A Simulation Study of Stradaptive Ability Testing.
Abstract
A conventional test and 2 forms of a stradaptive (stratified adaptive) test were administered to thousands of simulated subjects by minicomputer. Characteristics of the three tests using several scoring techniques were investigated while varying the discriminating power of the items, the lengths of the tests, and the availability of prior information about the testee's ability level. The tests were evaluated in terms of their correlations with underlying ability, the amount of information they provided about ability, and the equiprecision of measurement they exhibited. Among the major findings were: (1) Scores on the conventional test correlated progressively less with ability as item discriminating power was increased beyond alpha=1.0; (2) The conventional test provided increasingly poorer equiprecision of measurement as items became more discriminating; (3) These undesirable characteristics were not characteristic of scores on the stradaptive test; (4) The stradaptive test provided higher score-ability correlations than the conventional test when item discriminations were high; (5) The stradaptive test provided more information and better equiprecision of measurement when test lengths and item discriminations were the same for the two strategies; (6) The use of valid prior ability estimates by stradaptive strategies resulted in scores which had better measurement characteristics than scores derived from a fixed entry point.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1975
- Accession Number
- ADA020961
Entities
People
- C. David Vale
- David J. Weiss
Organizations
- University of Minnesota