data with frequency for each structural response item for each data sampled and analyzed during the course of the investigation. Some of the information contained in Volume 1 are repeated to allow the reader to identify the specific conditions appropriate to each plot presented and to interpret the data.

Item Analysis in Introductory Economics Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tinari, Frank D.

1979-01-01

Computerized analysis of multiple choice test items is explained. Examples of item analysis applications in the introductory economics course are discussed with respect to three objectives: to evaluate learning; to improve test items; and to help improve classroom instruction. Problems, costs and benefits of the procedures are identified. (JMD)

Differential Item Functioning (DIF) among Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) in State Science Tests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilich, Maria O.

Psychometricians and test developers evaluate standardized tests for potential bias against groups of test-takers by using differential item functioning (DIF). English language learners (ELLs) are a diverse group of students whose native language is not English. While they are still learning the English language, they must take their standardized tests for their school subjects, including science, in English. In this study, linguistic complexity was examined as a possible source of DIF that may result in test scores that confound science knowledge with a lack of English proficiency among ELLs. Two years of fifth-grade state science tests were analyzed for evidence of DIF using two DIF methods, Simultaneous Item Bias Test (SIBTest) and logistic regression. The tests presented a unique challenge in that the test items were grouped together into testlets---groups of items referring to a scientific scenario to measure knowledge of different science content or skills. Very large samples of 10, 256 students in 2006 and 13,571 students in 2007 were examined. Half of each sample was composed of Spanish-speaking ELLs; the balance was comprised of native English speakers. The two DIF methods were in agreement about the items that favored non-ELLs and the items that favored ELLs. Logistic regression effect sizes were all negligible, while SIBTest flagged items with low to high DIF. A decrease in socioeconomic status and Spanish-speaking ELL diversity may have led to inconsistent SIBTest effect sizes for items used in both testing years. The DIF results for the testlets suggested that ELLs lacked sufficient opportunity to learn science content. The DIF results further suggest that those constructed response test items requiring the student to draw a conclusion about a scientific investigation or to plan a new investigation tended to favor ELLs.

Development and evaluation of a thermochemistry concept inventory for college-level general chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wren, David A.

The research presented in this dissertation culminated in a 10-item Thermochemistry Concept Inventory (TCI). The development of the TCI can be divided into two main phases: qualitative studies and quantitative studies. Both phases focused on the primary stakeholders of the TCI, college-level general chemistry instructors and students. Each phase was designed to collect evidence for the validity of the interpretations and uses of TCI testing data. A central use of TCI testing data is to identify student conceptual misunderstandings, which are represented as incorrect options of multiple-choice TCI items. Therefore, quantitative and qualitative studies focused heavily on collecting evidence at the item-level, where important interpretations may be made by TCI users. Qualitative studies included student interviews (N = 28) and online expert surveys (N = 30). Think-aloud student interviews (N = 12) were used to identify conceptual misunderstandings used by students. Novice response process validity interviews (N = 16) helped provide information on how students interpreted and answered TCI items and were the basis of item revisions. Practicing general chemistry instructors (N = 18), or experts, defined boundaries of thermochemistry content included on the TCI. Once TCI items were in the later stages of development, an online version of the TCI was used in expert response process validity survey (N = 12), to provide expert feedback on item content, format and consensus of the correct answer for each item. Quantitative studies included three phases: beta testing of TCI items (N = 280), pilot testing of the a 12-item TCI (N = 485), and a large data collection using a 10-item TCI ( N = 1331). In addition to traditional classical test theory analysis, Rasch model analysis was also used for evaluation of testing data at the test and item level. The TCI was administered in both formative assessment (beta and pilot testing) and summative assessment (large data collection), with items performing well in both. One item, item K, did not have acceptable psychometric properties when the TCI was used as a quiz (summative assessment), but was retained in the final version of the TCI based on the acceptable psychometric properties displayed in pilot testing (formative assessment).

Examining the Impact of Drifted Polytomous Anchor Items on Test Characteristic Curve (TCC) Linking and IRT True Score Equating. Research Report. ETS RR-12-09

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Yanmei

2012-01-01

In a common-item (anchor) equating design, the common items should be evaluated for item parameter drift. Drifted items are often removed. For a test that contains mostly dichotomous items and only a small number of polytomous items, removing some drifted polytomous anchor items may result in anchor sets that no longer resemble mini-versions of…

Which Statistic Should Be Used to Detect Item Preknowledge When the Set of Compromised Items Is Known?

PubMed

Sinharay, Sandip

2017-09-01

Benefiting from item preknowledge is a major type of fraudulent behavior during educational assessments. Belov suggested the posterior shift statistic for detection of item preknowledge and showed its performance to be better on average than that of seven other statistics for detection of item preknowledge for a known set of compromised items. Sinharay suggested a statistic based on the likelihood ratio test for detection of item preknowledge; the advantage of the statistic is that its null distribution is known. Results from simulated and real data and adaptive and nonadaptive tests are used to demonstrate that the Type I error rate and power of the statistic based on the likelihood ratio test are very similar to those of the posterior shift statistic. Thus, the statistic based on the likelihood ratio test appears promising in detecting item preknowledge when the set of compromised items is known.

A Bayesian Method for the Detection of Item Preknowledge in CAT. Law School Admission Council Computerized Testing Report. LSAC Research Report Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLeod, Lori D.; Lewis, Charles; Thissen, David.

With the increased use of computerized adaptive testing, which allows for continuous testing, new concerns about test security have evolved, one being the assurance that items in an item pool are safeguarded from theft. In this paper, the risk of score inflation and procedures to detect test takers using item preknowledge are explored. When test…

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the life support and airlock support systems, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barickman, K.

1988-01-01

The McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company (MDAC) was selected in June 1986 to perform an Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL). The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the Life Support and Airlock Support Systems (LSS and ALSS) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline with proposed Post 51-L updates included. The discrepancies were flagged for potential future resolution. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter LSS and ALSS hardware. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets and contains the critical items list and NASA FMEA to IOA worksheet cross reference and recommendations.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Analysis of the Electrical Power Distribution and Control Subsystem, Volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmeckpeper, K. R.

1987-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA approach features a top-down analysis of the hardware to determine failure modes, criticality, and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. This report documents the independent analysis results corresponding to the Orbiter Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C) hardware. The EPD and C hardware performs the functions of distributing, sensing, and controlling 28 volt DC power and of inverting, distributing, sensing, and controlling 117 volt 400 Hz AC power to all Orbiter subsystems from the three fuel cells in the Electrical Power Generation (EPG) subsystem. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA analysis worksheets and contains the potential critical items list.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the electrical power distribution and control subsystem, volume 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmeckpeper, K. R.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA first completed an analysis of the Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline with proposed Post 51-L updates included. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison is provided through additional analysis as required. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter EPD and C hardware. Volume 3 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets and contains the potential critical items list and the NASA FMEA to IOA worksheet cross reference and recommendations.

Annotated Bibliography on Transition from School to Work (1985-1991). Master Index to Volumes 1-6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harmon, Adrienne S., Comp.

This master index provides access by title, author, and subject descriptors to items described in the first six volumes of the "Annotated Bibliography on Transition from School to Work." Volumes 1 through 6 of the bibliography annotates over 2,400 references on topics related to transition of individuals with disabilities. Examples of topics…

Effect of Multiple Testing Adjustment in Differential Item Functioning Detection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Jihye; Oshima, T. C.

2013-01-01

In a typical differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, a significance test is conducted for each item. As a test consists of multiple items, such multiple testing may increase the possibility of making a Type I error at least once. The goal of this study was to investigate how to control a Type I error rate and power using adjustment…

Item Response Theory Models for Performance Decline during Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jin, Kuan-Yu; Wang, Wen-Chung

2014-01-01

Sometimes, test-takers may not be able to attempt all items to the best of their ability (with full effort) due to personal factors (e.g., low motivation) or testing conditions (e.g., time limit), resulting in poor performances on certain items, especially those located toward the end of a test. Standard item response theory (IRT) models fail to…

Differential item functioning analysis of the Vanderbilt Expertise Test for cars.

PubMed

Lee, Woo-Yeol; Cho, Sun-Joo; McGugin, Rankin W; Van Gulick, Ana Beth; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

The Vanderbilt Expertise Test for cars (VETcar) is a test of visual learning for contemporary car models. We used item response theory to assess the VETcar and in particular used differential item functioning (DIF) analysis to ask if the test functions the same way in laboratory versus online settings and for different groups based on age and gender. An exploratory factor analysis found evidence of multidimensionality in the VETcar, although a single dimension was deemed sufficient to capture the recognition ability measured by the test. We selected a unidimensional three-parameter logistic item response model to examine item characteristics and subject abilities. The VETcar had satisfactory internal consistency. A substantial number of items showed DIF at a medium effect size for test setting and for age group, whereas gender DIF was negligible. Because online subjects were on average older than those tested in the lab, we focused on the age groups to conduct a multigroup item response theory analysis. This revealed that most items on the test favored the younger group. DIF could be more the rule than the exception when measuring performance with familiar object categories, therefore posing a challenge for the measurement of either domain-general visual abilities or category-specific knowledge.

Samejima Items in Multiple-Choice Tests: Identification and Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahman, Nazia

2013-01-01

Samejima hypothesized that non-monotonically increasing item response functions (IRFs) of ability might occur for multiple-choice items (referred to here as "Samejima items") if low ability test takers with some, though incomplete, knowledge or skill are drawn to a particularly attractive distractor, while very low ability test takers…

Computerized Numerical Control Test Item Bank.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reneau, Fred; And Others

This guide contains 285 test items for use in teaching a course in computerized numerical control. All test items were reviewed, revised, and validated by incumbent workers and subject matter instructors. Items are provided for assessing student achievement in such aspects of programming and planning, setting up, and operating machines with…

Using a Linear Regression Method to Detect Outliers in IRT Common Item Equating

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Yong; Cui, Zhongmin; Fang, Yu; Chen, Hanwei

2013-01-01

Common test items play an important role in equating alternate test forms under the common item nonequivalent groups design. When the item response theory (IRT) method is applied in equating, inconsistent item parameter estimates among common items can lead to large bias in equated scores. It is prudent to evaluate inconsistency in parameter…

Robust Scale Transformation Methods in IRT True Score Equating under Common-Item Nonequivalent Groups Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Yong

2013-01-01

Common test items play an important role in equating multiple test forms under the common-item nonequivalent groups design. Inconsistent item parameter estimates among common items can lead to large bias in equated scores for IRT true score equating. Current methods extensively focus on detection and elimination of outlying common items, which…

Using Differential Item Functioning Procedures to Explore Sources of Item Difficulty and Group Performance Characteristics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheuneman, Janice Dowd; Gerritz, Kalle

1990-01-01

Differential item functioning (DIF) methodology for revealing sources of item difficulty and performance characteristics of different groups was explored. A total of 150 Scholastic Aptitude Test items and 132 Graduate Record Examination general test items were analyzed. DIF was evaluated for males and females and Blacks and Whites. (SLD)

Item Structural Properties as Predictors of Item Difficulty and Item Association.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solano-Flores, Guillermo

1993-01-01

Studied the ability of logical test design (LTD) to predict student performance in reading Roman numerals for 211 sixth graders in Mexico City tested on Roman numeral items varying on LTD-related and non-LTD-related variables. The LTD-related variable item iterativity was found to be the best predictor of item difficulty. (SLD)

Investigating Item Exposure Control Methods in Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozturk, Nagihan Boztunc; Dogan, Nuri

2015-01-01

This study aims to investigate the effects of item exposure control methods on measurement precision and on test security under various item selection methods and item pool characteristics. In this study, the Randomesque (with item group sizes of 5 and 10), Sympson-Hetter, and Fade-Away methods were used as item exposure control methods. Moreover,…

Detecting Differential Item Discrimination (DID) and the Consequences of Ignoring DID in Multilevel Item Response Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Woo-yeol; Cho, Sun-Joo

2017-01-01

Cross-level invariance in a multilevel item response model can be investigated by testing whether the within-level item discriminations are equal to the between-level item discriminations. Testing the cross-level invariance assumption is important to understand constructs in multilevel data. However, in most multilevel item response model…

Item Pool Design for an Operational Variable-Length Computerized Adaptive Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Wei; Reckase, Mark D.

2014-01-01

For computerized adaptive tests (CATs) to work well, they must have an item pool with sufficient numbers of good quality items. Many researchers have pointed out that, in developing item pools for CATs, not only is the item pool size important but also the distribution of item parameters and practical considerations such as content distribution…

Assessing patient report of function: content validity of the Functional Performance Inventory-Short Form (FPI-SF) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

PubMed

Leidy, Nancy Kline; Hamilton, Alan; Becker, Karin

2012-01-01

The performance of daily activities is a major challenge for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Functional Performance Inventory (FPI) was developed based on an analytical framework of functional status and qualitative interviews with COPD patients describing these difficulties. The 65-item FPI was reduced to a 32-item short form (SF) through a systematic process of qualitative and quantitative item reduction and formatted for greater clarity and ease of use. This study examined the content validity of the reduced, reformatted form of the instrument, the FPI-SF. Qualitative cognitive interviews were conducted with COPD patients recruited from three geographically diverse pulmonary clinics in the United States. Interviews were designed to assess respondent interpretation of the instrument, evaluate clarity and ease of completion, and identify any new activities participants found important and difficult to perform that were not represented by the existing items. Twenty subjects comprised the sample; 12 (60%) were male, 14 (70%) were Caucasian, the mean age was 63.0 ± 11.3 years, 12 (60%) were retired, the mean forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) was 1.5 ± 0.5 L, and the mean percent predicted FEV(1) was 48.4% ± 13.1%. Participants understood the FPI-SF as intended, including instructions, items, and response options. Two minor formatting changes were suggested to improve clarity of presentation. Participants found the content of the FPI-SF to be comprehensive, with items covering activities they felt were important and often difficult to perform. These results, together with its development history and previously tested quantitative properties, suggest that the FPI-SF is content valid for use in clinical studies of COPD.

Assessing patient report of function: content validity of the Functional Performance Inventory-Short Form (FPI-SF) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

PubMed Central

Leidy, Nancy Kline; Hamilton, Alan; Becker, Karin

2012-01-01

Purpose The performance of daily activities is a major challenge for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Functional Performance Inventory (FPI) was developed based on an analytical framework of functional status and qualitative interviews with COPD patients describing these difficulties. The 65-item FPI was reduced to a 32-item short form (SF) through a systematic process of qualitative and quantitative item reduction and formatted for greater clarity and ease of use. This study examined the content validity of the reduced, reformatted form of the instrument, the FPI-SF. Patients and methods Qualitative cognitive interviews were conducted with COPD patients recruited from three geographically diverse pulmonary clinics in the United States. Interviews were designed to assess respondent interpretation of the instrument, evaluate clarity and ease of completion, and identify any new activities participants found important and difficult to perform that were not represented by the existing items. Results Twenty subjects comprised the sample; 12 (60%) were male, 14 (70%) were Caucasian, the mean age was 63.0 ± 11.3 years, 12 (60%) were retired, the mean forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) was 1.5 ± 0.5 L, and the mean percent predicted FEV1 was 48.4% ± 13.1%. Participants understood the FPI-SF as intended, including instructions, items, and response options. Two minor formatting changes were suggested to improve clarity of presentation. Participants found the content of the FPI-SF to be comprehensive, with items covering activities they felt were important and often difficult to perform. Conclusion These results, together with its development history and previously tested quantitative properties, suggest that the FPI-SF is content valid for use in clinical studies of COPD. PMID:22969295

Assessing the quality of life of adults with chronic respiratory diseases in routine primary care: construction and first validation of the 10-Item Respiratory Illness Questionnaire-monitoring 10 (RIQ-MON10).

PubMed

Jacobs, J E; Maillé, A R; Akkermans, R P; van Weel, C; Grol, R P T M

2004-08-01

As doctors' judgements about the burden of a disease often differ from patients' own assessments a manageable method to incorporate the latter into routine care might support patient-centered decision-making. For this purpose we shortened the 55-Item Quality of Life for Respiratory Illness Questionnaire (QoL-RIQ). Secondary analyses of the data of 3 controlled studies (n = 328, 502 and 555). inter-item correlations, scale distributions, Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis. Dyspnoea, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), COOP/WONCA charts, the Medical Research Council-ECCS symptoms questionnaire and the MOS-SF 36 served as criteria to test validity and responsiveness. Item-reduction resulted in a 10-item short form (alpha's 0.87-0.90), consisting of 2 5-item factors: (1) physical and emotional complaints and (2) physical and social limitations. The correlations of the short form with dyspnoea (r from 0.57 to 0.60), the generic health status instruments (r from 0.39 to 0.59) and lung function (r from 0.10 to 0.15) fulfilled the criteria. FURTHER RESULTS: a clinical relevant score difference (> 0.5) between upper and lower quartiles of the convergent instruments, an intraclass correlation between repeated scores in a stable group of 0.82 and a standardised response mean of 0.86 in an improved group of patients. The short form (RIQ-MON10) maintained the psychometric properties of the original instrument and is promising for assessing quality of life (QoL) during routine primary care visits.

Development of a Research Participants’ Perception Survey to Improve Clinical Research

PubMed Central

Yessis, Jennifer L.; Kost, Rhonda G.; Lee, Laura M.; Coller, Barry S.; Henderson, David K.

2012-01-01

Abstract Introduction: Clinical research participants’ perceptions regarding their experiences during research protocols provide outcome‐based insights into the effectiveness of efforts to protect rights and safety, and opportunities to enhance participants’ clinical research experiences. Use of validated surveys measuring patient‐centered outcomes is standard in hospitals, yet no instruments exist to assess outcomes of clinical research processes. Methods: We derived survey questions from data obtained from focus groups comprised of research participants and professionals. We assessed the survey for face/content validity, and privacy/confidentiality protections and fielded it to research participants at 15 centers. We conducted analyses of response rates, sample characteristics, and psychometrics, including survey and item completion and analysis, internal consistency, item internal consistency, criterion‐related validity, and item usefulness. Responses were tested for fit into existing patient‐centered dimensions of care and new clinical research dimensions using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Results: Surveys were mailed to 18,890 individuals; 4,961 were returned (29%). Survey completion was 89% overall; completion rates exceeded 90% for 88 of 93 evaluable items. Questions fit into three dimensions of patient‐centered care and two novel clinical research dimensions (Cronbach's alpha for dimensions: 0.69–0.85). Conclusions: The validated survey offers a new method for assessing and improving outcomes of clinical research processes. Clin Trans Sci 2012; Volume 5: 452–460 PMID:23253666

Analyzing Item Generation with Natural Language Processing Tools for the "TOEIC"® Listening Test. Research Report. ETS RR-17-52

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Su-Youn; Lee, Chong Min; Houghton, Patrick; Lopez, Melissa; Sakano, Jennifer; Loukina, Anastasia; Krovetz, Bob; Lu, Chi; Madani, Nitin

2017-01-01

In this study, we developed assistive tools and resources to support TOEIC® Listening test item generation. There has recently been an increased need for a large pool of items for these tests. This need has, in turn, inspired efforts to increase the efficiency of item generation while maintaining the quality of the created items. We aimed to…

An Analysis of Factors Affecting the Difficulty of Dialogue Items in TOEFL Listening Comprehension. TOEFL Research Reports, 51.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nissan, Susan; And Others

One of the item types in the Listening Comprehension section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) test is the dialogue. Because the dialogue item pool needs to have an appropriate balance of items at a range of difficulty levels, test developers have examined items at various difficulty levels in an attempt to identify their…

Item development process and analysis of 50 case-based items for implementation on the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination.

PubMed

Park, In Sook; Suh, Yeon Ok; Park, Hae Sook; Kang, So Young; Kim, Kwang Sung; Kim, Gyung Hee; Choi, Yeon-Hee; Kim, Hyun-Ju

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to improve the quality of items on the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination by developing and evaluating case-based items that reflect integrated nursing knowledge. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study to develop new case-based items. The methods for developing test items included expert workshops, brainstorming, and verification of content validity. After a mock examination of undergraduate nursing students using the newly developed case-based items, we evaluated the appropriateness of the items through classical test theory and item response theory. A total of 50 case-based items were developed for the mock examination, and content validity was evaluated. The question items integrated 34 discrete elements of integrated nursing knowledge. The mock examination was taken by 741 baccalaureate students in their fourth year of study at 13 universities. Their average score on the mock examination was 57.4, and the examination showed a reliability of 0.40. According to classical test theory, the average level of item difficulty of the items was 57.4% (80%-100% for 12 items; 60%-80% for 13 items; and less than 60% for 25 items). The mean discrimination index was 0.19, and was above 0.30 for 11 items and 0.20 to 0.29 for 15 items. According to item response theory, the item discrimination parameter (in the logistic model) was none for 10 items (0.00), very low for 20 items (0.01 to 0.34), low for 12 items (0.35 to 0.64), moderate for 6 items (0.65 to 1.34), high for 1 item (1.35 to 1.69), and very high for 1 item (above 1.70). The item difficulty was very easy for 24 items (below -2.0), easy for 8 items (-2.0 to -0.5), medium for 6 items (-0.5 to 0.5), hard for 3 items (0.5 to 2.0), and very hard for 9 items (2.0 or above). The goodness-of-fit test in terms of the 2-parameter item response model between the range of 2.0 to 0.5 revealed that 12 items had an ideal correct answer rate. We surmised that the low reliability of the mock examination was influenced by the timing of the test for the examinees and the inappropriate difficulty of the items. Our study suggested a methodology for the development of future case-based items for the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the main propulsion subsystem FMEA/CIL, volume 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Slaughter, B. C.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the Main Propulsion System (MPS) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were than compared to available data from the Rockwell Downey/NASA JSC FMEA/CIL review. Volume 4 contains the IOA analysis worksheets and the NASA FMEA to IOA worksheet cross reference and recommendations.

The beneficial effect of testing: an event-related potential study

PubMed Central

Bai, Cheng-Hua; Bridger, Emma K.; Zimmer, Hubert D.; Mecklinger, Axel

2015-01-01

The enhanced memory performance for items that are tested as compared to being restudied (the testing effect) is a frequently reported memory phenomenon. According to the episodic context account of the testing effect, this beneficial effect of testing is related to a process which reinstates the previously learnt episodic information. Few studies have explored the neural correlates of this effect at the time point when testing takes place, however. In this study, we utilized the ERP correlates of successful memory encoding to address this issue, hypothesizing that if the benefit of testing is due to retrieval-related processes at test then subsequent memory effects (SMEs) should resemble the ERP correlates of retrieval-based processing in their temporal and spatial characteristics. Participants were asked to learn Swahili-German word pairs before items were presented in either a testing or a restudy condition. Memory performance was assessed immediately and 1-day later with a cued recall task. Successfully recalling items at test increased the likelihood that items were remembered over time compared to items which were only restudied. An ERP subsequent memory contrast (later remembered vs. later forgotten tested items), which reflects the engagement of processes that ensure items are recallable the next day were topographically comparable with the ERP correlate of immediate recollection (immediately remembered vs. immediately forgotten tested items). This result shows that the processes which allow items to be more memorable over time share qualitatively similar neural correlates with the processes that relate to successful retrieval at test. This finding supports the notion that testing is more beneficial than restudying on memory performance over time because of its engagement of retrieval processes, such as the re-encoding of actively retrieved memory representations. PMID:26441577

The development of a science process assessment for fourth-grade students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Kathleen A.; Welliver, Paul W.

In this study, a multiple-choice test entitled the Science Process Assessment was developed to measure the science process skills of students in grade four. Based on the Recommended Science Competency Continuum for Grades K to 6 for Pennsylvania Schools, this instrument measured the skills of (1) observing, (2) classifying, (3) inferring, (4) predicting, (5) measuring, (6) communicating, (7) using space/time relations, (8) defining operationally, (9) formulating hypotheses, (10) experimenting, (11) recognizing variables, (12) interpreting data, and (13) formulating models. To prepare the instrument, classroom teachers and science educators were invited to participate in two science education workshops designed to develop an item bank of test questions applicable to measuring process skill learning. Participants formed writing teams and generated 65 test items representing the 13 process skills. After a comprehensive group critique of each item, 61 items were identified for inclusion into the Science Process Assessment item bank. To establish content validity, the item bank was submitted to a select panel of science educators for the purpose of judging item acceptability. This analysis yielded 55 acceptable test items and produced the Science Process Assessment, Pilot 1. Pilot 1 was administered to 184 fourth-grade students. Students were given a copy of the test booklet; teachers read each test aloud to the students. Upon completion of this first administration, data from the item analysis yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.73. Subsequently, 40 test items were identified for the Science Process Assessment, Pilot 2. Using the test-retest method, the Science Process Assessment, Pilot 2 (Test 1 and Test 2) was administered to 113 fourth-grade students. Reliability coefficients of 0.80 and 0.82, respectively, were ascertained. The correlation between Test 1 and Test 2 was 0.77. The results of this study indicate that (1) the Science Process Assessment, Pilot 2, is a valid and reliable instrument applicable to measuring the science process skills of students in grade four, (2) using educational workshops as a means of developing item banks of test questions is viable and productive in the test development process, and (3) involving classroom teachers and science educators in the test development process is educationally efficient and effective.

A Review of the Effects on IRT Item Parameter Estimates with a Focus on Misbehaving Common Items in Test Equating

PubMed Central

Michaelides, Michalis P.

2010-01-01

Many studies have investigated the topic of change or drift in item parameter estimates in the context of item response theory (IRT). Content effects, such as instructional variation and curricular emphasis, as well as context effects, such as the wording, position, or exposure of an item have been found to impact item parameter estimates. The issue becomes more critical when items with estimates exhibiting differential behavior across test administrations are used as common for deriving equating transformations. This paper reviews the types of effects on IRT item parameter estimates and focuses on the impact of misbehaving or aberrant common items on equating transformations. Implications relating to test validity and the judgmental nature of the decision to keep or discard aberrant common items are discussed, with recommendations for future research into more informed and formal ways of dealing with misbehaving common items. PMID:21833230

A Review of the Effects on IRT Item Parameter Estimates with a Focus on Misbehaving Common Items in Test Equating.

PubMed

Michaelides, Michalis P

2010-01-01

Many studies have investigated the topic of change or drift in item parameter estimates in the context of item response theory (IRT). Content effects, such as instructional variation and curricular emphasis, as well as context effects, such as the wording, position, or exposure of an item have been found to impact item parameter estimates. The issue becomes more critical when items with estimates exhibiting differential behavior across test administrations are used as common for deriving equating transformations. This paper reviews the types of effects on IRT item parameter estimates and focuses on the impact of misbehaving or aberrant common items on equating transformations. Implications relating to test validity and the judgmental nature of the decision to keep or discard aberrant common items are discussed, with recommendations for future research into more informed and formal ways of dealing with misbehaving common items.

On the Relationship Between Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory: From One to the Other and Back.

PubMed

Raykov, Tenko; Marcoulides, George A

2016-04-01

The frequently neglected and often misunderstood relationship between classical test theory and item response theory is discussed for the unidimensional case with binary measures and no guessing. It is pointed out that popular item response models can be directly obtained from classical test theory-based models by accounting for the discrete nature of the observed items. Two distinct observational equivalence approaches are outlined that render the item response models from corresponding classical test theory-based models, and can each be used to obtain the former from the latter models. Similarly, classical test theory models can be furnished using the reverse application of either of those approaches from corresponding item response models.

Locally Dependent Linear Logistic Test Model with Person Covariates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ip, Edward H.; Smits, Dirk J. M.; De Boeck, Paul

2009-01-01

The article proposes a family of item-response models that allow the separate and independent specification of three orthogonal components: item attribute, person covariate, and local item dependence. Special interest lies in extending the linear logistic test model, which is commonly used to measure item attributes, to tests with embedded item…

Applying Bayesian Item Selection Approaches to Adaptive Tests Using Polytomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penfield, Randall D.

2006-01-01

This study applied the maximum expected information (MEI) and the maximum posterior-weighted information (MPI) approaches of computer adaptive testing item selection to the case of a test using polytomous items following the partial credit model. The MEI and MPI approaches are described. A simulation study compared the efficiency of ability…

Do Reading Experts Agree with MCAT Verbal Reasoning Item Classifications?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Evelyn W.; And Others

1994-01-01

Examined whether expert raters (n=5) could agree about classification of Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) items and whether they agreed with MCAT student manual in labeling skill being measured by each test item. Results revealed difficulties in replicating authors' labeling of skills for reading items on practice test provided with 1991 MCAT…

ACER Chemistry Test Item Collection (ACER CHEMTIC Year 12 Supplement).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Australian Council for Educational Research, Hawthorn.

This publication contains 317 multiple-choice chemistry test items related to topics covered in the Victorian (Australia) Year 12 chemistry course. It allows teachers access to a range of items suitable for diagnostic and achievement purposes, supplementing the ACER Chemistry Test Item Collection--Year 12 (CHEMTIC). The topics covered are: organic…

Differential Item Functioning: Its Consequences. Research Report. ETS RR-10-01

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Yi-Hsuan; Zhang, Jinming

2010-01-01

This report examines the consequences of differential item functioning (DIF) using simulated data. Its impact on total score, item response theory (IRT) ability estimate, and test reliability was evaluated in various testing scenarios created by manipulating the following four factors: test length, percentage of DIF items per form, sample sizes of…

Electronics. Criterion-Referenced Test (CRT) Item Bank.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Diane, Ed.

This document contains 519 criterion-referenced multiple choice and true or false test items for a course in electronics. The test item bank is designed to work with both the Vocational Instructional Management System (VIMS) and the Vocational Administrative Management System (VAMS) in Missouri. The items are grouped into 15 units covering the…

Auto Mechanics. Criterion-Referenced Test (CRT) Item Bank.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tannehill, Dana, Ed.

This document contains 546 criterion-referenced multiple choice and true or false test items for a course in auto mechanics. The test item bank is designed to work with both the Vocational Instructional Management System (VIMS) and Vocational Administrative Management System (VAMS) in Missouri. The items are grouped into 35 units covering the…

Developing a Strategy for Using Technology-Enhanced Items in Large-Scale Standardized Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryant, William

2017-01-01

As large-scale standardized tests move from paper-based to computer-based delivery, opportunities arise for test developers to make use of items beyond traditional selected and constructed response types. Technology-enhanced items (TEIs) have the potential to provide advantages over conventional items, including broadening construct measurement,…

Varying levels of difficulty index of skills-test items randomly selected by examinees on the Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this study was to characterize the difficulty index of the items in the skills test components of the class I and II Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination (KEMTLE), which requires examinees to select items randomly. Methods: The results of 1,309 class I KEMTLE examinations and 1,801 class II KEMTLE examinations in 2013 were subjected to analysis. Items from the basic and advanced skills test sections of the KEMTLE were compared to determine whether some were significantly more difficult than others. Results: In the class I KEMTLE, all 4 of the items on the basic skills test showed significant variation in difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as 4 of the 5 items on the advanced skills test (P<0.05). In the class II KEMTLE, 4 of the 5 items on the basic skills test showed significantly different difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as all 3 of the advanced skills test items (P<0.01). Conclusion: In the skills test components of the class I and II KEMTLE, the procedure in which examinees randomly select questions should be revised to require examinees to respond to a set of fixed items in order to improve the reliability of the national licensing examination. PMID:26883810

Reliability of the Client-Centeredness of Goal Setting (C-COGS) Scale in Acquired Brain Injury Rehabilitation.

PubMed

Doig, Emmah; Prescott, Sarah; Fleming, Jennifer; Cornwell, Petrea; Kuipers, Pim

2016-01-01

To examine the internal reliability and test-retest reliability of the Client-Centeredness of Goal Setting (C-COGS) scale. The C-COGS scale was administered to 42 participants with acquired brain injury after completion of multidisciplinary goal planning. Internal reliability of scale items was examined using item-partial total correlations and Cronbach's α coefficient. The scale was readministered within a 1-mo period to a subsample of 12 participants to examine test-retest reliability by calculating exact and close percentage agreement for each item. After examination of item-partial total correlations, test items were revised. The revised items demonstrated stronger internal consistency than the original items. Preliminary evaluation of test-retest reliability was fair, with an average exact percent agreement across all test items of 67%. Findings support the preliminary reliability of the C-COGS scale as a tool to evaluate and promote client-centered goal planning in brain injury rehabilitation. Copyright © 2016 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Item-Writing Guidelines for Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regan, Tom

2015-01-01

A teacher learning how to write test questions (test items) will almost certainly encounter item-writing guidelines--lists of item-writing do's and don'ts. Item-writing guidelines usually are presented as applicable across all assessment settings. Table I shows some guidelines that I believe to be generally applicable and two will be briefly…

Unidimensional Interpretations for Multidimensional Test Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahraman, Nilufer

2013-01-01

This article considers potential problems that can arise in estimating a unidimensional item response theory (IRT) model when some test items are multidimensional (i.e., show a complex factorial structure). More specifically, this study examines (1) the consequences of model misfit on IRT item parameter estimates due to unintended minor item-level…

Measuring psychological trauma after spinal cord injury: Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Psychological Trauma item bank and short form

PubMed Central

Kisala, Pamela A.; Victorson, David; Pace, Natalie; Heinemann, Allen W.; Choi, Seung W.; Tulsky, David S.

2015-01-01

Objective To describe the development and psychometric properties of the SCI-QOL Psychological Trauma item bank and short form. Design Using a mixed-methods design, we developed and tested a Psychological Trauma item bank with patient and provider focus groups, cognitive interviews, and item response theory based analytic approaches, including tests of model fit, differential item functioning (DIF) and precision. Setting We tested a 31-item pool at several medical institutions across the United States, including the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital and the James J. Peters/Bronx Veterans Administration hospital. Participants A total of 716 individuals with SCI completed the trauma items Results The 31 items fit a unidimensional model (CFI=0.952; RMSEA=0.061) and demonstrated good precision (theta range between 0.6 and 2.5). Nine items demonstrated negligible DIF with little impact on score estimates. The final calibrated item bank contains 19 items Conclusion The SCI-QOL Psychological Trauma item bank is a psychometrically robust measurement tool from which a short form and a computer adaptive test (CAT) version are available. PMID:26010967

Repeated retrieval practice and item difficulty: does criterion learning eliminate item difficulty effects?

PubMed

Vaughn, Kalif E; Rawson, Katherine A; Pyc, Mary A

2013-12-01

A wealth of previous research has established that retrieval practice promotes memory, particularly when retrieval is successful. Although successful retrieval promotes memory, it remains unclear whether successful retrieval promotes memory equally well for items of varying difficulty. Will easy items still outperform difficult items on a final test if all items have been correctly recalled equal numbers of times during practice? In two experiments, normatively difficult and easy Lithuanian-English word pairs were learned via test-restudy practice until each item had been correctly recalled a preassigned number of times (from 1 to 11 correct recalls). Despite equating the numbers of successful recalls during practice, performance on a delayed final cued-recall test was lower for difficult than for easy items. Experiment 2 was designed to diagnose whether the disadvantage for difficult items was due to deficits in cue memory, target memory, and/or associative memory. The results revealed a disadvantage for the difficult versus the easy items only on the associative recognition test, with no differences on cue recognition, and even an advantage on target recognition. Although successful retrieval enhanced memory for both difficult and easy items, equating retrieval success during practice did not eliminate normative item difficulty differences.

Test Bias: An Objective Definition for Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durovic, Jerry J.

A test bias definition, applicable at the item-level of a test is presented. The definition conceptually equates test bias with measuring different things in different groups, and operationally equates test bias with a difference in item fit to the Rasch Model, greater than one, between groups. It is suggested that the proposed definition avoids…

Fixed or mixed: a comparison of three, four and mixed-option multiple-choice tests in a Fetal Surveillance Education Program

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Despite the widespread use of multiple-choice assessments in medical education assessment, current practice and published advice concerning the number of response options remains equivocal. This article describes an empirical study contrasting the quality of three 60 item multiple-choice test forms within the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) Fetal Surveillance Education Program (FSEP). The three forms are described below. Methods The first form featured four response options per item. The second form featured three response options, having removed the least functioning option from each item in the four-option counterpart. The third test form was constructed by retaining the best performing version of each item from the first two test forms. It contained both three and four option items. Results Psychometric and educational factors were taken into account in formulating an approach to test construction for the FSEP. The four-option test performed better than the three-option test overall, but some items were improved by the removal of options. The mixed-option test demonstrated better measurement properties than the fixed-option tests, and has become the preferred test format in the FSEP program. The criteria used were reliability, errors of measurement and fit to the item response model. Conclusions The position taken is that decisions about the number of response options be made at the item level, with plausible options being added to complete each item on both psychometric and educational grounds rather than complying with a uniform policy. The point is to construct the better performing item in providing the best psychometric and educational information. PMID:23453056

Fixed or mixed: a comparison of three, four and mixed-option multiple-choice tests in a Fetal Surveillance Education Program.

PubMed

Zoanetti, Nathan; Beaves, Mark; Griffin, Patrick; Wallace, Euan M

2013-03-04

Despite the widespread use of multiple-choice assessments in medical education assessment, current practice and published advice concerning the number of response options remains equivocal. This article describes an empirical study contrasting the quality of three 60 item multiple-choice test forms within the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) Fetal Surveillance Education Program (FSEP). The three forms are described below. The first form featured four response options per item. The second form featured three response options, having removed the least functioning option from each item in the four-option counterpart. The third test form was constructed by retaining the best performing version of each item from the first two test forms. It contained both three and four option items. Psychometric and educational factors were taken into account in formulating an approach to test construction for the FSEP. The four-option test performed better than the three-option test overall, but some items were improved by the removal of options. The mixed-option test demonstrated better measurement properties than the fixed-option tests, and has become the preferred test format in the FSEP program. The criteria used were reliability, errors of measurement and fit to the item response model. The position taken is that decisions about the number of response options be made at the item level, with plausible options being added to complete each item on both psychometric and educational grounds rather than complying with a uniform policy. The point is to construct the better performing item in providing the best psychometric and educational information.

GLOSSARY TO READINGS IN HINDI LITERATURE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wisconsin Univ., Madison. Indian Language and Area Center.

INCLUDED IN THIS GLOSSARY ARE THE IMPORTANT VOCABULARY ITEMS WHICH APPEAR IN THE VOLUME OF READINGS. THESE ITEMS ARE ARRANGED BY SELECTION AND ARE IN SERIAL ORDER. THE LISTING INCLUDES THE DEVANAGARI FORM, AN ABBREVIATION OF THE FORM CLASS, AND A SHORT ENGLISH GLOSS. WHEN A NUMBER OF TRANSLATIONS ARE POSSIBLE, THE FIRST ONE GIVEN IS APPROPRIATE TO…

75 FR 11953 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-12

... Organizations; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change by the Chicago Stock... Volume for Billing Purposes March 5, 2010. Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of... (the ``Commission'') the proposed rule change as described in Items I, II and III below, which Items...

Detecting Gender Bias Through Test Item Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

González-Espada, Wilson J.

2009-03-01

Many physical science and physics instructors might not be trained in pedagogically appropriate test construction methods. This could lead to test items that do not measure what they are intended to measure. A subgroup of these items might show bias against some groups of students. This paper describes how the author became aware of potentially biased items against females in his examinations, which led to the exploration of fundamental issues related to item validity, gender bias, and differential item functioning, or DIF. A brief discussion of DIF in the context of university courses, as well as practical suggestions to detect possible gender-biased items, follows.

Estimating Total-test Scores from Partial Scores in a Matrix Sampling Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sachar, Jane; Suppes, Patrick

It is sometimes desirable to obtain an estimated total-test score for an individual who was administered only a subset of the items in a total test. The present study compared six methods, two of which utilize the content structure of items, to estimate total-test scores using 450 students in grades 3-5 and 60 items of the ll0-item Stanford Mental…

Differential item functioning analysis of the Vanderbilt Expertise Test for cars

PubMed Central

Lee, Woo-Yeol; Cho, Sun-Joo; McGugin, Rankin W.; Van Gulick, Ana Beth; Gauthier, Isabel

2015-01-01

The Vanderbilt Expertise Test for cars (VETcar) is a test of visual learning for contemporary car models. We used item response theory to assess the VETcar and in particular used differential item functioning (DIF) analysis to ask if the test functions the same way in laboratory versus online settings and for different groups based on age and gender. An exploratory factor analysis found evidence of multidimensionality in the VETcar, although a single dimension was deemed sufficient to capture the recognition ability measured by the test. We selected a unidimensional three-parameter logistic item response model to examine item characteristics and subject abilities. The VETcar had satisfactory internal consistency. A substantial number of items showed DIF at a medium effect size for test setting and for age group, whereas gender DIF was negligible. Because online subjects were on average older than those tested in the lab, we focused on the age groups to conduct a multigroup item response theory analysis. This revealed that most items on the test favored the younger group. DIF could be more the rule than the exception when measuring performance with familiar object categories, therefore posing a challenge for the measurement of either domain-general visual abilities or category-specific knowledge. PMID:26418499

Modeling Item-Level and Step-Level Invariance Effects in Polytomous Items Using the Partial Credit Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gattamorta, Karina A.; Penfield, Randall D.; Myers, Nicholas D.

2012-01-01

Measurement invariance is a common consideration in the evaluation of the validity and fairness of test scores when the tested population contains distinct groups of examinees, such as examinees receiving different forms of a translated test. Measurement invariance in polytomous items has traditionally been evaluated at the item-level,…

Measuring the Instructional Sensitivity of ESL Reading Comprehension Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brutten, Sheila R.; And Others

A study attempted to estimate the instructional sensitivity of items in three reading comprehension tests in English as a second language (ESL). Instructional sensitivity is a test-item construct defined as the tendency for a test item to vary in difficulty as a function of instruction. Similar tasks were given to readers at different proficiency…

Reducing the Impact of Inappropriate Items on Reviewable Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yen, Yung-Chin; Ho, Rong-Guey; Liao, Wen-Wei; Chen, Li-Ju

2012-01-01

In a test, the testing score would be closer to examinee's actual ability when careless mistakes were corrected. In CAT, however, changing the answer of one item in CAT might cause the following items no longer appropriate for estimating the examinee's ability. These inappropriate items in a reviewable CAT might in turn introduce bias in ability…

Comparing and Combining Dichotomous and Polytomous Items with SPRT Procedure in Computerized Classification Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lau, C. Allen; Wang, Tianyou

The purposes of this study were to: (1) extend the sequential probability ratio testing (SPRT) procedure to polytomous item response theory (IRT) models in computerized classification testing (CCT); (2) compare polytomous items with dichotomous items using the SPRT procedure for their accuracy and efficiency; (3) study a direct approach in…

A Conditional Exposure Control Method for Multidimensional Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finkelman, Matthew; Nering, Michael L.; Roussos, Louis A.

2009-01-01

In computerized adaptive testing (CAT), ensuring the security of test items is a crucial practical consideration. A common approach to reducing item theft is to define maximum item exposure rates, i.e., to limit the proportion of examinees to whom a given item can be administered. Numerous methods for controlling exposure rates have been proposed…

The Effects of Clinically Relevant Multiple-Choice Items on the Statistical Discrimination of Physician Clinical Competence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Downing, Steven M.; Maatsch, Jack L.

To test the effect of clinically relevant multiple-choice item content on the validity of statistical discriminations of physicians' clinical competence, data were collected from a field test of the Emergency Medicine Examination, test items for the certification of specialists in emergency medicine. Two 91-item multiple-choice subscales were…

The Effect of Including or Excluding Students with Testing Accommodations on IRT Calibrations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karkee, Thakur; Lewis, Dan M.; Barton, Karen; Haug, Carolyn

This study aimed to determine the degree to which the inclusion of accommodated students with disabilities in the calibration sample affects the characteristics of item parameters and the test results. Investigated were effects on test reliability, item fit to the applicable item response theory (IRT) model, item parameter estimates, and students'…

Three controversies over item disclosure in medical licensure examinations.

PubMed

Park, Yoon Soo; Yang, Eunbae B

2015-01-01

In response to views on public's right to know, there is growing attention to item disclosure - release of items, answer keys, and performance data to the public - in medical licensure examinations and their potential impact on the test's ability to measure competence and select qualified candidates. Recent debates on this issue have sparked legislative action internationally, including South Korea, with prior discussions among North American countries dating over three decades. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze three issues associated with item disclosure in medical licensure examinations - 1) fairness and validity, 2) impact on passing levels, and 3) utility of item disclosure - by synthesizing existing literature in relation to standards in testing. Historically, the controversy over item disclosure has centered on fairness and validity. Proponents of item disclosure stress test takers' right to know, while opponents argue from a validity perspective. Item disclosure may bias item characteristics, such as difficulty and discrimination, and has consequences on setting passing levels. To date, there has been limited research on the utility of item disclosure for large scale testing. These issues requires ongoing and careful consideration.

Online Calibration of Polytomous Items Under the Generalized Partial Credit Model

PubMed Central

Zheng, Yi

2016-01-01

Online calibration is a technology-enhanced architecture for item calibration in computerized adaptive tests (CATs). Many CATs are administered continuously over a long term and rely on large item banks. To ensure test validity, these item banks need to be frequently replenished with new items, and these new items need to be pretested before being used operationally. Online calibration dynamically embeds pretest items in operational tests and calibrates their parameters as response data are gradually obtained through the continuous test administration. This study extends existing formulas, procedures, and algorithms for dichotomous item response theory models to the generalized partial credit model, a popular model for items scored in more than two categories. A simulation study was conducted to investigate the developed algorithms and procedures under a variety of conditions, including two estimation algorithms, three pretest item selection methods, three seeding locations, two numbers of score categories, and three calibration sample sizes. Results demonstrated acceptable estimation accuracy of the two estimation algorithms in some of the simulated conditions. A variety of findings were also revealed for the interacted effects of included factors, and recommendations were made respectively. PMID:29881063

Evaluating Statistical Targets for Assembling Parallel Mixed-Format Test Forms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Debeer, Dries; Ali, Usama S.; van Rijn, Peter W.

2017-01-01

Test assembly is the process of selecting items from an item pool to form one or more new test forms. Often new test forms are constructed to be parallel with an existing (or an ideal) test. Within the context of item response theory, the test information function (TIF) or the test characteristic curve (TCC) are commonly used as statistical…

Nickel and cobalt release from jewellery and metal clothing items in Korea.

PubMed

Cheong, Seung Hyun; Choi, You Won; Choi, Hae Young; Byun, Ji Yeon

2014-01-01

In Korea, the prevalence of nickel allergy has shown a sharply increasing trend. Cobalt contact allergy is often associated with concomitant reactions to nickel, and is more common in Korea than in western countries. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of items that release nickel and cobalt on the Korean market. A total of 471 items that included 193 branded jewellery, 202 non-branded jewellery and 76 metal clothing items were sampled and studied with a dimethylglyoxime (DMG) test and a cobalt spot test to detect nickel and cobalt release, respectively. Nickel release was detected in 47.8% of the tested items. The positive rates in the DMG test were 12.4% for the branded jewellery, 70.8% for the non-branded jewellery, and 76.3% for the metal clothing items. Cobalt release was found in 6.2% of items. Among the types of jewellery, belts and hair pins showed higher positive rates in both the DMG test and the cobalt spot test. Our study shows that the prevalence of items that release nickel or cobalt among jewellery and metal clothing items is high in Korea. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Role of Item Feedback in Self-Adapted Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roos, Linda L.; And Others

1997-01-01

The importance of item feedback in self-adapted testing was studied by comparing feedback and no feedback conditions for computerized adaptive tests and self-adapted tests taken by 363 college students. Results indicate that item feedback is not necessary to realize score differences between self-adapted and computerized adaptive testing. (SLD)

Criterion-Referenced Test Items for Auto Body.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tannehill, Dana, Ed.

This test item bank on auto body repair contains criterion-referenced test questions based upon competencies found in the Missouri Auto Body Competency Profile. Some test items are keyed for multiple competencies. The tests cover the following 26 competency areas in the auto body curriculum: auto body careers; measuring and mixing; tools and…

Automated Test-Form Generation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Linden, Wim J.; Diao, Qi

2011-01-01

In automated test assembly (ATA), the methodology of mixed-integer programming is used to select test items from an item bank to meet the specifications for a desired test form and optimize its measurement accuracy. The same methodology can be used to automate the formatting of the set of selected items into the actual test form. Three different…

Life sciences payload definition and integration study. Volume 3: Appendices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

Detail design information concerning payloads for biomedical research projects conducted during space missions is presented. Subjects discussed are: (1) equipment modules and equipment item lists, (2) weight and volume breakdown by payload and equipment units, (3) longitudinal floor arrangement configuration, and (4) nonbaseline second generation layouts.

Solving the measurement invariance anchor item problem in item response theory.

PubMed

Meade, Adam W; Wright, Natalie A

2012-09-01

The efficacy of tests of differential item functioning (measurement invariance) has been well established. It is clear that when properly implemented, these tests can successfully identify differentially functioning (DF) items when they exist. However, an assumption of these analyses is that the metric for different groups is linked using anchor items that are invariant. In practice, however, it is impossible to be certain which items are DF and which are invariant. This problem of anchor items, or referent indicators, has long plagued invariance research, and a multitude of suggested approaches have been put forth. Unfortunately, the relative efficacy of these approaches has not been tested. This study compares 11 variations on 5 qualitatively different approaches from recent literature for selecting optimal anchor items. A large-scale simulation study indicates that for nearly all conditions, an easily implemented 2-stage procedure recently put forth by Lopez Rivas, Stark, and Chernyshenko (2009) provided optimal power while maintaining nominal Type I error. With this approach, appropriate anchor items can be easily and quickly located, resulting in more efficacious invariance tests. Recommendations for invariance testing are illustrated using a pedagogical example of employee responses to an organizational culture measure.

When Listening Is Better Than Reading: Performance Gains on Cardiac Auscultation Test Questions.

PubMed

Short, Kathleen; Bucak, S Deniz; Rosenthal, Francine; Raymond, Mark R

2018-05-01

In 2007, the United States Medical Licensing Examination embedded multimedia simulations of heart sounds into multiple-choice questions. This study investigated changes in item difficulty as determined by examinee performance over time. The data reflect outcomes obtained following initial use of multimedia items from 2007 through 2012, after which an interface change occurred. A total of 233,157 examinees responded to 1,306 cardiology test items over the six-year period; 138 items included multimedia simulations of heart sounds, while 1,168 text-based items without multimedia served as controls. The authors compared changes in difficulty of multimedia items over time with changes in difficulty of text-based cardiology items over time. Further, they compared changes in item difficulty for both groups of items between graduates of Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME)-accredited and non-LCME-accredited (i.e., international) medical schools. Examinee performance on cardiology test items with multimedia heart sounds improved by 12.4% over the six-year period, while performance on text-based cardiology items improved by approximately 1.4%. These results were similar for graduates of LCME-accredited and non-LCME-accredited medical schools. Examinees' ability to interpret auscultation findings in test items that include multimedia presentations increased from 2007 to 2012.

Revisiting the role of recollection in item versus forced-choice recognition memory.

PubMed

Cook, Gabriel I; Marsh, Richard L; Hicks, Jason L

2005-08-01

Many memory theorists have assumed that forced-choice recognition tests can rely more on familiarity, whereas item (yes-no) tests must rely more on recollection. In actuality, several studies have found no differences in the contributions of recollection and familiarity underlying the two different test formats. Using word frequency to manipulate stimulus characteristics, the present study demonstrated that the contributions of recollection to item versus forced-choice tests is variable. Low word frequency resulted in significantly more recollection in an item test than did a forced-choice procedure, but high word frequency produced the opposite result. These results clearly constrain any uniform claim about the degree to which recollection supports responding in item versus forced-choice tests.

A Comparison of Methods of Vertical Equating.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loyd, Brenda H.; Hoover, H. D.

Rasch model vertical equating procedures were applied to three mathematics computation tests for grades six, seven, and eight. Each level of the test was composed of 45 items in three sets of 15 items, arranged in such a way that tests for adjacent grades had two sets (30 items) in common, and the sixth and eighth grades had 15 items in common. In…

Ability or Access-Ability: Differential Item Functioning of Items on Alternate Performance-Based Assessment Tests for Students with Visual Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zebehazy, Kim T.; Zigmond, Naomi; Zimmerman, George J.

2012-01-01

Introduction: This study investigated differential item functioning (DIF) of test items on Pennsylvania's Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) for students with visual impairments and severe cognitive disabilities and what the reasons for the differences may be. Methods: The Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to analyze differences in the scores…

Objective and Item Banking Computer Software and Its Use in Comprehensive Achievement Monitoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schriber, Peter E.; Gorth, William P.

The current emphasis on objectives and test item banks for constructing more effective tests is being augmented by increasingly sophisticated computer software. Items can be catalogued in numerous ways for retrieval. The items as well as instructional objectives can be stored and test forms can be selected and printed by the computer. It is also…

An Item-Driven Adaptive Design for Calibrating Pretest Items. Research Report. ETS RR-14-38

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Usama S.; Chang, Hua-Hua

2014-01-01

Adaptive testing is advantageous in that it provides more efficient ability estimates with fewer items than linear testing does. Item-driven adaptive pretesting may also offer similar advantages, and verification of such a hypothesis about item calibration was the main objective of this study. A suitability index (SI) was introduced to adaptively…

Fitting the Rasch Model to Account for Variation in Item Discrimination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weitzman, R. A.

2009-01-01

Building on the Kelley and Gulliksen versions of classical test theory, this article shows that a logistic model having only a single item parameter can account for varying item discrimination, as well as difficulty, by using item-test correlations to adjust incorrect-correct (0-1) item responses prior to an initial model fit. The fit occurs…

Weighted Maximum-a-Posteriori Estimation in Tests Composed of Dichotomous and Polytomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Shan-Shan; Tao, Jian; Chang, Hua-Hua; Shi, Ning-Zhong

2012-01-01

For mixed-type tests composed of dichotomous and polytomous items, polytomous items often yield more information than dichotomous items. To reflect the difference between the two types of items and to improve the precision of ability estimation, an adaptive weighted maximum-a-posteriori (WMAP) estimation is proposed. To evaluate the performance of…

Examination of Polytomous Items' Psychometric Properties According to Nonparametric Item Response Theory Models in Different Test Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sengul Avsar, Asiye; Tavsancil, Ezel

2017-01-01

This study analysed polytomous items' psychometric properties according to nonparametric item response theory (NIRT) models. Thus, simulated datasets--three different test lengths (10, 20 and 30 items), three sample distributions (normal, right and left skewed) and three samples sizes (100, 250 and 500)--were generated by conducting 20…

Rasch Measurement and Item Banking: Theory and Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakamura, Yuji

The Rasch Model is an item response theory, one parameter model developed that states that the probability of a correct response on a test is a function of the difficulty of the item and the ability of the candidate. Item banking is useful for language testing. The Rasch Model provides estimates of item difficulties that are meaningful,…

Test Design Project: Studies in Test Bias. Annual Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McArthur, David

Item bias in a multiple-choice test can be detected by appropriate analyses of the persons x items scoring matrix. This permits comparison of groups of examinees tested with the same instrument. The test may be biased if it is not measuring the same thing in comparable groups, if groups are responding to different aspects of the test items, or if…

The Impact of Settable Test Item Exposure Control Interface Format on Postsecondary Business Student Test Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Truell, Allen D.; Zhao, Jensen J.; Alexander, Melody W.

2005-01-01

The purposes of this study were to determine if there is a significant difference in postsecondary business student scores and test completion time based on settable test item exposure control interface format, and to determine if there is a significant difference in student scores and test completion time based on settable test item exposure…

42 CFR 419.31 - Ambulatory payment classification (APC) system and payment weights.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... set forth in paragraph (a)(1) in unusual cases, such as low volume items and services, but may not... and in terms of resource use into APC groups. Except as specified in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, items and services within a group are not comparable with respect to the use of resources if the highest...

42 CFR 419.31 - Ambulatory payment classification (APC) system and payment weights.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... set forth in paragraph (a)(1) in unusual cases, such as low volume items and services, but may not... and in terms of resource use into APC groups. Except as specified in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, items and services within a group are not comparable with respect to the use of resources if the highest...

Contract Attorneys Course Deskbook. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-06-21

sources ; exceptions,” deletes “specialty metals ” from the listed items in § 2533a and creates a whole new section to address specialty metals . The...Acquisition Procedures 11 Commercial Item Acquisitions 12 Contract Pricing 13 Bid Protests 14 Competitive Sourcing ii 15...Requirements Part 7: Acquisition Planning Part 8: Required Sources of Supplies and Services Part 9: Contractor Qualifications Part 10: Market

76 FR 76775 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE Amex LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-08

... Change To Amend NYSE Rule 104(a)(1)(A) To Reflect That Designated Market Maker Unit Quoting Requirements Are Based on Consolidated Average Daily Volume December 2, 2011. Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the... Commission (``Commission'') the proposed rule change as described in Items I and II below, which Items have...

Estimating Total-Test Scores from Partial Scores in a Matrix Sampling Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sachar, Jane; Suppes, Patrick

1980-01-01

The present study compared six methods, two of which utilize the content structure of items, to estimate total-test scores using 450 students and 60 items of the 110-item Stanford Mental Arithmetic Test. Three methods yielded fairly good estimates of the total-test score. (Author/RL)

2008 Homeland Security S and T Stakeholders Conference West volume 2 Monday

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-01-16

per collection and pressure to be applied, etc. . - Enviromental effects; dry vs. wet surface (vs. type of sample swipe), clean vs. dirty surfaces...selection of collection via low volume or high volume sampling, distance to suspect item critical, etc. - Enviromental effects; temperature (range of...selection of material, collection via hand wiping or sampling wand, area per collection and pressure to be applied, etc. . - Enviromental effects; dry

Alternative energy sources IV; Proceedings of the Fourth Miami International Conference, Miami Beach, FL, December 14-16, 1981. Volume 1 - Solar Collectors Storage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veziroglu, T. N.

1982-10-01

Aspects of solar measurements, solar collectors, selective coatings, thermal storage, phase change storage, and heat exchangers are discussed. The analysis and testing of flat-plate solar collectors are addressed. The development and uses of plastic collectors, a solar water heating system, solar energy collecting oil barrels, a glass collector panel, and a two-phase thermosyphon system are considered. Studies of stratification in thermal storage, of packed bed and fluidized bed systems, and of thermal storage in solar towers, in wall passive systems, and in reversible chemical reactions are reported. Phase change storage by direct contact processes and in residential solar space heating and cooling is examined, as are new materials and surface characteristics for solar heat storage. The use of R-11 and Freon-113 in heat exchange is discussed. No individual items are abstracted in this volume

A Generalized DIF Effect Variance Estimator for Measuring Unsigned Differential Test Functioning in Mixed Format Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penfield, Randall D.; Algina, James

2006-01-01

One approach to measuring unsigned differential test functioning is to estimate the variance of the differential item functioning (DIF) effect across the items of the test. This article proposes two estimators of the DIF effect variance for tests containing dichotomous and polytomous items. The proposed estimators are direct extensions of the…

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the reaction control system, volume 5

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prust, Chet D.; Hartman, Dan W.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the aft and forward Reaction Control System (RCS) hardware and Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C), generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. The IOA results were then compared to the proposed Post 51-L NASA FMEA/CIL baseline. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter RCS hardware and EPD and C systems. Volume 5 contains detailed analysis and superseded analysis worksheets and the NASA FMEA to IOA worksheet cross reference and recommendations.

Further analysis of the impact factors and submission information for the Journal of Child Neurology.

PubMed

Brumback, Roger A

2004-04-01

Now in its nineteenth volume year, the Journal of Child Neurology continues its preeminence among child neurology journals. The Institute of Scientific Information impact factor value for the year 2002 of 1.338 places the Journal of Child Neurology seventy-first in rank among the 138 clinical neurology journals. Since 1998, the rejection rate for manuscripts has been nearly 25%, with more than half of the accepted manuscripts originating in North America. In its first 18 volumes, the journal published 2144 items as listed in the PubMed database of the National Library of Medicine, and for 2003, the PubMed database indexed 176 published items from the Journal of Child Neurology.

The quadratic relationship between difficulty of intelligence test items and their correlations with working memory.

PubMed

Smolen, Tomasz; Chuderski, Adam

2015-01-01

Fluid intelligence (Gf) is a crucial cognitive ability that involves abstract reasoning in order to solve novel problems. Recent research demonstrated that Gf strongly depends on the individual effectiveness of working memory (WM). We investigated a popular claim that if the storage capacity underlay the WM-Gf correlation, then such a correlation should increase with an increasing number of items or rules (load) in a Gf-test. As often no such link is observed, on that basis the storage-capacity account is rejected, and alternative accounts of Gf (e.g., related to executive control or processing speed) are proposed. Using both analytical inference and numerical simulations, we demonstrated that the load-dependent change in correlation is primarily a function of the amount of floor/ceiling effect for particular items. Thus, the item-wise WM correlation of a Gf-test depends on its overall difficulty, and the difficulty distribution across its items. When the early test items yield huge ceiling, but the late items do not approach floor, that correlation will increase throughout the test. If the early items locate themselves between ceiling and floor, but the late items approach floor, the respective correlation will decrease. For a hallmark Gf-test, the Raven-test, whose items span from ceiling to floor, the quadratic relationship is expected, and it was shown empirically using a large sample and two types of WMC tasks. In consequence, no changes in correlation due to varying WM/Gf load, or lack of them, can yield an argument for or against any theory of WM/Gf. Moreover, as the mathematical properties of the correlation formula make it relatively immune to ceiling/floor effects for overall moderate correlations, only minor changes (if any) in the WM-Gf correlation should be expected for many psychological tests.

Guidelines for the selection of chemical-protective clothing. Volume 2. Technical and reference manual. (3rd Edition). Report for January 1985-March 1987

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schwope, A.D.; Costas, P.P.; Jackson, J.O.

1987-02-01

A variety of protective-clothing items are commercially available for emergency response and other applications where chemical hazards may be encountered. Data and information for selecting chemical-protective clothing is either not available or is inconsistant from source to source. In 1983, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sponsored the development of chemical-protective clothing selection guidelines to assist their own Office of Health and Safety in providing guidance to personnel, primarily EPA employees and contractors, working on hazardous-waste sites. These guidelines allowed a user to select an appropriate protective material for a specific chemical, select a clothing item (glove, suit, etc.), and thenmore » determine which manufacturers offered the clothing item in the recommended material. The U.S, Coast Guard Office of Research and Development and the EPA have supplemented these guidelines with additional data on material chemical resistance, material physical properties, clothing design features, and specific-vendor products. A chapter has been added for selecting chemical-protective suits. These guidelines contain data for over 750 chemicals and 700 clothing products. Volume I provides performance information and recommendations for selecting different types of protective clothing. Volume II contains a detailed technical discussion, and the data on which Volume I recommendations are based. The U.S. Coast Guard intends to use these guidelines for protective-clothing selection by its National Strike Force and Marine Safety Offices.« less

Plastic debris retention and exportation by a mangrove forest patch.

PubMed

Ivar do Sul, Juliana A; Costa, Monica F; Silva-Cavalcanti, Jacqueline S; Araújo, Maria Christina B

2014-01-15

An experiment observed the behavior of selected tagged plastic items deliberately released in different habitats of a tropical mangrove forest in NE Brazil in late rainy (September) and late dry (March) seasons. Significant differences were not reported among seasons. However, marine debris retention varied among habitats, according to characteristics such as hydrodynamic (i.e., flow rates and volume transported) and relative vegetation (Rhizophora mangle) height and density. The highest grounds retained significantly more items when compared to the borders of the river and the tidal creek. Among the used tagged items, PET bottles were more observed and margarine tubs were less observed, being easily transported to adjacent habitats. Plastic bags were the items most retained near the releasing site. The balance between items retained and items lost was positive, demonstrating that mangrove forests tend to retain plastic marine debris for long periods (months-years). Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item response theory analysis of the mechanics baseline test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardamone, Caroline N.; Abbott, Jonathan E.; Rayyan, Saif; Seaton, Daniel T.; Pawl, Andrew; Pritchard, David E.

2012-02-01

Item response theory is useful in both the development and evaluation of assessments and in computing standardized measures of student performance. In item response theory, individual parameters (difficulty, discrimination) for each item or question are fit by item response models. These parameters provide a means for evaluating a test and offer a better measure of student skill than a raw test score, because each skill calculation considers not only the number of questions answered correctly, but the individual properties of all questions answered. Here, we present the results from an analysis of the Mechanics Baseline Test given at MIT during 2005-2010. Using the item parameters, we identify questions on the Mechanics Baseline Test that are not effective in discriminating between MIT students of different abilities. We show that a limited subset of the highest quality questions on the Mechanics Baseline Test returns accurate measures of student skill. We compare student skills as determined by item response theory to the more traditional measurement of the raw score and show that a comparable measure of learning gain can be computed.

Computerized adaptive testing: the capitalization on chance problem.

PubMed

Olea, Julio; Barrada, Juan Ramón; Abad, Francisco J; Ponsoda, Vicente; Cuevas, Lara

2012-03-01

This paper describes several simulation studies that examine the effects of capitalization on chance in the selection of items and the ability estimation in CAT, employing the 3-parameter logistic model. In order to generate different estimation errors for the item parameters, the calibration sample size was manipulated (N = 500, 1000 and 2000 subjects) as was the ratio of item bank size to test length (banks of 197 and 788 items, test lengths of 20 and 40 items), both in a CAT and in a random test. Results show that capitalization on chance is particularly serious in CAT, as revealed by the large positive bias found in the small sample calibration conditions. For broad ranges of theta, the overestimation of the precision (asymptotic Se) reaches levels of 40%, something that does not occur with the RMSE (theta). The problem is greater as the item bank size to test length ratio increases. Potential solutions were tested in a second study, where two exposure control methods were incorporated into the item selection algorithm. Some alternative solutions are discussed.

The Impact of Test Dimensionality, Common-Item Set Format, and Scale Linking Methods on Mixed-Format Test Equating

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Öztürk-Gübes, Nese; Kelecioglu, Hülya

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of dimensionality, common-item set format, and different scale linking methods on preserving equity property with mixed-format test equating. Item response theory (IRT) true-score equating (TSE) and IRT observed-score equating (OSE) methods were used under common-item nonequivalent groups design.…

Location Indices for Ordinal Polytomous Items Based on Item Response Theory. Research Report. ETS RR-15-20

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Usama S.; Chang, Hua-Hua; Anderson, Carolyn J.

2015-01-01

Polytomous items are typically described by multiple category-related parameters; situations, however, arise in which a single index is needed to describe an item's location along a latent trait continuum. Situations in which a single index would be needed include item selection in computerized adaptive testing or test assembly. Therefore single…

Designing a Virtual Item Bank Based on the Techniques of Image Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liao, Wen-Wei; Ho, Rong-Guey

2011-01-01

One of the major weaknesses of the item exposure rates of figural items in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests lies in its inaccuracies. In this study, a new approach is proposed and a useful test tool known as the Virtual Item Bank (VIB) is introduced. The VIB combine Automatic Item Generation theory and image processing theory with the concepts of…

The Rasch Model and Missing Data, with an Emphasis on Tailoring Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Gruijter, Dato N. M.

Many applications of educational testing have a missing data aspect (MDA). This MDA is perhaps most pronounced in item banking, where each examinee responds to a different subtest of items from a large item pool and where both person and item parameter estimates are needed. The Rasch model is emphasized, and its non-parametric counterpart (the…

Three controversies over item disclosure in medical licensure examinations

PubMed Central

Park, Yoon Soo; Yang, Eunbae B.

2015-01-01

In response to views on public's right to know, there is growing attention to item disclosure – release of items, answer keys, and performance data to the public – in medical licensure examinations and their potential impact on the test's ability to measure competence and select qualified candidates. Recent debates on this issue have sparked legislative action internationally, including South Korea, with prior discussions among North American countries dating over three decades. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze three issues associated with item disclosure in medical licensure examinations – 1) fairness and validity, 2) impact on passing levels, and 3) utility of item disclosure – by synthesizing existing literature in relation to standards in testing. Historically, the controversy over item disclosure has centered on fairness and validity. Proponents of item disclosure stress test takers’ right to know, while opponents argue from a validity perspective. Item disclosure may bias item characteristics, such as difficulty and discrimination, and has consequences on setting passing levels. To date, there has been limited research on the utility of item disclosure for large scale testing. These issues requires ongoing and careful consideration. PMID:26374693

Effects of meal variety on expected satiation: Evidence for a ‘perceived volume’ heuristic☆

PubMed Central

Keenan, Gregory S.; Brunstrom, Jeffrey M.; Ferriday, Danielle

2015-01-01

Meal variety has been shown to increase energy intake in humans by an average of 29%. Historically, research exploring the mechanism underlying this effect has focused on physiological and psychological processes that terminate a meal (e.g., sensory-specific satiety). We sought to explore whether meal variety stimulates intake by influencing pre-meal planning. We know that individuals use prior experience with a food to estimate the extent to which it will deliver fullness. These ‘expected satiation’ judgments may be straightforward when only one meal component needs to be considered, but it remains unclear how prospective satiation is estimated when a meal comprises multiple items. We hypothesised that people simplify the task by using a heuristic, or ‘cognitive shortcut.’ Specifically, as within-meal variety increases, expected satiation tends to be based on the perceived volume of food(s) rather than on prior experience. In each trial, participants (N = 68) were shown a plate of food with six buffet food items. Across trials the number of different foods varied in the range one to six. In separate tasks, the participants provided an estimate of their combined expected satiation and volume. When meal variety was high, judgments of perceived volume and expected satiation ‘converged.’ This is consistent with a common underlying response strategy. By contrast, the low variety meals produced dissociable responses, suggesting that judgments of expected satiation were not governed solely by perceived volume. This evidence for a ‘volume heuristic’ was especially clear in people who were less familiar with the meal items. Together, these results are important because they expose a novel process by which meal variety might increase food intake in humans. PMID:25599925

Bayesian Item Selection in Constrained Adaptive Testing Using Shadow Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veldkamp, Bernard P.

2010-01-01

Application of Bayesian item selection criteria in computerized adaptive testing might result in improvement of bias and MSE of the ability estimates. The question remains how to apply Bayesian item selection criteria in the context of constrained adaptive testing, where large numbers of specifications have to be taken into account in the item…

Are Learning Disabled Students "Test-Wise?": An Inquiry into Reading Comprehension Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scruggs, Thomas E.; Lifson, Steve

The ability to correctly answer reading comprehension test items, without having read the accompanying reading passage, was compared for third grade learning disabled students and their peers from a regular classroom. In the first experiment, fourteen multiple choice items were selected from the Stanford Achievement Test. No reading passages were…

Agriculture Library of Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutherland, Duncan, Ed.

As one in a series of test item collections developed by the Assessment and Evaluation Unit of the Directorate of Studies, items of value from past tests are made available to teachers for the construction of unit tests, term examinations or as a basis for class discussion. Each collection is reviewed for content validity and reliability. The test…

iBank

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bermundo, Cesar B.; Bermundo, Alex B.; Ballester, Rex C.

2012-01-01

iBank is a project that utilizes a software to create an item Bank that store quality questions, generate test and print exam. The items are from analyze teacher-constructed test questions that provides the basis for discussing test results, by determining why a test item is or not discriminating between the better and poorer students, and by…

Effects of Test Item Disclosure on Medical Licensing Examination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Eunbae B.; Lee, Myung Ae; Park, Yoon Soo

2018-01-01

In 2012, the National Health Personnel Licensing Examination Board of Korea decided to publicly disclose all test items and answers to satisfy the test takers' right to know and enhance the transparency of tests administered by the government. This study investigated the effects of item disclosure on the medical licensing examination (MLE),…

Controlling Item Exposure Conditional on Ability in Computerized Adaptive Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stocking, Martha L.; Lewis, Charles

1998-01-01

Ensuring item and pool security in a continuous testing environment is explored through a new method of controlling exposure rate of items conditional on ability level in computerized testing. Properties of this conditional control on exposure rate, when used in conjunction with a particular adaptive testing algorithm, are explored using simulated…

V-TECS Criterion-Referenced Test Item Bank for Radiologic Technology Occupations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reneau, Fred; And Others

This Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States (V-TECS) criterion-referenced test item bank provides 696 multiple-choice items and 33 matching items for radiologic technology occupations. These job titles are included: radiologic technologist, chief; radiologic technologist; nuclear medicine technologist; radiation therapy technologist;…

Mission Benefits Analysis of Logistics Reduction Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ewert, Michael K.; Broyan, James Lee, Jr.

2013-01-01

Future space exploration missions will need to use less logistical supplies if humans are to live for longer periods away from our home planet. Anything that can be done to reduce initial mass and volume of supplies or reuse or recycle items that have been launched will be very valuable. Reuse and recycling also reduce the trash burden and associated nuisances, such as smell, but require good systems engineering and operations integration to reap the greatest benefits. A systems analysis was conducted to quantify the mass and volume savings of four different technologies currently under development by NASA s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Logistics Reduction and Repurposing project. Advanced clothing systems lead to savings by direct mass reduction and increased wear duration. Reuse of logistical items, such as packaging, for a second purpose allows fewer items to be launched. A device known as a heat melt compactor drastically reduces the volume of trash, recovers water and produces a stable tile that can be used instead of launching additional radiation protection. The fourth technology, called trash-to-gas, can benefit a mission by supplying fuel such as methane to the propulsion system. This systems engineering work will help improve logistics planning and overall mission architectures by determining the most effective use, and reuse, of all resources.

Mission Benefits Analysis of Logistics Reduction Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ewert, Michael K.; Broyan, James L.

2012-01-01

Future space exploration missions will need to use less logistical supplies if humans are to live for longer periods away from our home planet. Anything that can be done to reduce initial mass and volume of supplies or reuse or recycle items that have been launched will be very valuable. Reuse and recycling also reduce the trash burden and associated nuisances, such as smell, but require good systems engineering and operations integration to reap the greatest benefits. A systems analysis was conducted to quantify the mass and volume savings of four different technologies currently under development by NASA fs Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Logistics Reduction and Repurposing project. Advanced clothing systems lead to savings by direct mass reduction and increased wear duration. Reuse of logistical items, such as packaging, for a second purpose allows fewer items to be launched. A device known as a heat melt compactor drastically reduces the volume of trash, recovers water and produces a stable tile that can be used instead of launching additional radiation protection. The fourth technology, called trash ]to ]supply ]gas, can benefit a mission by supplying fuel such as methane to the propulsion system. This systems engineering work will help improve logistics planning and overall mission architectures by determining the most effective use, and reuse, of all resources.

Demonstrating the Difference between Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory Using Derived Test Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magno, Carlo

2009-01-01

The present report demonstrates the difference between classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) approach using an actual test data for chemistry junior high school students. The CTT and IRT were compared across two samples and two forms of test on their item difficulty, internal consistency, and measurement errors. The specific…

Modeling Local Item Dependence Due to Common Test Format with a Multidimensional Rasch Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baghaei, Purya; Aryadoust, Vahid

2015-01-01

Research shows that test method can exert a significant impact on test takers' performance and thereby contaminate test scores. We argue that common test method can exert the same effect as common stimuli and violate the conditional independence assumption of item response theory models because, in general, subsets of items which have a shared…

Development of Self-Report Measures of Social Attitudes that Act as Environmental Barriers and Facilitators for People with Disabilities

PubMed Central

Garcia, Sofia F.; Hahn, Elizabeth A.; Magasi, Susan; Lai, Jin-Shei; Semik, Patrick; Hammel, Joy; Heinemann, Allen W.

2014-01-01

Objective To describe the development of new self-report measures of social attitudes that act as environmental facilitators or barriers to the participation of people with disabilities in society. Design A mixed methods approach included a literature review; item classification, selection and writing; cognitive interviews and field testing with participants with spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke; and rating scale analysis to evaluate initial psychometric properties. Setting General community. Participants Nine individuals with SCI, TBI or stroke participated in cognitive interviews; 305 community residents with those same conditions participated in field testing. Interventions None. Main Outcome Measure(s) Self-report item pool of social attitudes that act as facilitators or barriers to people with disabilities participating in society. Results An interdisciplinary team of experts classified 710 existing social environment items into content areas and wrote 32 new items. Additional qualitative item review included item refinement and winnowing of the pool prior to cognitive interviews and field testing 82 items. Field test data indicated that the pool satisfies a one-parameter item response theory measurement model and would be appropriate for development into a calibrated item bank. Conclusions Our qualitative item review process supported a social environment conceptual framework that includes both social support and social attitudes. We developed a new social attitudes self-report item pool. Calibration testing of that pool is underway with a larger sample in order to develop a social attitudes item bank for persons with disabilities. PMID:25045803

Development of self-report measures of social attitudes that act as environmental barriers and facilitators for people with disabilities.

PubMed

Garcia, Sofia F; Hahn, Elizabeth A; Magasi, Susan; Lai, Jin-Shei; Semik, Patrick; Hammel, Joy; Heinemann, Allen W

2015-04-01

To describe the development of new self-report measures of social attitudes that act as environmental facilitators or barriers to the participation of people with disabilities in society. A mixed-methods approach included a literature review; item classification, selection, and writing; cognitive interviews and field testing of participants with spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), or stroke; and rating scale analysis to evaluate initial psychometric properties. General community. Individuals with SCI, TBI, or stroke participated in cognitive interviews (n=9); community residents with those same conditions participated in field testing (n=305). None. Self-report item pool of social attitudes that act as facilitators or barriers to people with disabilities participating in society. An interdisciplinary team of experts classified 710 existing social environment items into content areas and wrote 32 new items. Additional qualitative item review included item refinement and winnowing of the pool prior to cognitive interviews and field testing of 82 items. Field test data indicated that the pool satisfies a 1-parameter item response theory measurement model and would be appropriate for development into a calibrated item bank. Our qualitative item review process supported a social environment conceptual framework that includes both social support and social attitudes. We developed a new social attitudes self-report item pool. Calibration testing of that pool is underway with a larger sample to develop a social attitudes item bank for persons with disabilities. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Redefining diagnostic symptoms of depression using Rasch analysis: testing an item bank suitable for DSM-V and computer adaptive testing.

PubMed

Mitchell, Alex J; Smith, Adam B; Al-salihy, Zerak; Rahim, Twana A; Mahmud, Mahmud Q; Muhyaldin, Asma S

2011-10-01

We aimed to redefine the optimal self-report symptoms of depression suitable for creation of an item bank that could be used in computer adaptive testing or to develop a simplified screening tool for DSM-V. Four hundred subjects (200 patients with primary depression and 200 non-depressed subjects), living in Iraqi Kurdistan were interviewed. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was used to define the presence of major depression (DSM-IV criteria). We examined symptoms of depression using four well-known scales delivered in Kurdish. The Partial Credit Model was applied to each instrument. Common-item equating was subsequently used to create an item bank and differential item functioning (DIF) explored for known subgroups. A symptom level Rasch analysis reduced the original 45 items to 24 items of the original after the exclusion of 21 misfitting items. A further six items (CESD13 and CESD17, HADS-D4, HADS-D5 and HADS-D7, and CDSS3 and CDSS4) were removed due to misfit as the items were added together to form the item bank, and two items were subsequently removed following the DIF analysis by diagnosis (CESD20 and CDSS9, both of which were harder to endorse for women). Therefore the remaining optimal item bank consisted of 17 items and produced an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.987. Using a bank restricted to the optimal nine items revealed only minor loss of accuracy (AUC = 0.989, sensitivity 96%, specificity 95%). Finally, when restricted to only four items accuracy was still high (AUC was still 0.976; sensitivity 93%, specificity 96%). An item bank of 17 items may be useful in computer adaptive testing and nine or even four items may be used to develop a simplified screening tool for DSM-V major depressive disorder (MDD). Further examination of this item bank should be conducted in different cultural settings.

Measuring self-esteem after spinal cord injury: Development, validation and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Self-esteem item bank and short form

PubMed Central

Kalpakjian, Claire Z.; Tate, Denise G.; Kisala, Pamela A.; Tulsky, David S.

2015-01-01

Objective To describe the development and psychometric properties of the Spinal Cord Injury-Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Self-esteem item bank. Design Using a mixed-methods design, we developed and tested a self-esteem item bank through the use of focus groups with individuals with SCI and clinicians with expertise in SCI, cognitive interviews, and item-response theory- (IRT) based analytic approaches, including tests of model fit, differential item functioning (DIF) and precision. Setting We tested a pool of 30 items at several medical institutions across the United States, including the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital, and the James J. Peters/Bronx Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. Participants A total of 717 individuals with SCI completed the self-esteem items. Results A unidimensional model was observed (CFI = 0.946; RMSEA = 0.087) and measurement precision was good (theta range between −2.7 and 0.7). Eleven items were flagged for DIF; however, effect sizes were negligible with little practical impact on score estimates. The final calibrated item bank resulted in 23 retained items. Conclusion This study indicates that the SCI-QOL Self-esteem item bank represents a psychometrically robust measurement tool. Short form items are also suggested and computer adaptive tests are available. PMID:26010972

Measuring self-esteem after spinal cord injury: Development, validation and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Self-esteem item bank and short form.

PubMed

Kalpakjian, Claire Z; Tate, Denise G; Kisala, Pamela A; Tulsky, David S

2015-05-01

To describe the development and psychometric properties of the Spinal Cord Injury-Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Self-esteem item bank. Using a mixed-methods design, we developed and tested a self-esteem item bank through the use of focus groups with individuals with SCI and clinicians with expertise in SCI, cognitive interviews, and item-response theory-(IRT) based analytic approaches, including tests of model fit, differential item functioning (DIF) and precision. We tested a pool of 30 items at several medical institutions across the United States, including the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital, and the James J. Peters/Bronx Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. A total of 717 individuals with SCI completed the self-esteem items. A unidimensional model was observed (CFI=0.946; RMSEA=0.087) and measurement precision was good (theta range between -2.7 and 0.7). Eleven items were flagged for DIF; however, effect sizes were negligible with little practical impact on score estimates. The final calibrated item bank resulted in 23 retained items. This study indicates that the SCI-QOL Self-esteem item bank represents a psychometrically robust measurement tool. Short form items are also suggested and computer adaptive tests are available.

Measuring resilience after spinal cord injury: Development, validation and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Resilience item bank and short form.

PubMed

Victorson, David; Tulsky, David S; Kisala, Pamela A; Kalpakjian, Claire Z; Weiland, Brian; Choi, Seung W

2015-05-01

To describe the development and psychometric properties of the Spinal Cord Injury--Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Resilience item bank and short form. Using a mixed-methods design, we developed and tested a resilience item bank through the use of focus groups with individuals with SCI and clinicians with expertise in SCI, cognitive interviews, and item-response theory based analytic approaches, including tests of model fit and differential item functioning (DIF). We tested a 32-item pool at several medical institutions across the United States, including the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital and the James J. Peters/Bronx Department of Veterans Affairs medical center. A total of 717 individuals with SCI completed the Resilience items. A unidimensional model was observed (CFI=0.968; RMSEA=0.074) and measurement precision was good (theta range between -3.1 and 0.9). Ten items were flagged for DIF, however, after examination of effect sizes we found this to be negligible with little practical impact on score estimates. The final calibrated item bank resulted in 21 retained items. This study indicates that the SCI-QOL Resilience item bank represents a psychometrically robust measurement tool. Short form items are also suggested and computer adaptive tests are available.

Measuring resilience after spinal cord injury: Development, validation and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Resilience item bank and short form

PubMed Central

Victorson, David; Tulsky, David S.; Kisala, Pamela A.; Kalpakjian, Claire Z.; Weiland, Brian; Choi, Seung W.

2015-01-01

Objective To describe the development and psychometric properties of the Spinal Cord Injury - Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Resilience item bank and short form. Design Using a mixed-methods design, we developed and tested a resilience item bank through the use of focus groups with individuals with SCI and clinicians with expertise in SCI, cognitive interviews, and item-response theory based analytic approaches, including tests of model fit and differential item functioning (DIF). Setting We tested a 32-item pool at several medical institutions across the United States, including the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital and the James J. Peters/Bronx Department of Veterans Affairs medical center. Participants A total of 717 individuals with SCI completed the Resilience items. Results A unidimensional model was observed (CFI = 0.968; RMSEA = 0.074) and measurement precision was good (theta range between −3.1 and 0.9). Ten items were flagged for DIF, however, after examination of effect sizes we found this to be negligible with little practical impact on score estimates. The final calibrated item bank resulted in 21 retained items. Conclusion This study indicates that the SCI-QOL Resilience item bank represents a psychometrically robust measurement tool. Short form items are also suggested and computer adaptive tests are available. PMID:26010971

Environmental Design Research. Volume One: Selected Papers. Community Development Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preiser, Wolfgang F. E., Ed.

The items contained in this volume are summaries and critiques of 43 research papers grouped within a framework of nine general topics which represents an attempt to delineate the basic concepts and structure of environmental design research. The papers are grouped under the following headings: (1) Theoretical issues in man-environment relations,…

Noncompetitive retrieval practice causes retrieval-induced forgetting in cued recall but not in recognition.

PubMed

Grundgeiger, Tobias

2014-04-01

Retrieving a subset of learned items can lead to the forgetting of related items. Such retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) can be explained by the inhibition of irrelevant items in order to overcome retrieval competition when the target item is retrieved. According to the retrieval inhibition account, such retrieval competition is a necessary condition for RIF. However, research has indicated that noncompetitive retrieval practice can also cause RIF by strengthening cue-item associations. According to the strength-dependent competition account, the strengthened items interfere with the retrieval of weaker items, resulting in impaired recall of weaker items in the final memory test. The aim of this study was to replicate RIF caused by noncompetitive retrieval practice and to determine whether this forgetting is also observed in recognition tests. In the context of RIF, it has been assumed that recognition tests circumvent interference and, therefore, should not be sensitive to forgetting due to strength-dependent competition. However, this has not been empirically tested, and it has been suggested that participants may reinstate learned cues as retrieval aids during the final test. In the present experiments, competitive practice or noncompetitive practice was followed by either final cued-recall tests or recognition tests. In cued-recall tests, RIF was observed in both competitive and noncompetitive conditions. However, in recognition tests, RIF was observed only in the competitive condition and was absent in the noncompetitive condition. The result underscores the contribution of strength-dependent competition to RIF. However, recognition tests seem to be a reliable way of distinguishing between RIF due to retrieval inhibition or strength-dependent competition.

Adaptive Mental Testing: The State of the Art

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-11-01

typically vary in their psychometric properties --particularly in their difficulty--the test designer must decide what configuration of these item...psychometric properties best suits the test’s purpose. There are two extreme ration- ales to guide that decision. One rationale is to choose items that are...development of item response theory (Rasch, 1960; Lord, 1952, 1970, 1974a; Birnbaum, 1968) that provided the needed invariance properties for item

Dealing with Omitted and Not-Reached Items in Competence Tests: Evaluating Approaches Accounting for Missing Responses in Item Response Theory Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pohl, Steffi; Gräfe, Linda; Rose, Norman

2014-01-01

Data from competence tests usually show a number of missing responses on test items due to both omitted and not-reached items. Different approaches for dealing with missing responses exist, and there are no clear guidelines on which of those to use. While classical approaches rely on an ignorable missing data mechanism, the most recently developed…

Shuttle/Agena study. Volume 2, part 3: Preliminary test plans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

Proposed testing for the Agena tug program is based upon best estimates of shuttle and Agena tug requirements and upon the Agena configuration currently envisioned to meet these requirements. The proposed tests are presented in development, qualification, system, and launch base test plans. These plans are based upon generalized requirements and assumed situations. The limitations of this study precluded all but minimal consideration of related shuttle orbiter and shuttle ground systems. The test plans include provisions for all testing from major component to systems level, identified as necessary to aid in confirmation of the modified Agena configuration for the space tug; considerations that crew safety requirements and new environmental conditions from shuttle interface effects do impose some new Agena testing requirements; considerations that many existing Agena flight-qualified components will be utilized and qualification testing will be minimal; testing not only for the Agena tug but also for new or modified items of handling or servicing equipment for supporting the Agena factory-to-launch sequence; and the assembly of required testing into a sequence-ordered series of events.

Procedures for Selecting Items for Computerized Adaptive Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kingsbury, G. Gage; Zara, Anthony R.

1989-01-01

Several classical approaches and alternative approaches to item selection for computerized adaptive testing (CAT) are reviewed and compared. The study also describes procedures for constrained CAT that may be added to classical item selection approaches to allow them to be used for applied testing. (TJH)

Efforts Toward the Development of Unbiased Selection and Assessment Instruments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudner, Lawrence M.

Investigations into item bias provide an empirical basis for the identification and elimination of test items which appear to measure different traits across populations or cultural groups. The Psychometric rationales for six approaches to the identification of biased test items are reviewed: (1) Transformed item difficulties: within-group…

Effect of Differential Item Functioning on Test Equating

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kabasakal, Kübra Atalay; Kelecioglu, Hülya

2015-01-01

This study examines the effect of differential item functioning (DIF) items on test equating through multilevel item response models (MIRMs) and traditional IRMs. The performances of three different equating models were investigated under 24 different simulation conditions, and the variables whose effects were examined included sample size, test…

Ramsay-Curve Differential Item Functioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woods, Carol M.

2011-01-01

Differential item functioning (DIF) occurs when an item on a test, questionnaire, or interview has different measurement properties for one group of people versus another, irrespective of true group-mean differences on the constructs being measured. This article is focused on item response theory based likelihood ratio testing for DIF (IRT-LR or…

A Study on Detecting of Differential Item Functioning of PISA 2006 Science Literacy Items in Turkish and American Samples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çikirikçi Demirtasli, Nükhet; Ulutas, Seher

2015-01-01

Problem Statement: Item bias occurs when individuals from different groups (different gender, cultural background, etc.) have different probabilities of responding correctly to a test item despite having the same skill levels. It is important that tests or items do not have bias in order to ensure the accuracy of decisions taken according to test…

Investigating Measurement Invariance in Computer-Based Personality Testing: The Impact of Using Anchor Items on Effect Size Indices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Egberink, Iris J. L.; Meijer, Rob R.; Tendeiro, Jorge N.

2015-01-01

A popular method to assess measurement invariance of a particular item is based on likelihood ratio tests with all other items as anchor items. The results of this method are often only reported in terms of statistical significance, and researchers proposed different methods to empirically select anchor items. It is unclear, however, how many…

A Comparison of Traditional Test Blueprinting and Item Development to Assessment Engineering in a Licensure Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masters, James S.

2010-01-01

With the need for larger and larger banks of items to support adaptive testing and to meet security concerns, large-scale item generation is a requirement for many certification and licensure programs. As part of the mass production of items, it is critical that the difficulty and the discrimination of the items be known without the need for…

Unilateral neglect: further validation of the baking tray task.

PubMed

Appelros, Peter; Karlsson, Gunnel M; Thorwalls, Annika; Tham, Kerstin; Nydevik, Ingegerd

2004-11-01

The Baking Tray Task is a comprehensible, simple-to-perform test for use in assessing unilateral neglect. The aim of this study was to validate further its use with stroke patients. The Baking Tray Task was compared with 2 versions of the Behaviour Inattention Test and a test for personal neglect. A total of 270 patients were subjected to a 3-item version of the Behaviour Inattention Test and 40 patients were subjected to an 8-item version of the Behaviour Inattention Test, besides the Baking Tray Task and the personal neglect test. The Baking Tray Task was more sensitive than the 3-item Behaviour Inattention Test, but the 8-item Behaviour Inattention Test was more sensitive than the Baking Tray Task. The best combination of any 3 tests was Baking Tray Task, Reading an article, and Figure copying; the 2 last-mentioned being a part of the 8-item Behaviour Inattention Test. Multi-item tests detect more cases of neglect than do single tests. However, it is tiresome for the patient to undergo a larger test battery than necessary. It is also time-consuming for the staff. Behavioural tests seem more appropriate when assessing neglect. The Baking Tray Task seems to be one of the most sensitive single tests, but its sensitivity can be further enhanced when it is used in combination with other tests.

Adjusting for cross-cultural differences in computer-adaptive tests of quality of life.

PubMed

Gibbons, C J; Skevington, S M

2018-04-01

Previous studies using the WHOQOL measures have demonstrated that the relationship between individual items and the underlying quality of life (QoL) construct may differ between cultures. If unaccounted for, these differing relationships can lead to measurement bias which, in turn, can undermine the reliability of results. We used item response theory (IRT) to assess differential item functioning (DIF) in WHOQOL data from diverse language versions collected in UK, Zimbabwe, Russia, and India (total N = 1332). Data were fitted to the partial credit 'Rasch' model. We used four item banks previously derived from the WHOQOL-100 measure, which provided excellent measurement for physical, psychological, social, and environmental quality of life domains (40 items overall). Cross-cultural differential item functioning was assessed using analysis of variance for item residuals and post hoc Tukey tests. Simulated computer-adaptive tests (CATs) were conducted to assess the efficiency and precision of the four items banks. Splitting item parameters by DIF results in four linked item banks without DIF or other breaches of IRT model assumptions. Simulated CATs were more precise and efficient than longer paper-based alternatives. Assessing differential item functioning using item response theory can identify measurement invariance between cultures which, if uncontrolled, may undermine accurate comparisons in computer-adaptive testing assessments of QoL. We demonstrate how compensating for DIF using item anchoring allowed data from all four countries to be compared on a common metric, thus facilitating assessments which were both sensitive to cultural nuance and comparable between countries.

Item analysis of three Spanish naming tests: a cross-cultural investigation.

PubMed

Marquez de la Plata, Carlos; Arango-Lasprilla, Juan Carlos; Alegret, Montse; Moreno, Alexander; Tárraga, Luis; Lara, Mar; Hewlitt, Margaret; Hynan, Linda; Cullum, C Munro

2009-01-01

Neuropsychological evaluations conducted in the United States and abroad commonly include the use of tests translated from English to Spanish. The use of translated naming tests for evaluating predominately Spanish-speakers has recently been challenged on the grounds that translating test items may compromise a test's construct validity. The Texas Spanish Naming Test (TNT) has been developed in Spanish specifically for use with Spanish-speakers; however, it is unlikely patients from diverse Spanish-speaking geographical regions will perform uniformly on a naming test. The present study evaluated and compared the internal consistency and patterns of item-difficulty and -discrimination for the TNT and two commonly used translated naming tests in three countries (i.e., United States, Colombia, Spain). Two hundred fifty two subjects (136 demented, 116 nondemented) across three countries were administered the TNT, Modified Boston Naming Test-Spanish, and the naming subtest from the CERAD. The TNT demonstrated superior internal consistency to its counterparts, a superior item difficulty pattern than the CERAD naming test, and a superior item discrimination pattern than the MBNT-S across countries. Overall, all three Spanish naming tests differentiated nondemented and moderately demented individuals, but the results suggest the items of the TNT are most appropriate to use with Spanish-speakers. Preliminary normative data for the three tests examined in each country are provided.

Mental Health Manpower, Volume I: An Annotated Bibliography and Commentary, and Volume II: Recruitment, Training and Utilization - A Compilation of Articles, Surveys, and a Review of Applicable Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klutch, Murray

The study was designed to provide a base for mental health manpower planning. The first and principal section of Volume I is an annotated bibliography of applicable articles and books. An index lists items included in the bibliography according to subject and profession. A discussion of two conceptual approaches to alleviating the manpower…

Testing enhances both encoding and retrieval for both tested and untested items.

PubMed

Cho, Kit W; Neely, James H; Crocco, Stephanie; Vitrano, Deana

2017-07-01

In forward testing effects, taking a test enhances memory for subsequently studied material. These effects have been observed for previously studied and tested items, a potentially item-specific testing effect, and newly studied untested items, a purely generalized testing effect. We directly compared item-specific and generalized forward testing effects using procedures to separate testing benefits due to encoding versus retrieval. Participants studied two lists of Swahili-English word pairs, with the second study list containing "new" pairs intermixed with the previously studied "old" pairs. Participants completed a review phase in which they took a cued-recall test on only the "old" pairs or restudied them. In Experiments 1a, 1b, and 2, the review phase was given either before or after the second study list. Testing benefited memory to the same degree for both "new" and "old" pairs, suggesting that there were no pair-specific benefits of testing. The larger benefit from testing when review was given before rather than after the second study list suggests that the memory enhancement was due to both testing-enhanced encoding and testing-enhanced retrieval. To better equate generalized testing effects for "new" and "old" pairs, Experiment 3 intermixed them in the review phase. A statistically significant pair-specific testing effect for "old" items was now observed. Overall, these results show that forward testing effects are due to both testing-enhanced encoding and retrieval effects and that direct, pair-specific forward testing benefits are considerably smaller than indirect, generalized forward testing benefits.

Quality issues with malaria rapid diagnostic test accessories and buffer packaging: findings from a 5-country private sector project in Africa.

PubMed

Harvey, Steven A; Incardona, Sandra; Martin, Nina; Lussiana, Cristina; Streat, Elizabeth; Dolan, Stephanie; Champouillon, Nora; Kyabayinze, Daniel J; Mugerwa, Robert; Nakanwagi, Grace; Njoki, Nancy; Rova, Ratsimandisa; Cunningham, Jane

2017-04-20

Use of antigen-detecting malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) has increased exponentially over the last decade. WHO's Global Malaria Programme, FIND, and other collaborators have established a quality assurance scheme to guide product selection, lot verification, transport, storage, and training procedures. Recent concerns over the quality of buffer packaging and test accessories suggest a need to include these items in product assessments. This paper describes quality problems with buffer and accessories encountered in a project promoting private sector RDT use in five African countries and suggests steps to avoid or more rapidly identify and resolve such problems. Private provider complaints about RDT buffer vials and kit accessories were collected during supervisory visits, and a standard assessment process was developed. Using 100 tests drawn from six different lots produced by two manufacturers, lab technicians visually assessed alcohol swab packaging, blood transfer device (BTD) usability, and buffer appearance, then calculated mean blood volume from 10 BTD transfers and mean buffer volume from 10 individual buffer vials. WHO guided complaint reporting and follow-up with manufacturers. Supervisory visits confirmed user reports of dry alcohol swabs, poorly functioning BTDs, and non-uniform volumes of buffer. Lot testing revealed further evidence of quality problems, leading one manufacturer to replace buffer vials and accessories for 40,000 RDTs. In December 2014, WHO issued an Information Notice for Users regarding variable buffer volumes in single-use vials and recommended against procurement of these products until defects were addressed. Though not necessarily comprehensive or generalizable, the findings presented here highlight the need for extending quality assessment to all malaria RDT test kit contents. Defects such as those described in this paper could reduce test accuracy and increase probability of invalid, false positive, or false negative results. Such deficiencies could undermine provider confidence in RDTs, prompting a return to presumptive treatment or reliance on poor quality microscopy. In partial response to this experience, WHO, FIND, and other project partners have developed guidance on documenting, troubleshooting, reporting, and resolving such problems when they occur.

The Influence of Item Calibration Error on Variable-Length Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patton, Jeffrey M.; Cheng, Ying; Yuan, Ke-Hai; Diao, Qi

2013-01-01

Variable-length computerized adaptive testing (VL-CAT) allows both items and test length to be "tailored" to examinees, thereby achieving the measurement goal (e.g., scoring precision or classification) with as few items as possible. Several popular test termination rules depend on the standard error of the ability estimate, which in turn depends…

A Paradox in the Study of the Benefits of Test-Item Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Linden, Wim J.; Jeon, Minjeong; Ferrara, Steve

2011-01-01

According to a popular belief, test takers should trust their initial instinct and retain their initial responses when they have the opportunity to review test items. More than 80 years of empirical research on item review, however, has contradicted this belief and shown minor but consistently positive score gains for test takers who changed…

Sex Differences in the Tendency to Omit Items on Multiple-Choice Tests: 1980-2000

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Schrader, Sarah; Ansley, Timothy

2006-01-01

Much has been written concerning the potential group differences in responding to multiple-choice achievement test items. This discussion has included references to possible disparities in tendency to omit such test items. When test scores are used for high-stakes decision making, even small differences in scores and rankings that arise from male…

A Person Fit Test for IRT Models for Polytomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glas, C. A. W.; Dagohoy, Anna Villa T.

2007-01-01

A person fit test based on the Lagrange multiplier test is presented for three item response theory models for polytomous items: the generalized partial credit model, the sequential model, and the graded response model. The test can also be used in the framework of multidimensional ability parameters. It is shown that the Lagrange multiplier…

How Big Is Big Enough? Sample Size Requirements for CAST Item Parameter Estimation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chuah, Siang Chee; Drasgow, Fritz; Luecht, Richard

2006-01-01

Adaptive tests offer the advantages of reduced test length and increased accuracy in ability estimation. However, adaptive tests require large pools of precalibrated items. This study looks at the development of an item pool for 1 type of adaptive administration: the computer-adaptive sequential test. An important issue is the sample size required…

An Explanatory Item Response Theory Approach for a Computer-Based Case Simulation Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahraman, Nilüfer

2014-01-01

Problem: Practitioners working with multiple-choice tests have long utilized Item Response Theory (IRT) models to evaluate the performance of test items for quality assurance. The use of similar applications for performance tests, however, is often encumbered due to the challenges encountered in working with complicated data sets in which local…

Electronic Quality of Life Assessment Using Computer-Adaptive Testing

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Background Quality of life (QoL) questionnaires are desirable for clinical practice but can be time-consuming to administer and interpret, making their widespread adoption difficult. Objective Our aim was to assess the performance of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-100 questionnaire as four item banks to facilitate adaptive testing using simulated computer adaptive tests (CATs) for physical, psychological, social, and environmental QoL. Methods We used data from the UK WHOQOL-100 questionnaire (N=320) to calibrate item banks using item response theory, which included psychometric assessments of differential item functioning, local dependency, unidimensionality, and reliability. We simulated CATs to assess the number of items administered before prespecified levels of reliability was met. Results The item banks (40 items) all displayed good model fit (P>.01) and were unidimensional (fewer than 5% of t tests significant), reliable (Person Separation Index>.70), and free from differential item functioning (no significant analysis of variance interaction) or local dependency (residual correlations < +.20). When matched for reliability, the item banks were between 45% and 75% shorter than paper-based WHOQOL measures. Across the four domains, a high standard of reliability (alpha>.90) could be gained with a median of 9 items. Conclusions Using CAT, simulated assessments were as reliable as paper-based forms of the WHOQOL with a fraction of the number of items. These properties suggest that these item banks are suitable for computerized adaptive assessment. These item banks have the potential for international development using existing alternative language versions of the WHOQOL items. PMID:27694100

Designing and Testing an Inventory for Measuring Social Media Competency of Certified Health Education Specialists

PubMed Central

Bernhardt, Jay M; Stellefson, Michael; Weiler, Robert M; Anderson-Lewis, Charkarra; Miller, M David; MacInnes, Jann

2015-01-01

Background Social media can promote healthy behaviors by facilitating engagement and collaboration among health professionals and the public. Thus, social media is quickly becoming a vital tool for health promotion. While guidelines and trainings exist for public health professionals, there are currently no standardized measures to assess individual social media competency among Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES). Objective The aim of this study was to design, develop, and test the Social Media Competency Inventory (SMCI) for CHES and MCHES. Methods The SMCI was designed in three sequential phases: (1) Conceptualization and Domain Specifications, (2) Item Development, and (3) Inventory Testing and Finalization. Phase 1 consisted of a literature review, concept operationalization, and expert reviews. Phase 2 involved an expert panel (n=4) review, think-aloud sessions with a small representative sample of CHES/MCHES (n=10), a pilot test (n=36), and classical test theory analyses to develop the initial version of the SMCI. Phase 3 included a field test of the SMCI with a random sample of CHES and MCHES (n=353), factor and Rasch analyses, and development of SMCI administration and interpretation guidelines. Results Six constructs adapted from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and the integrated behavioral model were identified for assessing social media competency: (1) Social Media Self-Efficacy, (2) Social Media Experience, (3) Effort Expectancy, (4) Performance Expectancy, (5) Facilitating Conditions, and (6) Social Influence. The initial item pool included 148 items. After the pilot test, 16 items were removed or revised because of low item discrimination (r<.30), high interitem correlations (Ρ>.90), or based on feedback received from pilot participants. During the psychometric analysis of the field test data, 52 items were removed due to low discrimination, evidence of content redundancy, low R-squared value, or poor item infit or outfit. Psychometric analyses of the data revealed acceptable reliability evidence for the following scales: Social Media Self-Efficacy (alpha=.98, item reliability=.98, item separation=6.76), Social Media Experience (alpha=.98, item reliability=.98, item separation=6.24), Effort Expectancy(alpha =.74, item reliability=.95, item separation=4.15), Performance Expectancy (alpha =.81, item reliability=.99, item separation=10.09), Facilitating Conditions (alpha =.66, item reliability=.99, item separation=16.04), and Social Influence (alpha =.66, item reliability=.93, item separation=3.77). There was some evidence of local dependence among the scales, with several observed residual correlations above |.20|. Conclusions Through the multistage instrument-development process, sufficient reliability and validity evidence was collected in support of the purpose and intended use of the SMCI. The SMCI can be used to assess the readiness of health education specialists to effectively use social media for health promotion research and practice. Future research should explore associations across constructs within the SMCI and evaluate the ability of SMCI scores to predict social media use and performance among CHES and MCHES. PMID:26399428

Designing and Testing an Inventory for Measuring Social Media Competency of Certified Health Education Specialists.

PubMed

Alber, Julia M; Bernhardt, Jay M; Stellefson, Michael; Weiler, Robert M; Anderson-Lewis, Charkarra; Miller, M David; MacInnes, Jann

2015-09-23

Social media can promote healthy behaviors by facilitating engagement and collaboration among health professionals and the public. Thus, social media is quickly becoming a vital tool for health promotion. While guidelines and trainings exist for public health professionals, there are currently no standardized measures to assess individual social media competency among Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES). The aim of this study was to design, develop, and test the Social Media Competency Inventory (SMCI) for CHES and MCHES. The SMCI was designed in three sequential phases: (1) Conceptualization and Domain Specifications, (2) Item Development, and (3) Inventory Testing and Finalization. Phase 1 consisted of a literature review, concept operationalization, and expert reviews. Phase 2 involved an expert panel (n=4) review, think-aloud sessions with a small representative sample of CHES/MCHES (n=10), a pilot test (n=36), and classical test theory analyses to develop the initial version of the SMCI. Phase 3 included a field test of the SMCI with a random sample of CHES and MCHES (n=353), factor and Rasch analyses, and development of SMCI administration and interpretation guidelines. Six constructs adapted from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and the integrated behavioral model were identified for assessing social media competency: (1) Social Media Self-Efficacy, (2) Social Media Experience, (3) Effort Expectancy, (4) Performance Expectancy, (5) Facilitating Conditions, and (6) Social Influence. The initial item pool included 148 items. After the pilot test, 16 items were removed or revised because of low item discrimination (r<.30), high interitem correlations (Ρ>.90), or based on feedback received from pilot participants. During the psychometric analysis of the field test data, 52 items were removed due to low discrimination, evidence of content redundancy, low R-squared value, or poor item infit or outfit. Psychometric analyses of the data revealed acceptable reliability evidence for the following scales: Social Media Self-Efficacy (alpha=.98, item reliability=.98, item separation=6.76), Social Media Experience (alpha=.98, item reliability=.98, item separation=6.24), Effort Expectancy(alpha =.74, item reliability=.95, item separation=4.15), Performance Expectancy (alpha =.81, item reliability=.99, item separation=10.09), Facilitating Conditions (alpha =.66, item reliability=.99, item separation=16.04), and Social Influence (alpha =.66, item reliability=.93, item separation=3.77). There was some evidence of local dependence among the scales, with several observed residual correlations above |.20|. Through the multistage instrument-development process, sufficient reliability and validity evidence was collected in support of the purpose and intended use of the SMCI. The SMCI can be used to assess the readiness of health education specialists to effectively use social media for health promotion research and practice. Future research should explore associations across constructs within the SMCI and evaluate the ability of SMCI scores to predict social media use and performance among CHES and MCHES.

A Comparison of the Approaches of Generalizability Theory and Item Response Theory in Estimating the Reliability of Test Scores for Testlet-Composed Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Guemin; Park, In-Yong

2012-01-01

Previous assessments of the reliability of test scores for testlet-composed tests have indicated that item-based estimation methods overestimate reliability. This study was designed to address issues related to the extent to which item-based estimation methods overestimate the reliability of test scores composed of testlets and to compare several…

A systematic review of the impact of center volume in dialysis.

PubMed

Pieper, Dawid; Mathes, Tim; Marshall, Mark Roger

2015-12-22

A significant relationship exists between the volume of surgical procedures that a given center performs and subsequent outcomes. It seems plausible that such a volume-outcome relationship is also present in dialysis. MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched in November 2014 for non-experimental studies evaluating the association between center volume and patient outcomes [mortality, morbidity, peritonitis, switch to hemodialysis (HD) or any other treatment], without language restrictions or other limits. Selection of relevant studies, data extraction and critical appraisal were performed by two independent reviewers. We did not perform meta-analysis due to clinical and methodological heterogeneity (e.g. different volume categories). 16 studies met out inclusion criteria. Most studies were performed in the US. The study quality ranged from fair to good. Only few items were judged to have a high risk of bias, while many items were judged to have an unclear risk of bias due to insufficient reporting. All 10 studies that analyzed peritoneal dialysis (PD) technique survival by modeling switch to HD or any other treatment as an outcome showed a statistical significant effect. The relative effect measures ranged from 0.25 to 0.94 (median 0.73) in favor of high volume centers. All nine studies indicated a lower mortality for PD in high volume centers, but only study was statistical significant. This systematic review supports a volume-outcome relationship in peritoneal dialysis with respect to switch to HD or any other treatment. An effect on mortality is probably present in HD. Further research is needed to identify and understand the associations of center volume that are causally related to patient benefit.

Applying modern psychometric techniques to melodic discrimination testing: Item response theory, computerised adaptive testing, and automatic item generation.

PubMed

Harrison, Peter M C; Collins, Tom; Müllensiefen, Daniel

2017-06-15

Modern psychometric theory provides many useful tools for ability testing, such as item response theory, computerised adaptive testing, and automatic item generation. However, these techniques have yet to be integrated into mainstream psychological practice. This is unfortunate, because modern psychometric techniques can bring many benefits, including sophisticated reliability measures, improved construct validity, avoidance of exposure effects, and improved efficiency. In the present research we therefore use these techniques to develop a new test of a well-studied psychological capacity: melodic discrimination, the ability to detect differences between melodies. We calibrate and validate this test in a series of studies. Studies 1 and 2 respectively calibrate and validate an initial test version, while Studies 3 and 4 calibrate and validate an updated test version incorporating additional easy items. The results support the new test's viability, with evidence for strong reliability and construct validity. We discuss how these modern psychometric techniques may also be profitably applied to other areas of music psychology and psychological science in general.

Shuttle filter study. Volume 2: Contaminant generation and sensitivity studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

Contaminant generation studies were conducted at the component level using two different methods, radioactive tracer technique and gravimetric analysis test procedure. Both of these were reduced to practice during this program. In the first of these methods, radioactively tagged components typical of those used in spacecraft were studied to determine their contaminant generation characteristics under simulated operating conditions. Because the purpose of the work was: (1) to determine the types and quantities of contaminants generated; and (2) to evaluate improved monitoring and detection schemes, no attempt was made to evaluate or qualify specific components. The components used in this test program were therefore not flight hardware items. Some of them had been used in previous tests; some were obsolete; one was an experimental device. In addition to the component tests, various materials of interest to contaminant and filtration studies were irradiated and evaluated for use as autotracer materials. These included test dusts, plastics, valve seat materials, and bearing cage materials.

Application of Item Response Theory to Tests of Substance-related Associative Memory

PubMed Central

Shono, Yusuke; Grenard, Jerry L.; Ames, Susan L.; Stacy, Alan W.

2015-01-01

A substance-related word association test (WAT) is one of the commonly used indirect tests of substance-related implicit associative memory and has been shown to predict substance use. This study applied an item response theory (IRT) modeling approach to evaluate psychometric properties of the alcohol- and marijuana-related WATs and their items among 775 ethnically diverse at-risk adolescents. After examining the IRT assumptions, item fit, and differential item functioning (DIF) across gender and age groups, the original 18 WAT items were reduced to 14- and 15-items in the alcohol- and marijuana-related WAT, respectively. Thereafter, unidimensional one- and two-parameter logistic models (1PL and 2PL models) were fitted to the revised WAT items. The results demonstrated that both alcohol- and marijuana-related WATs have good psychometric properties. These results were discussed in light of the framework of a unified concept of construct validity (Messick, 1975, 1989, 1995). PMID:25134051

Sleep can reduce the testing effect: it enhances recall of restudied items but can leave recall of retrieved items unaffected.

PubMed

Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T; Holterman, Christoph; Abel, Magdalena

2014-11-01

The testing effect refers to the finding that retrieval practice in comparison to restudy of previously encoded contents can improve memory performance and reduce time-dependent forgetting. Naturally, long retention intervals include both wake and sleep delay, which can influence memory contents differently. In fact, sleep immediately after encoding can induce a mnemonic benefit, stabilizing and strengthening the encoded contents. We investigated in a series of 5 experiments whether sleep influences the testing effect. After initial study of categorized item material (Experiments 1, 2, and 4A), paired associates (Experiment 3), or educational text material (Experiment 4B), subjects were asked to restudy encoded contents or engage in active retrieval practice. A final recall test was conducted after a 12-hr delay that included diurnal wakefulness or nocturnal sleep. The results consistently showed typical testing effects after the wake delay. However, these testing effects were reduced or even eliminated after sleep, because sleep benefited recall of restudied items but left recall of retrieved items unaffected. The findings are consistent with the bifurcation model of the testing effect (Kornell, Bjork, & Garcia, 2011), according to which the distribution of memory strengths across items is shifted differentially by retrieving and restudying, with retrieval strengthening items to a much higher degree than restudy does. On the basis of this model, most of the retrieved items already fall above recall threshold in the absence of sleep, so additional sleep-induced strengthening may not improve recall of retrieved items any further. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Using Response-Time Constraints in Item Selection To Control for Differential Speededness in Computerized Adaptive Testing. LSAC Research Report Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Linden, Wim J.; Scrams, David J.; Schnipke, Deborah L.

This paper proposes an item selection algorithm that can be used to neutralize the effect of time limits in computer adaptive testing. The method is based on a statistical model for the response-time distributions of the test takers on the items in the pool that is updated each time a new item has been administered. Predictions from the model are…

Identification of metallic items that caused nickel dermatitis in Danish patients.

PubMed

Thyssen, Jacob P; Menné, Torkil; Johansen, Jeanne D

2010-09-01

Nickel allergy is prevalent as assessed by epidemiological studies. In an attempt to further identify and characterize sources that may result in nickel allergy and dermatitis, we analysed items identified by nickel-allergic dermatitis patients as causative of nickel dermatitis by using the dimethylglyoxime (DMG) test. Dermatitis patients with nickel allergy of current relevance were identified over a 2-year period in a tertiary referral patch test centre. When possible, their work tools and personal items were examined with the DMG test. Among 95 nickel-allergic dermatitis patients, 70 (73.7%) had metallic items investigated for nickel release. A total of 151 items were investigated, and 66 (43.7%) gave positive DMG test reactions. Objects were nearly all purchased or acquired after the introduction of the EU Nickel Directive. Only one object had been inherited, and only two objects had been purchased outside of Denmark. DMG testing is valuable as a screening test for nickel release and should be used to identify relevant exposures in nickel-allergic patients. Mainly consumer items, but also work tools used in an occupational setting, released nickel in dermatitis patients. This study confirmed 'risk items' from previous studies, including mobile phones.

The development and validation of the Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire.

PubMed

Spinou, Arietta; Siegert, Richard J; Guan, Wei-Jie; Patel, Amit S; Gosker, Harry R; Lee, Kai K; Elston, Caroline; Loebinger, Michael R; Wilson, Robert; Garrod, Rachel; Birring, Surinder S

2017-05-01

Health-related quality of life or health status is significantly impaired in bronchiectasis. There is a paucity of brief, simple-to-use, disease-specific health status measures. The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire (BHQ), a new health status measure that is brief and generates a single overall score.Patients with bronchiectasis were recruited from two outpatient clinics, during a clinically stable stage. The development of the questionnaire followed three phases: item generation and item reduction using Rasch analysis, validation, and repeatability testing. The BHQ was translated into 11 languages using standardised methodology.206 patients with bronchiectasis completed a preliminary 65-item questionnaire. 55 items were removed due to redundancy or poor fit to the Rasch model. The final version of the BHQ consisted of 10 items. Internal consistency was good (Cronbach's α=0.85). Convergent validity of the BHQ with the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire was high (r= -0.82; p<0.001) and moderate with lung function (forced expiratory volume in 1 s % predicted r= -0.27; p=0.001). There was a significant association between BHQ scores and number of exacerbations of bronchiectasis in the last 12 months (p<0.001), hospital admissions (p=0.001) and computed tomography scan bronchiectasis pulmonary lobe counts (p<0.001). BHQ scores were significantly worse in patients with sputum bacterial colonisation versus no colonisation (p=0.048). The BHQ was highly repeatable after 2 weeks (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.89).The BHQ is a brief, valid and repeatable, self-completed health status questionnaire for bronchiectasis that generates a single total score. It can be used in the clinic to assess bronchiectasis from the patient's perspective. Copyright ©ERS 2017.

A Comparison of the One-and Three-Parameter Logistic Models on Measures of Test Efficiency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Jeri

Two methods of item selection were used to select sets of 40 items from a 50-item verbal analogies test, and the resulting item sets were compared for relative efficiency. The BICAL program was used to select the 40 items having the best mean square fit to the one parameter logistic (Rasch) model. The LOGIST program was used to select the 40 items…

Test Score Equating Using Discrete Anchor Items versus Passage-Based Anchor Items: A Case Study Using "SAT"® Data. Research Report. ETS RR-14-14

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Jinghua; Zu, Jiyun; Curley, Edward; Carey, Jill

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of discrete anchor items versus passage-based anchor items on observed score equating using empirical data.This study compares an "SAT"® critical reading anchor that contains more discrete items proportionally, compared to the total tests to be equated, to another anchor that…

Computerized Adaptive Testing: Overview and Introduction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meijer, Rob R.; Nering, Michael L.

1999-01-01

Provides an overview of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and introduces contributions to this special issue. CAT elements discussed include item selection, estimation of the latent trait, item exposure, measurement precision, and item-bank development. (SLD)

Development of a Computer Adaptive Test for Depression Based on the Dutch-Flemish Version of the PROMIS Item Bank.

PubMed

Flens, Gerard; Smits, Niels; Terwee, Caroline B; Dekker, Joost; Huijbrechts, Irma; de Beurs, Edwin

2017-03-01

We developed a Dutch-Flemish version of the patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS) adult V1.0 item bank for depression as input for computerized adaptive testing (CAT). As item bank, we used the Dutch-Flemish translation of the original PROMIS item bank (28 items) and additionally translated 28 U.S. depression items that failed to make the final U.S. item bank. Through psychometric analysis of a combined clinical and general population sample ( N = 2,010), 8 added items were removed. With the final item bank, we performed several CAT simulations to assess the efficiency of the extended (48 items) and the original item bank (28 items), using various stopping rules. Both item banks resulted in highly efficient and precise measurement of depression and showed high similarity between the CAT simulation scores and the full item bank scores. We discuss the implications of using each item bank and stopping rule for further CAT development.

Usability of Interactive Item Types and Tools Introduced in the New GRE® Revised General Test. ETS GRE® Board Research Report. ETS GRE®-14-05. ETS Research Report. RR-14-28

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swiggett, Wanda D.; Kotloff, Laurie; Ezzo, Chelsea; Adler, Rachel; Oliveri, Maria Elena

2014-01-01

The computer-based "Graduate Record Examinations"® ("GRE"®) revised General Test includes interactive item types and testing environment tools (e.g., test navigation, on-screen calculator, and help). How well do test takers understand these innovations? If test takers do not understand the new item types, these innovations may…

Severity of Organized Item Theft in Computerized Adaptive Testing: A Simulation Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yi, Qing; Zhang, Jinming; Chang, Hua-Hua

2008-01-01

Criteria had been proposed for assessing the severity of possible test security violations for computerized tests with high-stakes outcomes. However, these criteria resulted from theoretical derivations that assumed uniformly randomized item selection. This study investigated potential damage caused by organized item theft in computerized adaptive…

Detecting Item Drift in Large-Scale Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guo, Hongwen; Robin, Frederic; Dorans, Neil

2017-01-01

The early detection of item drift is an important issue for frequently administered testing programs because items are reused over time. Unfortunately, operational data tend to be very sparse and do not lend themselves to frequent monitoring analyses, particularly for on-demand testing. Building on existing residual analyses, the authors propose…

Tree versus Geometric Representation of Tests and Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beller, Michael

1990-01-01

Geometric approaches to representing interrelations among tests and items are compared with an additive tree model (ATM), using 2,644 examinees and 2 other data sets. The ATM's close fit to the data and its coherence of presentation indicate that it is the best means of representing tests and items. (TJH)

Superficial Priming in Episodic Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dopkins, Stephen; Sargent, Jesse; Ngo, Catherine T.

2010-01-01

We explored the effect of superficial priming in episodic recognition and found it to be different from the effect of semantic priming in episodic recognition. Participants made recognition judgments to pairs of items, with each pair consisting of a prime item and a test item. Correct positive responses to the test item were impeded if the prime…

Statistical Indexes for Monitoring Item Behavior under Computer Adaptive Testing Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhu, Renbang; Yu, Feng; Liu, Su

A computerized adaptive test (CAT) administration usually requires a large supply of items with accurately estimated psychometric properties, such as item response theory (IRT) parameter estimates, to ensure the precision of examinee ability estimation. However, an estimated IRT model of a given item in any given pool does not always correctly…

Using Item Response Theory to Describe the Nonverbal Literacy Assessment (NVLA)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fleming, Danielle; Wilson, Mark; Ahlgrim-Delzell, Lynn

2018-01-01

The Nonverbal Literacy Assessment (NVLA) is a literacy assessment designed for students with significant intellectual disabilities. The 218-item test was initially examined using confirmatory factor analysis. This method showed that the test worked as expected, but the items loaded onto a single factor. This article uses item response theory to…

Aggregating Polytomous DIF Results over Multiple Test Administrations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zwick, Rebecca; Ye, Lei; Isham, Steven

2018-01-01

In typical differential item functioning (DIF) assessments, an item's DIF status is not influenced by its status in previous test administrations. An item that has shown DIF at multiple administrations may be treated the same way as an item that has shown DIF in only the most recent administration. Therefore, much useful information about the…

A Comparison of Linking and Concurrent Calibration under the Graded Response Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Seock-Ho; Cohen, Allan S.

Applications of item response theory to practical testing problems including equating, differential item functioning, and computerized adaptive testing, require that item parameter estimates be placed onto a common metric. In this study, two methods for developing a common metric for the graded response model under item response theory were…

Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), Spring 2000: Elementary Health/Physical Education, Released Items, Grade 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Missouri State Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education, Jefferson City.

This document presents 10 released items from the Health/Physical Education Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test given in the spring of 2000 to fifth graders. Items from the test sessions include: selected-response (multiple choice), constructed-response, and a performance event. The selected-response items consist of individual questions…

Item Analysis Appropriate for Domain-Referenced Classroom Testing. (Project Technical Report Number 1).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nitko, Anthony J.; Hsu, Tse-chi

Item analysis procedures appropriate for domain-referenced classroom testing are described. A conceptual framework within which item statistics can be considered and promising statistics in light of this framework are presented. The sampling fluctuations of the more promising item statistics for sample sizes comparable to the typical classroom…

The Relationship of Expert-System Scored Constrained Free-Response Items to Multiple-Choice and Open-Ended Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Randy Elliot; And Others

1990-01-01

The relationship of an expert-system-scored constrained free-response item type to multiple-choice and free-response items was studied using data for 614 students on the College Board's Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS) Examination. Implications for testing and the APCS test are discussed. (SLD)

Fissile interrogation using gamma rays from oxygen

DOEpatents

Smith, Donald; Micklich, Bradley J.; Fessler, Andreas

2004-04-20

The subject apparatus provides a means to identify the presence of fissionable material or other nuclear material contained within an item to be tested. The system employs a portable accelerator to accelerate and direct protons to a fluorine-compound target. The interaction of the protons with the fluorine-compound target produces gamma rays which are directed at the item to be tested. If the item to be tested contains either a fissionable material or other nuclear material the interaction of the gamma rays with the material contained within the test item with result in the production of neutrons. A system of neutron detectors is positioned to intercept any neutrons generated by the test item. The results from the neutron detectors are analyzed to determine the presence of a fissionable material or other nuclear material.

A Macro Analysis of DoD Logistics Systems. Volume 2. Structure and Analysis of the Air Force Logistics System

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-09-01

performance measures discussed earlier is the "Engine Actuarial Data Summary" (EADS) (AFLC Form 992), compiled from D024F actuarial data. EADS is...3.2,452.3 PlyLWn M"Is, 404.670 432.603 408,553. 413.940 PMiSMA-00023 AF asm -haiw pua-flywa hma tread =100% PTtU94411 "Weul ’A101) 16,839.6 1.6,308.0...Engine Actuarial Data Summary. ENORS - 2ngine Not Operationally Ready, Supply. EOQ Items - Economic Order Quantity Items; i.e., expense-type items, not

Validation of a clinical critical thinking skills test in nursing.

PubMed

Shin, Sujin; Jung, Dukyoo; Kim, Sungeun

2015-01-27

The purpose of this study was to develop a revised version of the clinical critical thinking skills test (CCTS) and to subsequently validate its performance. This study is a secondary analysis of the CCTS. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 284 college students in June 2011. Thirty items were analyzed using item response theory and test reliability was assessed. Test-retest reliability was measured using the results of 20 nursing college and graduate school students in July 2013. The content validity of the revised items was analyzed by calculating the degree of agreement between instrument developer intention in item development and the judgments of six experts. To analyze response process validity, qualitative data related to the response processes of nine nursing college students obtained through cognitive interviews were analyzed. Out of initial 30 items, 11 items were excluded after the analysis of difficulty and discrimination parameter. When the 19 items of the revised version of the CCTS were analyzed, levels of item difficulty were found to be relatively low and levels of discrimination were found to be appropriate or high. The degree of agreement between item developer intention and expert judgments equaled or exceeded 50%. From above results, evidence of the response process validity was demonstrated, indicating that subjects respondeds as intended by the test developer. The revised 19-item CCTS was found to have sufficient reliability and validity and will therefore represents a more convenient measurement of critical thinking ability.

Validation of a clinical critical thinking skills test in nursing

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a revised version of the clinical critical thinking skills test (CCTS) and to subsequently validate its performance. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of the CCTS. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 284 college students in June 2011. Thirty items were analyzed using item response theory and test reliability was assessed. Test-retest reliability was measured using the results of 20 nursing college and graduate school students in July 2013. The content validity of the revised items was analyzed by calculating the degree of agreement between instrument developer intention in item development and the judgments of six experts. To analyze response process validity, qualitative data related to the response processes of nine nursing college students obtained through cognitive interviews were analyzed. Results: Out of initial 30 items, 11 items were excluded after the analysis of difficulty and discrimination parameter. When the 19 items of the revised version of the CCTS were analyzed, levels of item difficulty were found to be relatively low and levels of discrimination were found to be appropriate or high. The degree of agreement between item developer intention and expert judgments equaled or exceeded 50%. Conclusion: From above results, evidence of the response process validity was demonstrated, indicating that subjects respondeds as intended by the test developer. The revised 19-item CCTS was found to have sufficient reliability and validity and will therefore represents a more convenient measurement of critical thinking ability. PMID:25622716

Large-Scale Operations Management Test of Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants. Report 1. Baseline Studies. Volume II. The Fish, Mammals, and Waterfowl of Lake Conway, Florida.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-01

and Culicidae. 99. In addition to the sporadic occurrence of minor food items, considerable seasonal variations existed in food habits. Overall, the...included Copepoda, Amphipoda, Hydracarina, and eggs. The remaining 16 food groups were of minor importance in the diet (f bluefin killifish and were...Widgeon 1 Empty Ring-necked duck 8 Seed N.A. 3 American coot 17 Fish 1 1 Hydrilla N.A. 15 Lemna N.A. I Seed N.A. 3 Eleocharis N.A. I Chironomidae 1 1

A Comparison of Different Psychometric Approaches to Modeling Testlet Structures: An Example with C-Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schroeders, Ulrich; Robitzsch, Alexander; Schipolowski, Stefan

2014-01-01

C-tests are a specific variant of cloze tests that are considered time-efficient, valid indicators of general language proficiency. They are commonly analyzed with models of item response theory assuming local item independence. In this article we estimated local interdependencies for 12 C-tests and compared the changes in item difficulties,…

Do Self Concept Tests Test Self Concept? An Evaluation of the Validity of Items on the Piers Harris and Coopersmith Measures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lynch, Mervin D.; Chaves, John

Items from Peirs-Harris and Coopersmith self-concept tests were evaluated against independent measures on three self-constructs, idealized, empathic, and worth. Construct measurements were obtained with the semantic differential and D statistic. Ratings were obtained from 381 children, grades 4-6. For each test, item ratings and construct measures…

Technical Characteristics of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test as a Function of Item Arrangement and Basal and Ceiling Rules.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Browning, Robert; And Others

1979-01-01

Effects that item order and basal and ceiling rules have on test means, variances, and internal consistency estimates for the Peabody Individual Achievement Test mathematics and reading recognition subtests were examined. Items on the math and reading recognition subtests were significantly easier or harder than test placements indicated. (Author)

Current State of Test Development, Administration, and Analysis: A Study of Faculty Practices.

PubMed

Bristol, Timothy J; Nelson, John W; Sherrill, Karin J; Wangerin, Virginia S

Developing valid and reliable test items is a critical skill for nursing faculty. This research analyzed the test item writing practice of 674 nursing faculty. Relationships between faculty characteristics and their test item writing practices were analyzed. Findings reveal variability in practice and a gap in implementation of evidence-based standards when developing and evaluating teacher-made examinations.

A Review of Guidelines on Home Drug Testing Websites for Parents

PubMed Central

Washio, Yukiko; Fairfax-Columbo, Jaymes; Ball, Emily; Cassey, Heather; Arria, Amelia M.; Bresani, Elena; Curtis, Brenda L.; Kirby, Kimberly C.

2014-01-01

Purpose To update and extend prior work reviewing websites that discuss home drug testing for parents and assess the quality of information that the websites provide to assist them to decide when and how to use home drug testing. Methods We conducted a world-wide web search that identified eight websites providing information for parents on home drug testing. We assessed the information on the sites using checklist developed with field experts in adolescent substance abuse and psychosocial interventions that focus on urine testing. Results None of the websites covered all of items on the 24-item checklist, and only three covered at least half of the items (12, 14, and 21 items, respectively). The five remaining websites covered less than half the checklist items. The mean number of items covered by the websites was 11. Conclusions Among the websites that we reviewed, few provided thorough information to parents regarding empirically-supported strategies to effectively use drug testing to intervene on adolescent substance use. Furthermore, most websites did not provide thorough information regarding the risks and benefits to inform parents’ decision to use home drug testing. Empirical evidence regarding efficacy, benefits, risks, and limitations of home drug testing is needed. PMID:25026103

Applications of Computerized Adaptive Testing. Proceedings of a Symposium presented at the Annual Convention of the Military Testing Association (18th, October 1976). Research Report 77-1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiss, David J., Ed.

This symposium consists of five papers and presents some recent developments in adaptive testing which have applications to several military testing problems. The overview, by James R. McBride, defines adaptive testing and discusses some of its item selection and scoring strategies. Item response theory, or item characteristic curve theory, is…

Driver Education Task Analysis. Volume I: Task Descriptions. Final Report (August 1969-July 1970).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKnight, A. James; Adams, Bert B.

This resource guide is the first of a 4-volume report dealing with the development of driver education objectives through an analysis of the driver's task. Included are a detailed description of the behaviors required of passenger car drivers, rated criticalities of these behaviors, and items of supporting information relating to driver…

Selected Bibliography of Educational Materials: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia. Volume 3, Numbers 2, 3, 1969.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azzouz, Azzedine; And Others

A two volume, 200-item bibliography with English abstracts of books and articles in English and French dating from 1957 offers information on various aspects of education in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. Emphasis is placed on sections dealing with educational organization in primary, secondary, vocational, and higher education; and…

Shuttle payload interface verification equipment study. Volume 3: Specification data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

A complete description is given of the IVE physical and performance design requirements as evolved in this study. The data are presented in a format to facilitate the development of an item specification. Data were used to support the development of the project plan data (schedules, cost, etc.) contained in Volume 4 of this report.

A Rigorous Test of the Fit of the Circumplex Model to Big Five Personality Data: Theoretical and Methodological Issues and Two Large Sample Empirical Tests.

PubMed

DeGeest, David Scott; Schmidt, Frank

2015-01-01

Our objective was to apply the rigorous test developed by Browne (1992) to determine whether the circumplex model fits Big Five personality data. This test has yet to be applied to personality data. Another objective was to determine whether blended items explained correlations among the Big Five traits. We used two working adult samples, the Eugene-Springfield Community Sample and the Professional Worker Career Experience Survey. Fit to the circumplex was tested via Browne's (1992) procedure. Circumplexes were graphed to identify items with loadings on multiple traits (blended items), and to determine whether removing these items changed five-factor model (FFM) trait intercorrelations. In both samples, the circumplex structure fit the FFM traits well. Each sample had items with dual-factor loadings (8 items in the first sample, 21 in the second). Removing blended items had little effect on construct-level intercorrelations among FFM traits. We conclude that rigorous tests show that the fit of personality data to the circumplex model is good. This finding means the circumplex model is competitive with the factor model in understanding the organization of personality traits. The circumplex structure also provides a theoretically and empirically sound rationale for evaluating intercorrelations among FFM traits. Even after eliminating blended items, FFM personality traits remained correlated.

[Mokken scaling of the Cognitive Screening Test].

PubMed

Diesfeldt, H F A

2009-10-01

The Cognitive Screening Test (CST) is a twenty-item orientation questionnaire in Dutch, that is commonly used to evaluate cognitive impairment. This study applied Mokken Scale Analysis, a non-parametric set of techniques derived from item response theory (IRT), to CST-data of 466 consecutive participants in psychogeriatric day care. The full item set and the standard short version of fourteen items both met the assumptions of the monotone homogeneity model, with scalability coefficient H = 0.39, which is considered weak. In order to select items that would fulfil the assumption of invariant item ordering or the double monotonicity model, the subjects were randomly partitioned into a training set (50% of the sample) and a test set (the remaining half). By means of an automated item selection eleven items were found to measure one latent trait, with H = 0.67 and item H coefficients larger than 0.51. Cross-validation of the item analysis in the remaining half of the subjects gave comparable values (H = 0.66; item H coefficients larger than 0.56). The selected items involve year, place of residence, birth date, the monarch's and prime minister's names, and their predecessors. Applying optimal discriminant analysis (ODA) it was found that the full set of twenty CST items performed best in distinguishing two predefined groups of patients of lower or higher cognitive ability, as established by an independent criterion derived from the Amsterdam Dementia Screening Test. The chance corrected predictive value or prognostic utility was 47.5% for the full item set, 45.2% for the fourteen items of the standard short version of the CST, and 46.1% for the homogeneous, unidimensional set of selected eleven items. The results of the item analysis support the application of the CST in cognitive assessment, and revealed a more reliable 'short' version of the CST than the standard short version (CST14).

Modeling the dynamics of recognition memory testing with an integrated model of retrieval and decision making.

PubMed

Osth, Adam F; Jansson, Anna; Dennis, Simon; Heathcote, Andrew

2018-08-01

A robust finding in recognition memory is that performance declines monotonically across test trials. Despite the prevalence of this decline, there is a lack of consensus on the mechanism responsible. Three hypotheses have been put forward: (1) interference is caused by learning of test items (2) the test items cause a shift in the context representation used to cue memory and (3) participants change their speed-accuracy thresholds through the course of testing. We implemented all three possibilities in a combined model of recognition memory and decision making, which inherits the memory retrieval elements of the Osth and Dennis (2015) model and uses the diffusion decision model (DDM: Ratcliff, 1978) to generate choice and response times. We applied the model to four datasets that represent three challenges, the findings that: (1) the number of test items plays a larger role in determining performance than the number of studied items, (2) performance decreases less for strong items than weak items in pure lists but not in mixed lists, and (3) lexical decision trials interspersed between recognition test trials do not increase the rate at which performance declines. Analysis of the model's parameter estimates suggests that item interference plays a weak role in explaining the effects of recognition testing, while context drift plays a very large role. These results are consistent with prior work showing a weak role for item noise in recognition memory and that retrieval is a strong cause of context change in episodic memory. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Economic analysis of linking operating room scheduling and hospital material management information systems for just-in-time inventory control.

PubMed

Epstein, R H; Dexter, F

2000-08-01

Operating room (OR) scheduling information systems can decrease perioperative labor costs. Material management information systems can decrease perioperative inventory costs. We used computer simulation to investigate whether using the OR schedule to trigger purchasing of perioperative supplies is likely to further decrease perioperative inventory costs, as compared with using sophisticated, stand-alone material management inventory control. Although we designed the simulations to favor financially linking the information systems, we found that this strategy would be expected to decrease inventory costs substantively only for items of high price ($1000 each) and volume (>1000 used each year). Because expensive items typically have different models and sizes, each of which is used by a hospital less often than this, for almost all items there will be no benefit to making daily adjustments to the order volume based on booked cases. We conclude that, in a hospital with a sophisticated material management information system, OR managers will probably achieve greater cost reductions from focusing on negotiating less expensive purchase prices for items than on trying to link the OR information system with the hospital's material management information system to achieve just-in-time inventory control. In a hospital with a sophisticated material management information system, operating room managers will probably achieve greater cost reductions from focusing on negotiating less expensive purchase prices for items than on trying to link the operating room information system with the hospital's material management information system to achieve just-in-time inventory control.

Strategic Inventory Positioning of Navy Depot Level Repairable

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-06-01

determines the assignment of customers to the open facilities. A summary of these models can be found in texts by Hurter [1989], Daskin [1995], Drezner...policy for repairable items. NAVICP wishes to incorporate a strategic inventory positioning policy that reduces transportation costs. This thesis...each repairable item. Using results from SIP and historical transaction data, a cost comparative analysis of 176 of the highest cost and demand volume

Multistage Computerized Adaptive Testing with Uniform Item Exposure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Michael C.; Flora, David B.; Thissen, David

2012-01-01

This article describes a computerized adaptive test (CAT) based on the uniform item exposure multi-form structure (uMFS). The uMFS is a specialization of the multi-form structure (MFS) idea described by Armstrong, Jones, Berliner, and Pashley (1998). In an MFS CAT, the examinee first responds to a small fixed block of items. The items comprising…

Primary Science Assessment Item Setters' Misconceptions Concerning the State Changes of Water

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boo, Hong Kwen

2006-01-01

Assessment is an integral and vital part of teaching and learning, providing feedback on progress through the assessment period to both learners and teachers. However, if test items are flawed because of misconceptions held by the questions setter, then such test items are invalid as assessment tools. Moreover, such flawed items are also likely to…

Stratified and Maximum Information Item Selection Procedures in Computer Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deng, Hui; Ansley, Timothy; Chang, Hua-Hua

2010-01-01

In this study we evaluated and compared three item selection procedures: the maximum Fisher information procedure (F), the a-stratified multistage computer adaptive testing (CAT) (STR), and a refined stratification procedure that allows more items to be selected from the high a strata and fewer items from the low a strata (USTR), along with…

Assessment of Differential Item Functioning in Testlet-Based Items Using the Rasch Testlet Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Wen-Chung; Wilson, Mark

2005-01-01

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…

Ethnic Group Bias in Intelligence Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheuneman, Janice

In previous studies of ethnic group bias in intelligence test items, the question of bias has been confounded with ability differences between the ethnic group samples compared. The present study is based on a conditional probability model in which an unbiased item is defined as one where the probability of a correct response to an item is the…

Primary Science Assessment Item Setters' Misconceptions Concerning Biological Science Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boo, Hong Kwen

2007-01-01

Assessment is an integral and vital part of teaching and learning, providing feedback on progress through the assessment period to both learners and teachers. However, if test items are flawed because of misconceptions held by the question setter, then such test items are invalid as assessment tools. Moreover, such flawed items are also likely to…

Examination of Different Item Response Theory Models on Tests Composed of Testlets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kogar, Esin Yilmaz; Kelecioglu, Hülya

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research is to first estimate the item and ability parameters and the standard error values related to those parameters obtained from Unidimensional Item Response Theory (UIRT), bifactor (BIF) and Testlet Response Theory models (TRT) in the tests including testlets, when the number of testlets, number of independent items, and…

A Monte Carlo Study of an Iterative Wald Test Procedure for DIF Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cao, Mengyang; Tay, Louis; Liu, Yaowu

2017-01-01

This study examined the performance of a proposed iterative Wald approach for detecting differential item functioning (DIF) between two groups when preknowledge of anchor items is absent. The iterative approach utilizes the Wald-2 approach to identify anchor items and then iteratively tests for DIF items with the Wald-1 approach. Monte Carlo…

A Semiparametric Model for Jointly Analyzing Response Times and Accuracy in Computerized Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Chun; Fan, Zhewen; Chang, Hua-Hua; Douglas, Jeffrey A.

2013-01-01

The item response times (RTs) collected from computerized testing represent an underutilized type of information about items and examinees. In addition to knowing the examinees' responses to each item, we can investigate the amount of time examinees spend on each item. Current models for RTs mainly focus on parametric models, which have the…

Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), Spring 2000: High School Health/Physical Education, Released Items, Grade 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Missouri State Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education, Jefferson City.

This document presents 10 released items from the Health/Physical Education Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test given in the spring of 2000 to ninth graders. Items from the test sessions include: selected-response (multiple choice), constructed-response, and a performance event. The selected-response items consist of individual questions…

An Empirical Investigation of Methods for Assessing Item Fit for Mixed Format Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chon, Kyong Hee; Lee, Won-Chan; Ansley, Timothy N.

2013-01-01

Empirical information regarding performance of model-fit procedures has been a persistent need in measurement practice. Statistical procedures for evaluating item fit were applied to real test examples that consist of both dichotomously and polytomously scored items. The item fit statistics used in this study included the PARSCALE's G[squared],…

Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), Spring 2000: Intermediate Communication Arts, Released Items, Grade 7.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Missouri State Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education, Jefferson City.

This document deals with testing in intermediate communication arts for seventh graders in Missouri public schools. The document contains the following items from the Session 1 Test Booklet: "Swimming in Snow" (Diana C. Conway) (Items 1, 2, and 5); "Discovery" (Marion Dane Bauer) (Item 13); writing prompt; and a writer's…

Automated Item Generation with Recurrent Neural Networks.

PubMed

von Davier, Matthias

2018-03-12

Utilizing technology for automated item generation is not a new idea. However, test items used in commercial testing programs or in research are still predominantly written by humans, in most cases by content experts or professional item writers. Human experts are a limited resource and testing agencies incur high costs in the process of continuous renewal of item banks to sustain testing programs. Using algorithms instead holds the promise of providing unlimited resources for this crucial part of assessment development. The approach presented here deviates in several ways from previous attempts to solve this problem. In the past, automatic item generation relied either on generating clones of narrowly defined item types such as those found in language free intelligence tests (e.g., Raven's progressive matrices) or on an extensive analysis of task components and derivation of schemata to produce items with pre-specified variability that are hoped to have predictable levels of difficulty. It is somewhat unlikely that researchers utilizing these previous approaches would look at the proposed approach with favor; however, recent applications of machine learning show success in solving tasks that seemed impossible for machines not too long ago. The proposed approach uses deep learning to implement probabilistic language models, not unlike what Google brain and Amazon Alexa use for language processing and generation.

Assessing the Conceptual Understanding about Heat and Thermodynamics at Undergraduate Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulkarni, Vasudeo Digambar; Tambade, Popat Savaleram

2013-01-01

In this study, a Thermodynamic Concept Test (TCT) was designed to assess student's conceptual understanding heat and thermodynamics at undergraduate level. The different statistical tests such as item difficulty index, item discrimination index, point biserial coefficient were used for assessing TCT. For each item of the test these indices were…

A Study of Inference in Standardized Reading Test Items and Its Relationship to Difficulty.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marzano, Robert J.

To study the relationship between inferences made on standardized reading tests and item difficulty, 50 items on the reading comprehension section of the Metropolitan Achievement Test were analyzed independently in this study by two raters using four general categories of inferences: (1) reference inferences, (2) between proposition inferences,…

Questions and Problems in Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dressel, Paul L.; Nelson, Clarence H.

This folio of test items, contributed by a number of colleges and universities from their course, placement, entrance, or other institutional examinations, was compiled to aid teachers in constructing tests. Only those science courses offered in the first two years of college are represented by the scope of the items. The test items may also serve…

Effects of Using Modified Items to Test Students with Persistent Academic Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, Stephen N.; Kettler, Ryan J.; Beddow, Peter A.; Kurz, Alexander; Compton, Elizabeth; McGrath, Dawn; Bruen, Charles; Hinton, Kent; Palmer, Porter; Rodriguez, Michael C.; Bolt, Daniel; Roach, Andrew T.

2010-01-01

This study investigated the effects of using modified items in achievement tests to enhance accessibility. An experiment determined whether tests composed of modified items would reduce the performance gap between students eligible for an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) and students not eligible, and the…

Optimal Stratification of Item Pools in a-Stratified Computerized Adaptive Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Hua-Hua; van der Linden, Wim J.

2003-01-01

Developed a method based on 0-1 linear programming to stratify an item pool optimally for use in alpha-stratified adaptive testing. Applied the method to a previous item pool from the computerized adaptive test of the Graduate Record Examinations. Results show the new method performs well in practical situations. (SLD)

The Development and Validation of a Formula for Measuring Single-Sentence Test Item Readability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Homan, Susan; And Others

1994-01-01

A study was conducted with 782 elementary school students to determine whether the Homan-Hewitt Readability Formula could identify the readability of a single-sentence test item. Results indicate that a relationship exists between students' reading grade levels and responses to test items written at higher readability levels. (SLD)

Development and Validation of a Computer Adaptive EFL Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Lianzhen; Min, Shangchao

2017-01-01

The first aim of this study was to develop a computer adaptive EFL test (CALT) that assesses test takers' listening and reading proficiency in English with dichotomous items and polytomous testlets. We reported in detail on the development of the CALT, including item banking, determination of suitable item response theory (IRT) models for item…

The Development and Management of Banks of Performance Based Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curtis, H. A., Ed.

Symposium papers presented at an Annual Meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education (Chicago, 1972), all of which concern banks of test items for use in constructing criterion referenced tests, comprise this document. The first paper, "Locally Produced Item Banks" by Thomas J. Slocum, presents information on the…

Test-retest stability of the Task and Ego Orientation Questionnaire.

PubMed

Lane, Andrew M; Nevill, Alan M; Bowes, Neal; Fox, Kenneth R

2005-09-01

Establishing stability, defined as observing minimal measurement error in a test-retest assessment, is vital to validating psychometric tools. Correlational methods, such as Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa are tests of association or consistency, whereas stability or reproducibility (regarded here as synonymous) assesses the agreement between test-retest scores. Indexes of reproducibility using the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duda & Nicholls, 1992) were investigated using correlational (Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa) methods, repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance, and calculating the proportion of agreement within a referent value of +/-1 as suggested by Nevill, Lane, Kilgour, Bowes, and Whyte (2001). Two hundred thirteen soccer players completed the TEOSQ on two occasions, 1 week apart. Correlation analyses indicated a stronger test-retest correlation for the Ego subscale than the Task subscale. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated stability for ego items but with significant increases in four task items. The proportion of test-retest agreement scores indicated that all ego items reported relatively poor stability statistics with test-retest scores within a range of +/-1, ranging from 82.7-86.9%. By contrast, all task items showed test-retest difference scores ranging from 92.5-99%, although further analysis indicated that four task subscale items increased significantly. Findings illustrated that correlational methods (Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa) are influenced by the range in scores, and calculating the proportion of agreement of test-retest differences with a referent value of +/-1 could provide additional insight into the stability of the questionnaire. It is suggested that the item-by-item proportion of agreement method proposed by Nevill et al. (2001) should be used to supplement existing methods and could be especially helpful in identifying rogue items in the initial stages of psychometric questionnaire validation.

How Small the Number of Test Items Can Be for the Basis of Estimating the Operating Characteristics of the Discrete Responses to Unknown Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samejima, Fumiko; Changas, Paul S.

The methods and approaches for estimating the operating characteristics of the discrete item responses without assuming any mathematical form have been developed and expanded. It has been made possible that, even if the test information function of a given test is not constant for the interval of ability of interest, it is used as the Old Test.…

Automatic Generation of Rasch-Calibrated Items: Figural Matrices Test GEOM and Endless-Loops Test EC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arendasy, Martin

2005-01-01

The future of test construction for certain psychological ability domains that can be analyzed well in a structured manner may lie--at the very least for reasons of test security--in the field of automatic item generation. In this context, a question that has not been explicitly addressed is whether it is possible to embed an item response theory…

Evaluation of Floors and Item Gradients for Reading and Math Tests for Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bradley-Johnson, Sharon; Durmusoglu, Gokce

2005-01-01

Ignoring the adequacy of floors and item gradients for tests used with young children can have serious consequences. Thus, because of the importance of early intervention for reading and math problems, we used the criteria suggested by Bracken for adequate floors and item gradients, and reviewed 15 reading tests and 12 math tests for ages 4-0…

The Psychological Effect of Errors in Standardized Language Test Items on EFL Students' Responses to the Following Item

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khaksefidi, Saman

2017-01-01

This study investigates the psychological effect of a wrong question with wrong items on answering to the next question in a test of structure. Forty students selected through stratified random sampling are given 15 questions of a standardized test namely a TOEFL structure test in which questions number 7 and number 11 are wrong and their answers…

Visual short-term memory binding deficit in familial Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Liang, Yuying; Pertzov, Yoni; Nicholas, Jennifer M; Henley, Susie M D; Crutch, Sebastian; Woodward, Felix; Leung, Kelvin; Fox, Nick C; Husain, Masud

2016-05-01

Long-term episodic memory deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are well characterised but, until recently, short-term memory (STM) function has attracted far less attention. We employed a recently-developed, delayed reproduction task which requires participants to reproduce precisely the remembered location of items they had seen only seconds previously. This paradigm provides not only a continuous measure of localization error in memory, but also an index of relational binding by determining the frequency with which an object is misplaced to the location of one of the other items held in memory. Such binding errors in STM have previously been found on this task to be sensitive to medial temporal lobe (MTL) damage in focal lesion cases. Twenty individuals with pathological mutations in presenilin 1 or amyloid precursor protein genes for familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) were tested together with 62 healthy controls. Participants were assessed using the delayed reproduction memory task, a standard neuropsychological battery and structural MRI. Overall, FAD mutation carriers were worse than controls for object identity as well as in gross localization memory performance. Moreover, they showed greater misbinding of object identity and location than healthy controls. Thus they would often mislocalize a correctly-identified item to the location of one of the other items held in memory. Significantly, asymptomatic gene carriers - who performed similarly to healthy controls on standard neuropsychological tests - had a specific impairment in object-location binding, despite intact memory for object identity and location. Consistent with the hypothesis that the hippocampus is critically involved in relational binding regardless of memory duration, decreased hippocampal volume across FAD participants was significantly associated with deficits in object-location binding but not with recall precision for object identity or localization. Object-location binding may therefore provide a sensitive cognitive biomarker for MTL dysfunction in a range of diseases including AD. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

ITEM ANALYSIS OF THREE SPANISH NAMING TESTS: A CROSS-CULTURAL INVESTIGATION

PubMed Central

de la Plata, Carlos Marquez; Arango-Lasprilla, Juan Carlos; Alegret, Montse; Moreno, Alexander; Tárraga, Luis; Lara, Mar; Hewlitt, Margaret; Hynan, Linda; Cullum, C. Munro

2009-01-01

Neuropsychological evaluations conducted in the United States and abroad commonly include the use of tests translated from English to Spanish. The use of translated naming tests for evaluating predominately Spanish-speakers has recently been challenged on the grounds that translating test items may compromise a test’s construct validity. The Texas Spanish Naming Test (TNT) has been developed in Spanish specifically for use with Spanish-speakers; however, it is unlikely patients from diverse Spanish-speaking geographical regions will perform uniformly on a naming test. The present study evaluated and compared the internal consistency and patterns of item-difficulty and -discrimination for the TNT and two commonly used translated naming tests in three countries (i.e., United States, Colombia, Spain). Two hundred fifty two subjects (126 demented, 116 nondemented) across three countries were administered the TNT, Modified Boston Naming Test-Spanish, and the naming subtest from the CERAD. The TNT demonstrated superior internal consistency to its counterparts, a superior item difficulty pattern than the CERAD naming test, and a superior item discrimination pattern than the MBNT-S across countries. Overall, all three Spanish naming tests differentiated nondemented and moderately demented individuals, but the results suggest the items of the TNT are most appropriate to use with Spanish-speakers. Preliminary normative data for the three tests examined in each country are provided. PMID:19208960

Identifying predictors of physics item difficulty: A linear regression approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mesic, Vanes; Muratovic, Hasnija

2011-06-01

Large-scale assessments of student achievement in physics are often approached with an intention to discriminate students based on the attained level of their physics competencies. Therefore, for purposes of test design, it is important that items display an acceptable discriminatory behavior. To that end, it is recommended to avoid extraordinary difficult and very easy items. Knowing the factors that influence physics item difficulty makes it possible to model the item difficulty even before the first pilot study is conducted. Thus, by identifying predictors of physics item difficulty, we can improve the test-design process. Furthermore, we get additional qualitative feedback regarding the basic aspects of student cognitive achievement in physics that are directly responsible for the obtained, quantitative test results. In this study, we conducted a secondary analysis of data that came from two large-scale assessments of student physics achievement at the end of compulsory education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Foremost, we explored the concept of “physics competence” and performed a content analysis of 123 physics items that were included within the above-mentioned assessments. Thereafter, an item database was created. Items were described by variables which reflect some basic cognitive aspects of physics competence. For each of the assessments, Rasch item difficulties were calculated in separate analyses. In order to make the item difficulties from different assessments comparable, a virtual test equating procedure had to be implemented. Finally, a regression model of physics item difficulty was created. It has been shown that 61.2% of item difficulty variance can be explained by factors which reflect the automaticity, complexity, and modality of the knowledge structure that is relevant for generating the most probable correct solution, as well as by the divergence of required thinking and interference effects between intuitive and formal physics knowledge structures. Identified predictors point out the fundamental cognitive dimensions of student physics achievement at the end of compulsory education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose level of development influenced the test results within the conducted assessments.

Radial Internal Material Handling System (RIMS) for Circular Habitat Volumes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howe, Alan S.; Haselschwardt, Sally; Bogatko, Alex; Humphrey, Brian; Patel, Amit

2013-01-01

On planetary surfaces, pressurized human habitable volumes will require a means to carry equipment around within the volume of the habitat, regardless of the partial gravity (Earth, Moon, Mars, etc.). On the NASA Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU), a vertical cylindrical volume, it was determined that a variety of heavy items would need to be carried back and forth from deployed locations to the General Maintenance Work Station (GMWS) when in need of repair, and other equipment may need to be carried inside for repairs, such as rover parts and other external equipment. The vertical cylindrical volume of the HDU lent itself to a circular overhead track and hoist system that allows lifting of heavy objects from anywhere in the habitat to any other point in the habitat interior. In addition, the system is able to hand-off lifted items to other material handling systems through the side hatches, such as through an airlock. The overhead system consists of two concentric circle tracks that have a movable beam between them. The beam has a hoist carriage that can move back and forth on the beam. Therefore, the entire system acts like a bridge crane curved around to meet itself in a circle. The novelty of the system is in its configuration, and how it interfaces with the volume of the HDU habitat. Similar to how a bridge crane allows coverage for an entire rectangular volume, the RIMS system covers a circular volume. The RIMS system is the first generation of what may be applied to future planetary surface vertical cylinder habitats on the Moon or on Mars.

Feeding ecology of the lizard Tropidurus oreadicus Rodrigues 1987 (Tropiduridae) at Serra dos Carajás, Pará state, northern Brazil.

PubMed

Rocha, C F D; Siqueira, C C

2008-02-01

Tropidurus species commonly prey on arthropods, but they may also feed on vertebrates and plant material. The lizard Tropidurus oreadicus (Tropiduridae) is common in open vegetation habitats and generally has sexual dimorphism. In this study we analyzed the diet of T. oreadicus at Serra dos Carajás, Pará, in the north of Brazil. Snout-vent length (SVL) and jaw width (JW) were taken for 34 lizards. There was a significant difference in SVL and in JW, with males being larger than females. All lizards analyzed contained food in their stomachs. The diet of T. oreadicus at Serra dos Carajás was characterized by the consumption of a relative wide spectrum of food item categories (21 types of items), consisting of arthropods, part of one vertebrate and plant material, which characterizes the diet of a generalist predator. Volumetrically, the most important items in the diet of both sexes of T. oreadicus were flowers (M = 61.7%; F = 33%) and orthopterans (M = 1.7%; F = 3.5%). Ants were the most frequently consumed (100% for both sexes) and the most numerous (M = 94.5%; F = 89.4%) food item. Flowers also were frequently consumed (M = 91.7%; F = 54.5%), with their relative consumption differing significantly between sexes. There was not a significant sexual difference in prey volume, neither in number of preys per stomach, nor in type of prey ingested. There was no relationship between lizard jaw width and the mean volume of prey. The data showed that T. oreadicus is a relatively generalist lizard in terms of diet and that consumes large volumes of plant material, especially flowers of one species of genus Cassia.

An evaluation of computerized adaptive testing for general psychological distress: combining GHQ-12 and Affectometer-2 in an item bank for public mental health research.

PubMed

Stochl, Jan; Böhnke, Jan R; Pickett, Kate E; Croudace, Tim J

2016-05-20

Recent developments in psychometric modeling and technology allow pooling well-validated items from existing instruments into larger item banks and their deployment through methods of computerized adaptive testing (CAT). Use of item response theory-based bifactor methods and integrative data analysis overcomes barriers in cross-instrument comparison. This paper presents the joint calibration of an item bank for researchers keen to investigate population variations in general psychological distress (GPD). Multidimensional item response theory was used on existing health survey data from the Scottish Health Education Population Survey (n = 766) to calibrate an item bank consisting of pooled items from the short common mental disorder screen (GHQ-12) and the Affectometer-2 (a measure of "general happiness"). Computer simulation was used to evaluate usefulness and efficacy of its adaptive administration. A bifactor model capturing variation across a continuum of population distress (while controlling for artefacts due to item wording) was supported. The numbers of items for different required reliabilities in adaptive administration demonstrated promising efficacy of the proposed item bank. Psychometric modeling of the common dimension captured by more than one instrument offers the potential of adaptive testing for GPD using individually sequenced combinations of existing survey items. The potential for linking other item sets with alternative candidate measures of positive mental health is discussed since an optimal item bank may require even more items than these.

Sales of healthy snacks and beverages following the implementation of healthy vending standards in City of Philadelphia vending machines.

PubMed

Pharis, Meagan L; Colby, Lisa; Wagner, Amanda; Mallya, Giridhar

2018-02-01

We examined outcomes following the implementation of employer-wide vending standards, designed to increase healthy snack and beverage options, on the proportion of healthy v. less healthy sales, sales volume and revenue for snack and beverage vending machines. A single-arm evaluation of a policy utilizing monthly sales volume and revenue data provided by the contracted vendor during baseline, machine conversion and post-conversion time periods. Study time periods are full calendar years unless otherwise noted. Property owned or leased by the City of Philadelphia, USA. Approximately 250 vending machines over a 4-year period (2010-2013). At post-conversion, the proportion of sales attributable to healthy items was 40 % for snacks and 46 % for beverages. Healthy snack sales were 323 % higher (38·4 to 162·5 items sold per machine per month) and total snack sales were 17 % lower (486·8 to 402·1 items sold per machine per month). Healthy beverage sales were 33 % higher (68·2 to 90·6 items sold per machine per month) and there was no significant change in total beverage sales (213·2 to 209·6 items sold per machine per month). Revenue was 11 % lower for snacks ($US 468·30 to $US 415·70 per machine per month) and 21 % lower for beverages ($US 344·00 to $US 270·70 per machine per month). Sales of healthy vending items were significantly higher following the implementation of employer-wide vending standards for snack and beverage vending machines. Entities receiving revenue-based commission payments from vending machines should employ strategies to minimize potential revenue losses.

Phylogenetic signal, feeding behaviour and brain volume in Neotropical bats.

PubMed

Rojas, D; Mancina, C A; Flores-Martínez, J J; Navarro, L

2013-09-01

Comparative correlational studies of brain size and ecological traits (e.g. feeding habits and habitat complexity) have increased our knowledge about the selective pressures on brain evolution. Studies conducted in bats as a model system assume that shared evolutionary history has a maximum effect on the traits. However, this effect has not been quantified. In addition, the effect of levels of diet specialization on brain size remains unclear. We examined the role of diet on the evolution of brain size in Mormoopidae and Phyllostomidae using two comparative methods. Body mass explained 89% of the variance in brain volume. The effect of feeding behaviour (either characterized as feeding habits, as levels of specialization on a type of item or as handling behaviour) on brain volume was also significant albeit not consistent after controlling for body mass and the strength of the phylogenetic signal (λ). Although the strength of the phylogenetic signal of brain volume and body mass was high when tested individually, λ values in phylogenetic generalized least squares models were significantly different from 1. This suggests that phylogenetic independent contrasts models are not always the best approach for the study of ecological correlates of brain size in New World bats. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2013 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Expertise sensitive item selection.

PubMed

Chow, P; Russell, H; Traub, R E

2000-12-01

In this paper we describe and illustrate a procedure for selecting items from a large pool for a certification test. The proposed procedure, which is intended to improve the alignment of the certification test with on-the-job performance, is based on an expertise sensitive index. This index for an item is the difference between the item's p values for experts and novices. An example is provided of the application of the index for selecting items to be used in certifying bakers.

Item-saving assessment of self-care performance in children with developmental disabilities: A prospective caregiver-report computerized adaptive test

PubMed Central

Chen, Cheng-Te; Chen, Yu-Lan; Lin, Yu-Ching; Hsieh, Ching-Lin; Tzeng, Jeng-Yi

2018-01-01

Objective The purpose of this study was to construct a computerized adaptive test (CAT) for measuring self-care performance (the CAT-SC) in children with developmental disabilities (DD) aged from 6 months to 12 years in a content-inclusive, precise, and efficient fashion. Methods The study was divided into 3 phases: (1) item bank development, (2) item testing, and (3) a simulation study to determine the stopping rules for the administration of the CAT-SC. A total of 215 caregivers of children with DD were interviewed with the 73-item CAT-SC item bank. An item response theory model was adopted for examining the construct validity to estimate item parameters after investigation of the unidimensionality, equality of slope parameters, item fitness, and differential item functioning (DIF). In the last phase, the reliability and concurrent validity of the CAT-SC were evaluated. Results The final CAT-SC item bank contained 56 items. The stopping rules suggested were (a) reliability coefficient greater than 0.9 or (b) 14 items administered. The results of simulation also showed that 85% of the estimated self-care performance scores would reach a reliability higher than 0.9 with a mean test length of 8.5 items, and the mean reliability for the rest was 0.86. Administering the CAT-SC could reduce the number of items administered by 75% to 84%. In addition, self-care performances estimated by the CAT-SC and the full item bank were very similar to each other (Pearson r = 0.98). Conclusion The newly developed CAT-SC can efficiently measure self-care performance in children with DD whose performances are comparable to those of TD children aged from 6 months to 12 years as precisely as the whole item bank. The item bank of the CAT-SC has good reliability and a unidimensional self-care construct, and the CAT can estimate self-care performance with less than 25% of the items in the item bank. Therefore, the CAT-SC could be useful for measuring self-care performance in children with DD in clinical and research settings. PMID:29561879

Item-saving assessment of self-care performance in children with developmental disabilities: A prospective caregiver-report computerized adaptive test.

PubMed

Chen, Cheng-Te; Chen, Yu-Lan; Lin, Yu-Ching; Hsieh, Ching-Lin; Tzeng, Jeng-Yi; Chen, Kuan-Lin

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to construct a computerized adaptive test (CAT) for measuring self-care performance (the CAT-SC) in children with developmental disabilities (DD) aged from 6 months to 12 years in a content-inclusive, precise, and efficient fashion. The study was divided into 3 phases: (1) item bank development, (2) item testing, and (3) a simulation study to determine the stopping rules for the administration of the CAT-SC. A total of 215 caregivers of children with DD were interviewed with the 73-item CAT-SC item bank. An item response theory model was adopted for examining the construct validity to estimate item parameters after investigation of the unidimensionality, equality of slope parameters, item fitness, and differential item functioning (DIF). In the last phase, the reliability and concurrent validity of the CAT-SC were evaluated. The final CAT-SC item bank contained 56 items. The stopping rules suggested were (a) reliability coefficient greater than 0.9 or (b) 14 items administered. The results of simulation also showed that 85% of the estimated self-care performance scores would reach a reliability higher than 0.9 with a mean test length of 8.5 items, and the mean reliability for the rest was 0.86. Administering the CAT-SC could reduce the number of items administered by 75% to 84%. In addition, self-care performances estimated by the CAT-SC and the full item bank were very similar to each other (Pearson r = 0.98). The newly developed CAT-SC can efficiently measure self-care performance in children with DD whose performances are comparable to those of TD children aged from 6 months to 12 years as precisely as the whole item bank. The item bank of the CAT-SC has good reliability and a unidimensional self-care construct, and the CAT can estimate self-care performance with less than 25% of the items in the item bank. Therefore, the CAT-SC could be useful for measuring self-care performance in children with DD in clinical and research settings.

Procedures to develop a computerized adaptive test to assess patient-reported physical functioning.

PubMed

McCabe, Erin; Gross, Douglas P; Bulut, Okan

2018-06-07

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the procedures to develop and implement a computerized adaptive patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure using secondary analysis of a dataset and items from fixed-format legacy measures. We conducted secondary analysis of a dataset of responses from 1429 persons with work-related lower extremity impairment. We calibrated three measures of physical functioning on the same metric, based on item response theory (IRT). We evaluated efficiency and measurement precision of various computerized adaptive test (CAT) designs using computer simulations. IRT and confirmatory factor analyses support combining the items from the three scales for a CAT item bank of 31 items. The item parameters for IRT were calculated using the generalized partial credit model. CAT simulations show that reducing the test length from the full 31 items to a maximum test length of 8 items, or 20 items is possible without a significant loss of information (95, 99% correlation with legacy measure scores). We demonstrated feasibility and efficiency of using CAT for PRO measurement of physical functioning. The procedures we outlined are straightforward, and can be applied to other PRO measures. Additionally, we have included all the information necessary to implement the CAT of physical functioning in the electronic supplementary material of this paper.

Survey Development to Assess College Students' Perceptions of the Campus Environment.

PubMed

Sowers, Morgan F; Colby, Sarah; Greene, Geoffrey W; Pickett, Mackenzie; Franzen-Castle, Lisa; Olfert, Melissa D; Shelnutt, Karla; Brown, Onikia; Horacek, Tanya M; Kidd, Tandalayo; Kattelmann, Kendra K; White, Adrienne A; Zhou, Wenjun; Riggsbee, Kristin; Yan, Wangcheng; Byrd-Bredbenner, Carol

2017-11-01

We developed and tested a College Environmental Perceptions Survey (CEPS) to assess college students' perceptions of the healthfulness of their campus. CEPS was developed in 3 stages: questionnaire development, validity testing, and reliability testing. Questionnaire development was based on an extensive literature review and input from an expert panel to establish content validity. Face validity was established with the target population using cognitive interviews with 100 college students. Concurrent-criterion validity was established with in-depth interviews (N = 30) of college students compared to surveys completed by the same 30 students. Surveys completed by college students from 8 universities (N = 1147) were used to test internal structure (factor analysis) and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha). After development and testing, 15 items remained from the original 48 items. A 5-factor solution emerged: physical activity (4 items, α = .635), water (3 items, α = .773), vending (2 items, α = .680), healthy food (2 items, α = .631), and policy (2 items, α = .573). The mean total score for all universities was 62.71 (±11.16) on a 100-point scale. CEPS appears to be a valid and reliable tool for assessing college students' perceptions of their health-related campus environment.

Food habits of Nyctinomops macrotis at a maternity roost in New Mexico, as indicated by analysis of guano

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sparks, D.W.; Valdez, E.W.

2003-01-01

We examined 56 fecal pellets from under a maternity colony of big free-tailed bats (Nyctinomops macrotis) in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. The most important food items, listed in order of decreasing percent volume, were Cicadellidae, leafhoppers (26.7% volume, 58.9% frequency); Ichneumonidae, Ichneumon wasps (19.3% volume, 35.7% frequency); and Lepidoptera, moths (17.2% volume, 82.1% frequency). Overall, the most important orders as prey consumed, listed by decreasing percent volume, were Homoptera (27.6% volume, 62.5% frequency), Hymenoptera (19.5% volume, 37.5% frequency), Lepidoptera (17.2% volume, 82.1% frequency), Hemiptera (11.7% volume, 37.5% frequency), and Diptera (10.6% volume, 50.0% frequency). Our study documents an unusually varied diet, as previous studies indicated that these bats fed almost exclusively on moths.

Implicit and explicit forgetting: when is gist remembered?

PubMed

Dorfman, J; Mandler, G

1994-08-01

Recognition (YES/NO) and stem completion (cued: complete with a word from the list; and uncued: complete with the first word that comes to mind) were tested following either semantic or non-semantic processing of a categorized input list. Item/instance information was tested by contrasting target items from the input list with new items that were categorically related to them; gist/categorical information was tested by comparing target items semantically related to the input items with unrelated new items. For both recognition and stem completion, regardless of initial processing condition, item information decayed rapidly over a period of one week. Gist information was maintained over the same period when initial processing was semantic but only in the cued condition for completion. These results are discussed in terms of dual process theory, which postulates activation/integration of a representation as primarily relevant to implicit item information and elaboration of a representation as mainly relevant to semantic (i.e. categorical) information.

Incidental retrieval-induced forgetting of location information.

PubMed

Gómez-Ariza, Carlos J; Fernandez, Angel; Bajo, M Teresa

2012-06-01

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) has been studied with different types of tests and materials. However, RIF has always been tested on the items' central features, and there is no information on whether inhibition also extends to peripheral features of the events in which the items are embedded. In two experiments, we specifically tested the presence of RIF in a task in which recall of peripheral information was required. After a standard retrieval practice task oriented to item identity, participants were cued with colors (Exp. 1) or with the items themselves (Exp. 2) and asked to recall the screen locations where the items had been displayed during the study phase. RIF for locations was observed after retrieval practice, an effect that was not present when participants were asked to read instead of retrieving the items. Our findings provide evidence that peripheral location information associated with an item during study can be also inhibited when the retrieval conditions promote the inhibition of more central, item identity information.

Computerized Adaptive Testing with Item Clones. Research Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glas, Cees A. W.; van der Linden, Wim J.

To reduce the cost of item writing and to enhance the flexibility of item presentation, items can be generated by item-cloning techniques. An important consequence of cloning is that it may cause variability on the item parameters. Therefore, a multilevel item response model is presented in which it is assumed that the item parameters of a…

International field testing of the psychometric properties of an EORTC quality of life module for oral health: the EORTC QLQ-OH15.

PubMed

Hjermstad, Marianne J; Bergenmar, Mia; Bjordal, Kristin; Fisher, Sheila E; Hofmeister, Dirk; Montel, Sébastien; Nicolatou-Galitis, Ourania; Pinto, Monica; Raber-Durlacher, Judith; Singer, Susanne; Tomaszewska, Iwona M; Tomaszewski, Krzysztof A; Verdonck-de Leeuw, Irma; Yarom, Noam; Winstanley, Julie B; Herlofson, Bente B

2016-09-01

This international EORTC validation study (phase IV) is aimed at testing the psychometric properties of a quality of life (QoL) module related to oral health problems in cancer patients. The phase III module comprised 17 items with four hypothesized multi-item scales and three single items. In phase IV, patients with mixed cancers, in different treatment phases from 10 countries completed the EORTC QLQ-C30, the QLQ-OH module, and a debriefing interview. The hypothesized structure was tested using combinations of classical test theory and item response theory, following EORTC guidelines. Test-retest assessments and responsiveness to change analysis (RCA) were performed after 2 weeks. Five hundred seventy-two patients (median age 60.3, 54 % females) were analyzed. Completion took <10 min for 84 %, 40 % expressed satisfaction that these issues were addressed. Analyses suggested a revision of the phase III hypothesized scale structure. Two items were deleted based on a high degree of item misfit, together with negative patient feedback. The remaining 15 items formed one eight-item scale named OH-QoL score, a two-item information scale, a two-item scale regarding dentures, and three single items (sticky saliva/mouth soreness/sensitivity to food/drink). Face and convergent validity and internal consistency were confirmed. Test-retest reliability (n = 60) was demonstrated as was RCA for patients undergoing chemotherapy (n = 117; p = 0.06). The resulting QLQ-OH15 discriminated between clinically distinct patient groups, e.g., low performance status vs. higher (p < 000.1), and head-and-neck cancer versus other cancers (p < 0.03). The EORTC module QLQ-OH15 is a short, well-accepted assessment tool focusing on oral problems and QoL to improve clinical management. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01724333.

Item Selection and Pre-equating with Empirical Item Characteristic Curves.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Livingston, Samuel A.

An empirical item characteristic curve shows the probability of a correct response as a function of the student's total test score. These curves can be estimated from large-scale pretest data. They enable test developers to select items that discriminate well in the score region where decisions are made. A similar set of curves can be used to…

Computerized Adaptive Testing for Polytomous Motivation Items: Administration Mode Effects and a Comparison with Short Forms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hol, A. Michiel; Vorst, Harrie C. M.; Mellenbergh, Gideon J.

2007-01-01

In a randomized experiment (n = 515), a computerized and a computerized adaptive test (CAT) are compared. The item pool consists of 24 polytomous motivation items. Although items are carefully selected, calibration data show that Samejima's graded response model did not fit the data optimally. A simulation study is done to assess possible…

The Effect of Error in Item Parameter Estimates on the Test Response Function Method of Linking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaskowitz, Gary S.; De Ayala, R. J.

2001-01-01

Studied the effect of item parameter estimation for computation of linking coefficients for the test response function (TRF) linking/equating method. Simulation results showed that linking was more accurate when there was less error in the parameter estimates, and that 15 or 25 common items provided better results than 5 common items under both…

Easy and Informative: Using Confidence-Weighted True-False Items for Knowledge Tests in Psychology Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dutke, Stephan; Barenberg, Jonathan

2015-01-01

We introduce a specific type of item for knowledge tests, confidence-weighted true-false (CTF) items, and review experiences of its application in psychology courses. A CTF item is a statement about the learning content to which students respond whether the statement is true or false, and they rate their confidence level. Previous studies using…

Wisconsin Title I Migrant Education. Section 143 Project: Development of an Item Bank. Summary Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Frank N.; And Others

The successful Wisconsin Title 1 project item bank offers a valid, flexible, and efficient means of providing migrant student tests in reading and mathematics tailored to instructor curricula. The item bank system consists of nine PASCAL computer programs which maintain, search, and select from approximately 1,000 test items stored on floppy disks…

Development of an Item Bank for the Assessment of Knowledge on Biology in Argentine University Students.

PubMed

Cupani, Marcos; Zamparella, Tatiana Castro; Piumatti, Gisella; Vinculado, Grupo

The calibration of item banks provides the basis for computerized adaptive testing that ensures high diagnostic precision and minimizes participants' test burden. This study aims to develop a bank of items to measure the level of Knowledge on Biology using the Rasch model. The sample consisted of 1219 participants that studied in different faculties of the National University of Cordoba (mean age = 21.85 years, SD = 4.66; 66.9% are women). The items were organized in different forms and into separate subtests, with some common items across subtests. The students were told they had to answer 60 questions of knowledge on biology. Evaluation of Rasch model fit (Zstd >|2.0|), differential item functioning, dimensionality, local independence, item and person separation (>2.0), and reliability (>.80) resulted in a bank of 180 items with good psychometric properties. The bank provides items with a wide range of content coverage and may serve as a sound basis for computerized adaptive testing applications. The contribution of this work is significant in the field of educational assessment in Argentina.

Strategies for Controlling Item Exposure in Computerized Adaptive Testing with the Generalized Partial Credit Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Laurie Laughlin

2004-01-01

Choosing a strategy for controlling item exposure has become an integral part of test development for computerized adaptive testing (CAT). This study investigated the performance of six procedures for controlling item exposure in a series of simulated CATs under the generalized partial credit model. In addition to a no-exposure control baseline…

Effects of Differential Item Functioning on Examinees' Test Performance and Reliability of Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Yi-Hsuan; Zhang, Jinming

2017-01-01

Simulations were conducted to examine the effect of differential item functioning (DIF) on measurement consequences such as total scores, item response theory (IRT) ability estimates, and test reliability in terms of the ratio of true-score variance to observed-score variance and the standard error of estimation for the IRT ability parameter. The…

Application of Computerized Adaptive Testing to Entrance Examination for Graduate Studies in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bulut, Okan; Kan, Adnan

2012-01-01

Problem Statement: Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is a sophisticated and efficient way of delivering examinations. In CAT, items for each examinee are selected from an item bank based on the examinee's responses to the items. In this way, the difficulty level of the test is adjusted based on the examinee's ability level. Instead of…

Implementing Sympson-Hetter Item-Exposure Control in a Shadow-Test Approach to Constrained Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veldkamp, Bernard P.; van der Linden, Wim J.

2008-01-01

In most operational computerized adaptive testing (CAT) programs, the Sympson-Hetter (SH) method is used to control the exposure of the items. Several modifications and improvements of the original method have been proposed. The Stocking and Lewis (1998) version of the method uses a multinomial experiment to select items. For severely constrained…

Rasch Based Analysis of Oral Proficiency Test Data.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakamura, Yuji

2001-01-01

This paper examines the rating scale data of oral proficiency tests analyzed by a Rasch Analysis focusing on an item map and factor analysis. In discussing the item map, the difficulty order of six items and students' answering patterns are analyzed using descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency of test scores. The data ranks the…

An Approach to Scoring and Equating Tests with Binary Items: Piloting With Large-Scale Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dimitrov, Dimiter M.

2016-01-01

This article describes an approach to test scoring, referred to as "delta scoring" (D-scoring), for tests with dichotomously scored items. The D-scoring uses information from item response theory (IRT) calibration to facilitate computations and interpretations in the context of large-scale assessments. The D-score is computed from the…

Generalization of the Lord-Wingersky Algorithm to Computing the Distribution of Summed Test Scores Based on Real-Number Item Scores

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Seonghoon

2013-01-01

With known item response theory (IRT) item parameters, Lord and Wingersky provided a recursive algorithm for computing the conditional frequency distribution of number-correct test scores, given proficiency. This article presents a generalized algorithm for computing the conditional distribution of summed test scores involving real-number item…

Optimizing the Use of Response Times for Item Selection in Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choe, Edison M.; Kern, Justin L.; Chang, Hua-Hua

2018-01-01

Despite common operationalization, measurement efficiency of computerized adaptive testing should not only be assessed in terms of the number of items administered but also the time it takes to complete the test. To this end, a recent study introduced a novel item selection criterion that maximizes Fisher information per unit of expected response…

Estimating the Reliability of a Test Battery Composite or a Test Score Based on Weighted Item Scoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feldt, Leonard S.

2004-01-01

In some settings, the validity of a battery composite or a test score is enhanced by weighting some parts or items more heavily than others in the total score. This article describes methods of estimating the total score reliability coefficient when differential weights are used with items or parts.

Science or Reading: What Is Being Measured by Standardized Tests?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Visone, Jeremy D.

2010-01-01

This study examined reading issues associated with a standardized science test. Grade 11 students in Connecticut were shown released science test items and asked about the reading issues associated with the items. Findings suggested that students varied in their understanding of the nature of the items and in their ability to read for detail. The…

Applications of NLP Techniques to Computer-Assisted Authoring of Test Items for Elementary Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Chao-Lin; Lin, Jen-Hsiang; Wang, Yu-Chun

2010-01-01

The authors report an implemented environment for computer-assisted authoring of test items and provide a brief discussion about the applications of NLP techniques for computer assisted language learning. Test items can serve as a tool for language learners to examine their competence in the target language. The authors apply techniques for…

Construction and Analysis of Educational Tests Using Abductive Machine Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Alfy, El-Sayed M.; Abdel-Aal, Radwan E.

2008-01-01

Recent advances in educational technologies and the wide-spread use of computers in schools have fueled innovations in test construction and analysis. As the measurement accuracy of a test depends on the quality of the items it includes, item selection procedures play a central role in this process. Mathematical programming and the item response…

Role of Cognitive Testing in the Development of the CAHPS® Hospital Survey

PubMed Central

Levine, Roger E; Fowler, Floyd J; Brown, Julie A

2005-01-01

Objective To describe how cognitive testing results were used to inform the modification and selection of items for the Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Hospital Survey pilot test instrument. Data Sources Cognitive interviews were conducted on 31 subjects in two rounds of testing: in December 2002–January 2003 and in February 2003. In both rounds, interviews were conducted in northern California, southern California, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. Study Design A common protocol served as the basis for cognitive testing activities in each round. This protocol was modified to enable testing of the items as interviewer-administered and self-administered items and to allow members of each of three research teams to use their preferred cognitive research tools. Data Collection/Extraction Methods Each research team independently summarized, documented, and reported their findings. Item-specific and general issues were noted. The results were reviewed and discussed by senior staff from each research team after each round of testing, to inform the acceptance, modification, or elimination of candidate items. Principal Findings Many candidate items required modification because respondents lacked the information required to answer them, respondents failed to understand them consistently, the items were not measuring the constructs they were intended to measure, the items were based on erroneous assumptions about what respondents wanted or experienced during their hospitalization, or the items were asking respondents to make distinctions that were too fine for them to make. Cognitive interviewing enabled the detection of these problems; an understanding of the etiology of the problem informed item revisions. However, for some constructs, the revisions proved to be inadequate. Accordingly, items could not be developed to provide acceptable measures of certain constructs such as shared decision making, coordination of care, and delays in the admissions process. Conclusions Cognitive testing is the most direct way of finding out whether respondents understand questions consistently, have the information needed to answer the questions, and can use the response alternatives provided to describe their experiences or their opinions accurately. Many of the candidate questions failed to meet these standards. Cognitive testing only evaluates the way in which respondents understand and answer questions. Although it does not directly assess the validity of the answers, it is a reasonable premise that cognitive problems will seriously compromise validity and reliability. PMID:16316437

Clinical utility of a single-item test for DSM-5 alcohol use disorder among outpatients with anxiety and depressive disorders.

PubMed

Bartoli, Francesco; Crocamo, Cristina; Biagi, Enrico; Di Carlo, Francesco; Parma, Francesca; Madeddu, Fabio; Capuzzi, Enrico; Colmegna, Fabrizia; Clerici, Massimo; Carrà, Giuseppe

2016-08-01

There is a lack of studies testing accuracy of fast screening methods for alcohol use disorder in mental health settings. We aimed at estimating clinical utility of a standard single-item test for case finding and screening of DSM-5 alcohol use disorder among individuals suffering from anxiety and mood disorders. We recruited adults consecutively referred, in a 12-month period, to an outpatient clinic for anxiety and depressive disorders. We assessed the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) single-item test, using the Mini- International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), plus an additional item of Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) for craving, as reference standard to diagnose a current DSM-5 alcohol use disorder. We estimated sensitivity and specificity of the single-item test, as well as positive and negative Clinical Utility Indexes (CUIs). 242 subjects with anxiety and mood disorders were included. The NIAAA single-item test showed high sensitivity (91.9%) and specificity (91.2%) for DSM-5 alcohol use disorder. The positive CUI was 0.601, whereas the negative one was 0.898, with excellent values also accounting for main individual characteristics (age, gender, diagnosis, psychological distress levels, smoking status). Testing for relevant indexes, we found an excellent clinical utility of the NIAAA single-item test for screening true negative cases. Our findings support a routine use of reliable methods for rapid screening in similar mental health settings. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the validity of the Work Role Functioning Questionnaire (Canadian French version) using classical test theory and item response theory.

PubMed

Hong, Quan Nha; Coutu, Marie-France; Berbiche, Djamal

2017-01-01

The Work Role Functioning Questionnaire (WRFQ) was developed to assess workers' perceived ability to perform job demands and is used to monitor presenteeism. Still few studies on its validity can be found in the literature. The purpose of this study was to assess the items and factorial composition of the Canadian French version of the WRFQ (WRFQ-CF). Two measurement approaches were used to test the WRFQ-CF: Classical Test Theory (CTT) and non-parametric Item Response Theory (IRT). A total of 352 completed questionnaires were analyzed. A four-factor and three-factor model models were tested and shown respectively good fit with 14 items (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.06, Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = 0.04, Bentler Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.98) and with 17 items (RMSEA = 0.059, SRMR = 0.048, CFI = 0.98). Using IRT, 13 problematic items were identified, of which 9 were common with CTT. This study tested different models with fewer problematic items found in a three-factor model. Using a non-parametric IRT and CTT for item purification gave complementary results. IRT is still scarcely used and can be an interesting alternative method to enhance the quality of a measurement instrument. More studies are needed on the WRFQ-CF to refine its items and factorial composition.

Separating "Rotators" from "Nonrotators" in the Mental Rotations Test: A Multigroup Latent Class Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geiser, Christian; Lehmann, Wolfgang; Eid, Michael

2006-01-01

Items of mental rotation tests can not only be solved by mental rotation but also by other solution strategies. A multigroup latent class analysis of 24 items of the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) was conducted in a sample of 1,695 German pupils and students to find out how many solution strategies can be identified for the items of this test. The…

A review of guidelines on home drug testing web sites for parents.

PubMed

Washio, Yukiko; Fairfax-Columbo, Jaymes; Ball, Emily; Cassey, Heather; Arria, Amelia M; Bresani, Elena; Curtis, Brenda L; Kirby, Kimberly C

2014-01-01

To update and extend prior work reviewing Web sites that discuss home drug testing for parents, and assess the quality of information that the Web sites provide, to assist them in deciding when and how to use home drug testing. We conducted a worldwide Web search that identified 8 Web sites providing information for parents on home drug testing. We assessed the information on the sites using a checklist developed with field experts in adolescent substance abuse and psychosocial interventions that focus on urine testing. None of the Web sites covered all the items on the 24-item checklist, and only 3 covered at least half of the items (12, 14, and 21 items, respectively). The remaining 5 Web sites covered less than half of the checklist items. The mean number of items covered by the Web sites was 11. Among the Web sites that we reviewed, few provided thorough information to parents regarding empirically supported strategies to effectively use drug testing to intervene on adolescent substance use. Furthermore, most Web sites did not provide thorough information regarding the risks and benefits to inform parents' decision to use home drug testing. Empirical evidence regarding efficacy, benefits, risks, and limitations of home drug testing is needed.

Validity and Reliability of the 8-Item Work Limitations Questionnaire.

PubMed

Walker, Timothy J; Tullar, Jessica M; Diamond, Pamela M; Kohl, Harold W; Amick, Benjamin C

2017-12-01

Purpose To evaluate factorial validity, scale reliability, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the 8-item Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ) among employees from a public university system. Methods A secondary analysis using de-identified data from employees who completed an annual Health Assessment between the years 2009-2015 tested research aims. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n = 10,165) tested the latent structure of the 8-item WLQ. Scale reliability was determined using a CFA-based approach while test-retest reliability was determined using the intraclass correlation coefficient. Convergent/discriminant validity was tested by evaluating relations between the 8-item WLQ with health/performance variables for convergent validity (health-related work performance, number of chronic conditions, and general health) and demographic variables for discriminant validity (gender and institution type). Results A 1-factor model with three correlated residuals demonstrated excellent model fit (CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.03, and SRMR = 0.01). The scale reliability was acceptable (0.69, 95% CI 0.68-0.70) and the test-retest reliability was very good (ICC = 0.78). Low-to-moderate associations were observed between the 8-item WLQ and the health/performance variables while weak associations were observed between the demographic variables. Conclusions The 8-item WLQ demonstrated sufficient reliability and validity among employees from a public university system. Results suggest the 8-item WLQ is a usable alternative for studies when the more comprehensive 25-item WLQ is not available.

A Procedure to Detect Item Bias Present Simultaneously in Several Items

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-04-25

exhibit a coherent and major biasing influence at the test level. In partic- ular, this can be true even if each individual item displays only a minor...response functions (IRFs) without the use of item parameter estimation algorithms when the sample size is too small for their use. Thissen, Steinberg...convention). A random sample of examinees is drawn from each group, and a test of N items is administered to them. Typically it is suspected that a

Evaluating innovative items for the NCLEX, part I: usability and pilot testing.

PubMed

Wendt, Anne; Harmes, J Christine

2009-01-01

National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) has recently conducted preliminary research on the feasibility of including various types of innovative test questions (items) on the NCLEX. This article focuses on the participants' reactions to and their strategies for interacting with various types of innovative items. Part 2 in the May/June issue will focus on the innovative item templates and evaluation of the statistical characteristics and the level of cognitive processing required to answer the examination items.

Energy Education Materials Inventory, Volume 1: An Annotated Bibliography of Currently Available Materials, K-12, Published Prior to May, 1976.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houston Univ., TX. Energy Inst.

This publication is a systematic listing of energy education materials and reference sources suitable for use in elementary and secondary schools. Items in this volume, located through computer searches, were still available in May, 1978. This inventory of energy resource materials consists of three indexes: media, grade level, and subject. Each…

Selected Bibliography of Educational Materials: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia. Volume 2, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 1968.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azzouz, Azzedine; And Others

Three volumes comprise a 375-item bibliography with abstracts of books and articles in English, French, Italian, and Arabic that provides information on various aspects of education in the Maghreb countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. Each entry identifies the country with which it is concerned, and foreign language titles are…

Space shuttle/food system study. Volume 2, Appendix F: Flight food and primary packaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

The analysis and selection of food items and primary packaging, the development of menus, the nutritional analysis of diet, and the analyses of alternate food mixes and contingency foods is reported in terms of the overall food system design for space shuttle flight. Stowage weights and cubic volumes associated with each alternate mix were also evaluated.

University Commission on Human Relations: Focusing on Racism & Other Forms of Discrimination. Final Report. Volume VII: Staff/Administrator Survey and Frequencies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

James, Olive C. R., Ed.; Matson, Hollis N., Ed.

Almost 400 staff and administrators at the San Francisco State University were surveyed concerning campus human relations. This volume provides a copy of the survey questionnaire and frequency distributions for responses to each questionnaire item. The questionnaire covered: treatment of various groups by the campus community; frequency of being…

Logistics Reduction and Repurposing Beyond Low Earth Orbit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ewert, Michael K.; Broyan, James L., Jr.

2012-01-01

All human space missions, regardless of destination, require significant logistical mass and volume that is strongly proportional to mission duration. Anything that can be done to reduce initial mass and volume of supplies or reuse items that have been launched will be very valuable. Often, the logistical items require disposal and represent a trash burden. Logistics contributions to total mission architecture mass can be minimized by considering potential reuse using systems engineering analysis. In NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems "Logistics Reduction and Repurposing Project," various tasks will reduce the intrinsic mass of logistical packaging, enable reuse and repurposing of logistical packaging and carriers for other habitation, life support, crew health, and propulsion functions, and reduce or eliminate the nuisance aspects of trash at the same time. Repurposing reduces the trash burden and eliminates the need for hardware whose function can be provided by use of spent logistical items. However, these reuse functions need to be identified and built into future logical systems to enable them to effectively have a secondary function. These technologies and innovations will help future logistics systems to support multiple exploration missions much more efficiently.

Improving Measurement Efficiency of the Inner EAR Scale with Item Response Theory.

PubMed

Jessen, Annika; Ho, Andrew D; Corrales, C Eduardo; Yueh, Bevan; Shin, Jennifer J

2018-02-01

Objectives (1) To assess the 11-item Inner Effectiveness of Auditory Rehabilitation (Inner EAR) instrument with item response theory (IRT). (2) To determine whether the underlying latent ability could also be accurately represented by a subset of the items for use in high-volume clinical scenarios. (3) To determine whether the Inner EAR instrument correlates with pure tone thresholds and word recognition scores. Design IRT evaluation of prospective cohort data. Setting Tertiary care academic ambulatory otolaryngology clinic. Subjects and Methods Modern psychometric methods, including factor analysis and IRT, were used to assess unidimensionality and item properties. Regression methods were used to assess prediction of word recognition and pure tone audiometry scores. Results The Inner EAR scale is unidimensional, and items varied in their location and information. Information parameter estimates ranged from 1.63 to 4.52, with higher values indicating more useful items. The IRT model provided a basis for identifying 2 sets of items with relatively lower information parameters. Item information functions demonstrated which items added insubstantial value over and above other items and were removed in stages, creating a 8- and 3-item Inner EAR scale for more efficient assessment. The 8-item version accurately reflected the underlying construct. All versions correlated moderately with word recognition scores and pure tone averages. Conclusion The 11-, 8-, and 3-item versions of the Inner EAR scale have strong psychometric properties, and there is correlational validity evidence for the observed scores. Modern psychometric methods can help streamline care delivery by maximizing relevant information per item administered.

JSC Toxicology Web Site

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garcia, Hector D.; Coleman, M.; James, J.; Lam, C.

1999-01-01

Data on chemical and biological materials to be flown in the pressurized volumes of habitable spacecraft, including the International Space Station (ISS), are needed by JSC toxicologists to assess the toxicity and assign hazard levels. This document defines submission schedules and establishes requirements for the types and format of these data. JSC 27472 Rev A is a major revision of JSC 25607, "Requirements for Submission of Test Sample-Materials Data for Shuttle Payload Safety Evaluations", dated October 1994, which was subsequently re-issued (September 1996) with a new document number, JSC 27472, but with the same title and date and no revisions. The revisions in the present document have been necessitated by the recent introduction of a two-step process (described in this document) for verification of data for flight materials and by the anticipated needs of the ISS. The requirements -for data submission apply to items which contain liquids, gases, gels, greases, powders/ particulates, radioisotopes, or biological materials and are located in the habitable pressurized volume of ISS or U.S. operated spacecraft. These include, but are not limited to, science payloads, government furnished equipment (GFE), risk mitigation experiments (RmEs), development test objectives (DTOs), detailed supplementary objectives (DSOs), life science experiments, and medical studies.

MAGIC Computer Simulation. Volume 2: Analyst Manual, Part 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1971-05-01

A review of the subject Magic Computer Simulation User and Analyst Manuals has been conducted based upon a request received from the US Army...1971 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE MAGIC Computer Simulation Analyst Manual Part 1 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6...14. ABSTRACT The MAGIC computer simulation generates target description data consisting of item-by-item listings of the target’s components and air

Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military. Fiscal Year 2012. Volume 2

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-01

sexual relationship – Sexual Coercion – four items regarding classic quid pro quo instances of special treatment or favoritism conditioned on sexual ...relationship – Sexual Coercion – four items regarding classic quid pro quo instances of special treatment or favoritism conditioned on sexual ...and sexual harassment response and prevention in the military. This survey note discusses findings from the 2012 Workplace and Gender Relations

Validity of Computer Adaptive Tests of Daily Routines for Youth with Spinal Cord Injury

PubMed Central

Haley, Stephen M.

2013-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of computer adaptive tests (CATs) of daily routines for child- and parent-reported outcomes following pediatric spinal cord injury (SCI) and to evaluate the validity of the scales. Methods: One hundred ninety-six daily routine items were administered to 381 youths and 322 parents. Pearson correlations, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to evaluate the accuracy of simulated 5-item, 10-item, and 15-item CATs against the full-item banks and to evaluate concurrent validity. Independent samples t tests and analysis of variance were used to evaluate the ability of the daily routine scales to discriminate between children with tetraplegia and paraplegia and among 5 motor groups. Results: ICC and 95% CI demonstrated that simulated 5-, 10-, and 15-item CATs accurately represented the full-item banks for both child- and parent-report scales. The daily routine scales demonstrated discriminative validity, except between 2 motor groups of children with paraplegia. Concurrent validity of the daily routine scales was demonstrated through significant relationships with the FIM scores. Conclusion: Child- and parent-reported outcomes of daily routines can be obtained using CATs with the same relative precision of a full-item bank. Five-item, 10-item, and 15-item CATs have discriminative and concurrent validity. PMID:23671380

A 67-Item Stress Resilience item bank showing high content validity was developed in a psychosomatic sample.

PubMed

Obbarius, Nina; Fischer, Felix; Obbarius, Alexander; Nolte, Sandra; Liegl, Gregor; Rose, Matthias

2018-04-10

To develop the first item bank to measure Stress Resilience (SR) in clinical populations. Qualitative item development resulted in an initial pool of 131 items covering a broad theoretical SR concept. These items were tested in n=521 patients at a psychosomatic outpatient clinic. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), as well as other state-of-the-art item analyses and IRT were used for item evaluation and calibration of the final item bank. Out of the initial item pool of 131 items, we excluded 64 items (54 factor loading <.5, 4 residual correlations >.3, 2 non-discriminative Item Response Curves, 4 Differential Item Functioning). The final set of 67 items indicated sufficient model fit in CFA and IRT analyses. Additionally, a 10-item short form with high measurement precision (SE≤.32 in a theta range between -1.8 and +1.5) was derived. Both the SR item bank and the SR short form were highly correlated with an existing static legacy tool (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale). The final SR item bank and 10-item short form showed good psychometric properties. When further validated, they will be ready to be used within a framework of Computer-Adaptive Tests for a comprehensive assessment of the Stress-Construct. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the Electrical Power Distribution and Control Subsystem, Volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmeckpeper, K. R.

1988-01-01

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA first completed an analysis of the Electrical Power Distribution and Control (EPD and C) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline with proposed Post 51-L updates included. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison is provided through additional analysis as required. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter EPD and C hardware. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets.

The Caregiver Contribution to Heart Failure Self-Care (CACHS): Further Psychometric Testing of a Novel Instrument.

PubMed

Buck, Harleah G; Harkness, Karen; Ali, Muhammad Usman; Carroll, Sandra L; Kryworuchko, Jennifer; McGillion, Michael

2017-04-01

Caregivers (CGs) contribute important assistance with heart failure (HF) self-care, including daily maintenance, symptom monitoring, and management. Until CGs' contributions to self-care can be quantified, it is impossible to characterize it, account for its impact on patient outcomes, or perform meaningful cost analyses. The purpose of this study was to conduct psychometric testing and item reduction on the recently developed 34-item Caregiver Contribution to Heart Failure Self-care (CACHS) instrument using classical and item response theory methods. Fifty CGs (mean age 63 years ±12.84; 70% female) recruited from a HF clinic completed the CACHS in 2014 and results evaluated using classical test theory and item response theory. Items would be deleted for low (<.05) or high (>.95) endorsement, low (<.3) or high (>.7) corrected item-total correlations, significant pairwise correlation coefficients, floor or ceiling effects, relatively low latent trait and item information function levels (<1.5 and p > .5), and differential item functioning. After analysis, 14 items were excluded, resulting in a 20-item instrument (self-care maintenance eight items; monitoring seven items; and management five items). Most items demonstrated moderate to high discrimination (median 2.13, minimum .77, maximum 5.05), and appropriate item difficulty (-2.7 to 1.4). Internal consistency reliability was excellent (Cronbach α = .94, average inter-item correlation = .41) with no ceiling effects. The newly developed 20-item version of the CACHS is supported by rigorous instrument development and represents a novel instrument to measure CGs' contribution to HF self-care. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

FIM-Minimum Data Set Motor Item Bank: Short Forms Development and Precision Comparison in Veterans.

PubMed

Li, Chih-Ying; Romero, Sergio; Simpson, Annie N; Bonilha, Heather S; Simpson, Kit N; Hong, Ickpyo; Velozo, Craig A

2018-03-01

To improve the practical use of the short forms (SFs) developed from the item bank, we compared the measurement precision of the 4- and 8-item SFs generated from a motor item bank composed of the FIM and the Minimum Data Set (MDS). The FIM-MDS motor item bank allowed scores generated from different instruments to be co-calibrated. The 4- and 8-item SFs were developed based on Rasch analysis procedures. This article compared person strata, ceiling/floor effects, and test SE plots for each administration form and examined 95% confidence interval error bands of anchored person measures with the corresponding SFs. We used 0.3 SE as a criterion to reflect a reliability level of .90. Veterans' inpatient rehabilitation facilities and community living centers. Veterans (N=2500) who had both FIM and the MDS data within 6 days during 2008 through 2010. Not applicable. Four- and 8-item SFs of FIM, MDS, and FIM-MDS motor item bank. Six SFs were generated with 4 and 8 items across a range of difficulty levels from the FIM-MDS motor item bank. The three 8-item SFs all had higher correlations with the item bank (r=.82-.95), higher person strata, and less test error than the corresponding 4-item SFs (r=.80-.90). The three 4-item SFs did not meet the criteria of SE <0.3 for any theta values. Eight-item SFs could improve clinical use of the item bank composed of existing instruments across the continuum of care in veterans. We also found that the number of items, not test specificity, determines the precision of the instrument. Copyright © 2017 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. All rights reserved.

Quality Multiple-Choice Test Questions: Item-Writing Guidelines and an Analysis of Auditing Testbanks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen, James D.; Dexter, Lee

1997-01-01

Analysis of test item banks in 10 auditing textbooks found that 75% of questions violated one or more guidelines for multiple-choice items. In comparison, 70% of a certified public accounting exam bank had no violations. (SK)

The Multidimensional Structure of Verbal Comprehension Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peled, Zimra

1984-01-01

The multidimensional structure of verbal comprehension test items was investigated. Empirical evidence was provided to support the theory that item tasks are multivariate-multiordered composites of faceted components: language, contextual knowledge, and cognitive operation. Linear and circular properties of cylindrical manifestation were…

Functional restoration of diaphragmatic paralysis: an evaluation of phrenic nerve reconstruction.

PubMed

Kaufman, Matthew R; Elkwood, Andrew I; Colicchio, Alan R; CeCe, John; Jarrahy, Reza; Willekes, Lourens J; Rose, Michael I; Brown, David

2014-01-01

Unilateral diaphragmatic paralysis causes respiratory deficits and can occur after iatrogenic or traumatic phrenic nerve injury in the neck or chest. Patients are evaluated using spirometry and imaging studies; however, phrenic nerve conduction studies and electromyography are not widely available or considered; thus, the degree of dysfunction is often unknown. Treatment has been limited to diaphragmatic plication. Phrenic nerve operations to restore diaphragmatic function may broaden therapeutic options. An interventional study of 92 patients with symptomatic diaphragmatic paralysis assigned 68 (based on their clinical condition) to phrenic nerve surgical intervention (PS), 24 to nonsurgical (NS) care, and evaluated a third group of 68 patients (derived from literature review) treated with diaphragmatic plication (DP). Variables for assessment included spirometry, the Short-Form 36-Item survey, electrodiagnostics, and complications. In the PS group, there was an average 13% improvement in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (p < 0.0001) and 14% improvement in forced vital capacity (p < 0.0001), and there was corresponding 17% (p < 0.0001) and 16% (p < 0.0001) improvement in the DP cohort. In the PS and DP groups, the average postoperative values were 71% for forced expiratory volume in 1 second and 73% for forced vital capacity. The PS group demonstrated an average 28% (p < 0.01) improvement in Short-Form 36-Item survey reporting. Electrodiagnostic testing in the PS group revealed a mean 69% (p < 0.05) improvement in conduction latency and a 37% (p < 0.0001) increase in motor amplitude. In the NS group, there was no significant change in Short-Form 36-Item survey or spirometry values. Phrenic nerve operations for functional restoration of the paralyzed diaphragm should be part of the standard treatment algorithm in the management of symptomatic patients with this condition. Assessment of neuromuscular dysfunction can aid in determining the most effective therapy. Copyright © 2014 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Analysis Test of Understanding of Vectors with the Three-Parameter Logistic Model of Item Response Theory and Item Response Curves Technique

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rakkapao, Suttida; Prasitpong, Singha; Arayathanitkul, Kwan

2016-01-01

This study investigated the multiple-choice test of understanding of vectors (TUV), by applying item response theory (IRT). The difficulty, discriminatory, and guessing parameters of the TUV items were fit with the three-parameter logistic model of IRT, using the parscale program. The TUV ability is an ability parameter, here estimated assuming…

Dynamic Testing of Analogical Reasoning in 5- to 6-Year-Olds: Multiple-Choice versus Constructed-Response Training Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevenson, Claire E.; Heiser, Willem J.; Resing, Wilma C. M.

2016-01-01

Multiple-choice (MC) analogy items are often used in cognitive assessment. However, in dynamic testing, where the aim is to provide insight into potential for learning and the learning process, constructed-response (CR) items may be of benefit. This study investigated whether training with CR or MC items leads to differences in the strategy…

Effects of Immediate Feedback and Pacing of Item Presentation on Ability Test Performance and Psychological Reactions to Testing.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-02-01

3 Design ..................................................................... 3 Independent Variables...Prestwood & Weiss, 1978), which were designed to assess the effects of KR, the provision of "KR wa ; onf.,tidod with paring of item presentation...ach Item. -3- The present study was designed to separately examine the effects of KR and of computer- versus self-pacing of item presentation in order

The Relationship of Item-Level Response Times with Test-Taker and Item Variables in an Operational CAT Environment. LSAC Research Report Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swygert, Kimberly A.

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…

Effects of Item Parameter Drift on Vertical Scaling with the Nonequivalent Groups with Anchor Test (NEAT) Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ye, Meng; Xin, Tao

2014-01-01

The authors explored the effects of drifting common items on vertical scaling within the higher order framework of item parameter drift (IPD). The results showed that if IPD occurred between a pair of test levels, the scaling performance started to deviate from the ideal state, as indicated by bias of scaling. When there were two items drifting…

Evaluation of Linking Methods for Placing Three-Parameter Logistic Item Parameter Estimates onto a One-Parameter Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karkee, Thakur B.; Wright, Karen R.

2004-01-01

Different item response theory (IRT) models may be employed for item calibration. Change of testing vendors, for example, may result in the adoption of a different model than that previously used with a testing program. To provide scale continuity and preserve cut score integrity, item parameter estimates from the new model must be linked to the…

Functional impairment in elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer's disease

PubMed Central

Brown, Patrick J.; Devanand, D.P.; Liu, Xinhua; Caccappolo, Elise

2013-01-01

CONTEXT The original mild cognitive impairment (MCI) criteria exclude substantial functional deficits, but recent reports suggest otherwise. Identifying the extent, severity, type, and correlates of functional deficits that occur in MCI and mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can aid in early detection of incipient dementia and identify potential mechanistic pathways to disrupted instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). OBJECTIVES To examine the number, type, and severity of functional impairments and identify the clinical characteristics associated with functional impairment across individuals with amnestic MCI (aMCI) and those with mild AD. DESIGN The study uses baseline data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. SETTING Data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative was collected at multiple research sites in the US and Canada. PATIENTS The samples included 229 controls, 394 aMCI, and 193 AD patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The 10-item Pfeffer Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) assessed function. RESULTS Informant-reported FAQ deficits were common in patients with aMCI (72.3%) and AD (97.4%) but were rarely self-reported by controls (7.9%). The average severity per FAQ deficit did not differ between patients with aMCI and controls; both were less impaired than patients with AD (P < .001). Two FAQ items (remembering appointments, family occasions, holidays, and medications; assembling tax records, business affairs, or other papers) were specific (0.95) in differentiating controls from the combined aMCI and AD groups (only 34.0% of patients with aMCI and 3.6% of patients with AD had no difficulty with these 2 items). The severity of FAQ deficits in the combined aMCI and AD group was associated with worse Trailmaking Test A scores and smaller hippocampal volumes (P < .001). Within the aMCI group, functionally intact individuals had greater hippocampal volumes and better Auditory Verbal Learning Test 30-minute delay and Trailmaking Test A (P < .001) scores compared with those with moderate or severe FAQ deficits. Patients with a high number of deficits were more likely to express the APOE ε4 allele (63.8%) compared with patients with no (46.8%) or few (48.4%) functional deficits. CONCLUSIONS Mild IADL deficits are common in individuals with aMCI and should be considered in MCI criteria. Two IADLs, remembering appointments, family occasions, holidays, and medications and assembling tax records, business affairs, or other papers, appear to be characteristic of clinically significant cognitive impairment. In patients with aMCI, impairment in memory and processing speed and greater medial temporal atrophy were associated with greater IADL deficits PMID:21646578

Functional impairment in elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Brown, Patrick J; Devanand, D P; Liu, Xinhua; Caccappolo, Elise

2011-06-01

The original mild cognitive impairment (MCI) criteria exclude substantial functional deficits, but recent reports suggest otherwise. Identifying the extent, severity, type, and correlates of functional deficits that occur in MCI and mild Alzheimer disease (AD) can aid in early detection of incipient dementia and can identify potential mechanistic pathways to disrupted instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). To examine the number, type, and severity of functional impairments and to identify the clinical characteristics associated with functional impairment across patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) and those with mild AD. Study using baseline data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Multiple research sites in the United States and Canada. Patients Samples included 229 control individuals, 394 patients with aMCI, and 193 patients with AD. The 10-item Pfeffer Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) assessed function. Informant-reported FAQ deficits were common in patients with aMCI (72.3%) and AD (97.4%) but were rarely self-reported by controls (7.9%). The average severity per FAQ deficit did not differ between patients with aMCI and controls; both were less impaired than patients with AD (P < .001). Two FAQ items (remembering appointments, family occasions, holidays, and medications and assembling tax records, business affairs, or other papers) were specific (specificity estimate, 0.95) in differentiating the control group from the combined aMCI and AD groups (only 34.0% of patients with aMCI and 3.6% of patients with AD had no difficulty with these 2 items). The severity of FAQ deficits in the combined aMCI and AD group was associated with worse Trail Making Test, part A scores and smaller hippocampal volumes (P < .001 for both). Within the aMCI group, functionally intact individuals had greater hippocampal volumes and better Auditory Verbal Learning Test 30-minute delay and Trail Making Test, part A (P < .001 for each) scores compared with individuals with moderate or severe FAQ deficits. Patients with a high number of deficits were more likely to express the apolipoprotein ε4 allele (63.8%) compared with patients with no (46.8%) or few (48.4%) functional deficits. Mild IADL deficits are common in individuals with aMCI and should be incorporated into MCI criteria. Two IADLs--remembering appointments, family occasions, holidays, and medications and assembling tax records, business affairs, or other papers--appear to be characteristic of clinically significant cognitive impairment. In patients with aMCI, impairment in memory and processing speed and greater medial temporal atrophy were associated with greater IADL deficits.

The NTID speech recognition test: NSRT(®).

PubMed

Bochner, Joseph H; Garrison, Wayne M; Doherty, Karen A

2015-07-01

The purpose of this study was to collect and analyse data necessary for expansion of the NSRT item pool and to evaluate the NSRT adaptive testing software. Participants were administered pure-tone and speech recognition tests including W-22 and QuickSIN, as well as a set of 323 new NSRT items and NSRT adaptive tests in quiet and background noise. Performance on the adaptive tests was compared to pure-tone thresholds and performance on other speech recognition measures. The 323 new items were subjected to Rasch scaling analysis. Seventy adults with mild to moderately severe hearing loss participated in this study. Their mean age was 62.4 years (sd = 20.8). The 323 new NSRT items fit very well with the original item bank, enabling the item pool to be more than doubled in size. Data indicate high reliability coefficients for the NSRT and moderate correlations with pure-tone thresholds (PTA and HFPTA) and other speech recognition measures (W-22, QuickSIN, and SRT). The adaptive NSRT is an efficient and effective measure of speech recognition, providing valid and reliable information concerning respondents' speech perception abilities.

Measuring change for a multidimensional test using a generalized explanatory longitudinal item response model.

PubMed

Cho, Sun-Joo; Athay, Michele; Preacher, Kristopher J

2013-05-01

Even though many educational and psychological tests are known to be multidimensional, little research has been done to address how to measure individual differences in change within an item response theory framework. In this paper, we suggest a generalized explanatory longitudinal item response model to measure individual differences in change. New longitudinal models for multidimensional tests and existing models for unidimensional tests are presented within this framework and implemented with software developed for generalized linear models. In addition to the measurement of change, the longitudinal models we present can also be used to explain individual differences in change scores for person groups (e.g., learning disabled students versus non-learning disabled students) and to model differences in item difficulties across item groups (e.g., number operation, measurement, and representation item groups in a mathematics test). An empirical example illustrates the use of the various models for measuring individual differences in change when there are person groups and multiple skill domains which lead to multidimensionality at a time point. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.