chapter 6

• what is a dichotomous format?

  two alternatives for each item; usually a point is given for the selection of one the alternatives. / questions reliability (chance plays more of a role and lack of precision): tend to be reliable, therefore, less precise than some other formats.
• what is an example of a dichotomous format?

  true or false; yes or no
• what are advantages to dichotomous format questions?

  true or false are very simple, easy administrations, quick scoring, require absolute judgement.
• what are disadvantages about dichotomous format questions?

  encourages students to memorize material, making it possible to perform very well on content they don't understand.
• dichotomous items have advantages for?

  personality tests with sub scales; makes scoring easier, all the tester needs to do is count the number of items a person endorses from each subscale.
• what is a multiple choice/polychotomous format?

  resembles the dichotomous format except that each item has more than two alternatives; good domain coverage, popular method of measuring academic performances, easy to score, takes a little time to take the test.
• what are distractors (plausibility)?

  must determine which of several alternatives is "correct." distractors are incorrect choices; reliability of an item is not enhanced by distractors, ineffective distractors hurts the reliability of the test.
• ineffective distractors do what?

  may hurt the reliability of the test.
• what is a likert format?

  requires that a respondent indicate the degree of agreement with a particular attitudinal question. e.g., 1 to 5 scale items, "I am afraid of heights" --> respond with strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree.
• what is item analysis?

  a general term for a set of methods used to evaluate test items, is one the of the most important aspects of test construction.
• what is item difficulty?

  defined by the number of people who get a particular item correct; needs a range.
• what is an example of item difficulty?

  if 84% of the people taking a particular test get item 24 correct, then difficult level for that item is .84 (84% people got that item correct).
• the higher the proportion of the people who get an item correct then?

  the easier the item is.
• what is item discriminability?

  high vs low scores; discriminating between people with high scores and people with low scores. (e.g., using point biserial correlations [who is doing well on the overall test]).
• what is the item characteristic curve?

  Graph showing item difficulty vs. person test score. x axis = test scores and y axis = item difficulty (proportion/percentage) of test takers who get the item correct.