This is book is awesome at explaining the irt model in plain english. A brief explanation of itemresponse theory 1 conceptual background itemresponse theory irt offers a different way to construct tests. As a result of a comprehensive survey of the related literature, the author provides nuggets of information about a wide range of rules of thumb and analysis alternatives. Multidimensional item response theory sage publications inc. Help students more easily find structure among a subset of data. Item response theory is used to describe the application of mathematical models to data from questionnaires and tests as a basis for measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables. An introduction to item response theory and rasch analysis of. Item response theory columbia university mailman school. Each is an attempt to explain the process by which individuals respond to items.
This suggestion allowed me to fulfill a longstanding desire to develop an instructional software package dealing with item response theory for the thenstateoftheart apple ii and ibm pc computers. Houghton mifflin textbook explanation of itemresponse theory. Its a theory of measurement, more precisely a psychometric theory. Seavey of heinemann educational books for first suggesting that i do a small book on item response theory, which resulted in the first edition of this book in 1985. This book addresses an important issue for the design of survey instruments, which is rarely taught in graduate programs beyond those specifically for statisticians. Item response theory irt comprises a set of generalized latent variable models. An introduction to item response theory and rasch analysis. It it not full of esoteric jargon, and it allows the reader to clearly grasp the fundamentals of irt. Responses to items are used to estimate respondent characteristics. This first volume in a threevolume set covers many model developments that have occurred in item response theory irt during the last 20 years. The book offers transparency of method that students will appreciate. As discussed by bock, thurstone envisioned a measurement model in which the probability of success on a given intelligence test item was a function of the chronological age of the respondent.
Classic and emerging irt methods and applications that are revolutionizing psychological measurement, particularly for health assessments used to demonstrate treatment. Sep 05, 20 this book develops an intuitive understanding of irt principles through the use of graphical displays and analogies to familiar psychological principles. Although demars irt can be considered to be an introductory book and requires almost no mathstats background it covers a variety of topics about item response theory. The first edition, with its accompanying software, was designed to give the reader access to the basic concepts of item response theory without having to do the tedious. All irt models are built to measure subjective phenomena, and the basic one is the rasch model. The item response theory irt, also known as the latent response theory refers to a family of mathematical models that attempt to explain the relationship between latent traits unobservable characteristic or attribute and their manifestations i. Survey item response modeling briefly note michael rodriquezs upcoming workshop\. It covered basic concepts, comparison to ctt methods, relative efficiency, optimal number of choices per item, flexilevel tests, multistage tests, tailored testing. Item response theory clearly describes the most recently developed irt models and furnishes detailed explanations of algorithms that can be used to estimate the item or ability parameters under various irt models. Krabbe, in the measurement of health and health status, 2017. The basics of item response theory using r statistics for. Multivariate applications series this book develops an intuitive understanding of irt principles through the use of graphical displays and analogies to familiar psychological principles. Without the work of these three individuals, the level of development of item response theory would not be where it is today. Buchanan missouri state university summer 2016 this lecture covers item factor analysis and item response theory from the beaujean sem in r book.
Introduction to nonparametric item response theory sage. Handbook of item response theory routledge handbooks. Individual test items are important in both irt and classical psychometric theory, but irt and classical. Bayesian item response modeling theory and applications. In the decade of the 1970s, item response theory became the dominant topic for study by measurement specialists. Using python, i was able to successfully program most of the algorithms in the book with the exception of marginal maximum likelihood, which somehow yields biased estimates of a parameters. The purpose of this book is to explain the new measurement theory to a primarily psychological audience. Item response theory an overview sciencedirect topics.
Multidimensional item response theory includes snippets of r code interspersed throughout the text with the complete r code included on an accompanying website to guide readers in exploring mirt models, estimating the model parameters, generating plots, and implementing the various procedures and applications discussed throughout the book. Extensively revised and expanded, this edition offers three new chapters discussing parameter estimation with. I will this book along with bakers onlineavailable irt book are the best combination to start a program in measurement. In fact, the term item characteristic curve, which is one of the main irt concepts, can be attributed to ledyard tucker in 1946. If you want to read one book on item response theory, from the perspective of psychology or behavioral sciences, this should be it. Polytomous irt models are given central coverage since many psychological tests use rating scales. It provides a powerful means to study individual responses to a variety of stimuli, and the methodology has been extended and developed to cover many different models of interaction. Marcoulides, is a comprehensive introduction to the concepts of irt that includes numerous examples using statas powerful suite of irt commands. Applications presents applications of item response theory to practical testing problems. This book introduces social and behavioral science students and researchers to the theory and practice of the highly powerful methods of nonparametric item r. Item response theory aka irt is also sometimes called latent trait theory. It surveys contemporary irt models, estimation methods, and computer programs. It is widely used in education to calibrate and evaluate items in tests, questionnaires, and other. Pdf the theory and practice of item response theory.
It is not the only modern test theory, but it is the most popular one and is currently an area of active research. Over the past twenty years there has been explosive growth in programs that can do irt, and within r there are at least four very powerful packages. Discover librarianselected research resources on item response theory from the questia online library, including fulltext online books, academic journals. This book develops an intuitive understanding of irt principles through the use of graphical displays and analogies to familiar psychological principles. This graduatelevel textbook is a tutorial for item response theory that covers both the basics of item response theory and the use of r for preparing graphical presentation in writings about the theory. Drawing on the work of internationally acclaimed experts in the field, handbook of item response theory, volume 3. Fundamentals of item response theory sage publications ltd. A brief explanation of item response theory 1 conceptual background item response theory irt offers a different way to construct tests.
Drawing on the work of 75 internationally acclaimed experts in the field, handbook of item response theory, threevolume set presents all major item response models, classical and modern statistical tools used in item response theory irt, and major areas of applications of irt in educational and psychological testing, medical diagnosis of patient. A really great book that provides detailed and step by step derivations and programmings of item response theory parameter estimation techniques. This book is combined with a web site to allow the reader to acquire the basic concepts of item response theory without becoming enmeshed in the underlying mathematical and computational complexities. List of books and articles about item response theory online. The basics of item response theory using r frank b. Embretson, 9780805828191, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. This book introduces social and behavioral science students and researchers to the theory and practice of the highly powerful methods of nonparametric item response theory irt. By item design, an item response is generated by an underlying hypothetical process. This book describes various item response theory models and furnishes detailed explanations of algorithms that can be used to estimate the item and ability parameters. A course in item response theory and modeling with stata, by tenko raykov and george a.
This graduatelevel textbook is a tutorial for item response theory that covers both the basics of item response theory and the use of r for preparing graphical. This volume presents a wideranging handbook to item response theory and its. Drawing on the work of 75 internationally acclaimed experts in the field, handbook of item response theory, threevolume set presents all major item response models, classical and modern statistical tools used in item response theory irt, and major areas of applications of irt in educational and psychological testing, medical diagnosis of patientreported outcomes, and marketing. Fundamentals of item response theory measurement methods for. His work with the ets had impacts on the law school admissions test, the test of english as a foreign language, and the graduate record exam. The author shows how ordinal item response theory can be the most efficient method for working with scales with only a few items. Item response theory irt has its roots in thurstones work to scale tests of mental development in the 1920s. Item response theory is the study of test and item scores based on assumptions concerning the mathematical relationship between abilities or other hypothesized traits and item responses. Demars in her book chapter classical test theory and item response theory still uses axioms based on the basic ctt equation to derive the most common formulas used in ctt. Handbook of modern item response theory springerlink. Item response theory irt is a latent variable modeling approach used to minimize bias and optimize the measurement power of educational and psychological tests and other psychometric applications. Anyone who uses or constructs tests or questionnaires for measuring abilities, achievements, personality traits, attitudes, or opinions will find nonparametric irt. Item response theory irt is not only the psychometric theory underlying many major tests today, but it has many important research applications. Item response theory by christine demars goodreads.
This is a title in our understanding statistics series, which is desi. It is used for statistical analysis and development of assessments, often for high stakes tests such as the graduate record examination. Oct 14, 2016 drawing on the work of internationally acclaimed experts in the field, handbook of item response theory, volume one. Other names and subsets include item characteristic curve theory, latent trait theory, rasch model, 2pl model, 3pl model and the birnbaum model. It is widely used in education to calibrate and evaluate items in tests, questionnaires, and other instruments and to score subjects on their abilities, attitudes, or other latent traits. By using familiar concepts from classical measurement methods and basic statistics, this book introduces the basics of item response theory irt and explains. But, the genesis of item response theory irt can be traced back to the midthirties and early forties. Item response theory has become one of the most powerful tools used in test construction, yet one of the barriers to learning and applying it is the considerable amount of sophisticated computational effort required to illustrate even the simplest concepts.
As its name implies, the characteristics of individual test items are at the heart of the theory. Item response theory is a general paradigm for the design and analysis of questionnaires measuring abilities and attitudes of individuals. Drawing on the work of 75 internationally acclaimed experts in the field, handbook of item response theory, threevolume set presents all major item response models, classical and modern statistical tools used in item response theory irt, and major areas of applications of irt in educational and psychological testing, medical diagnosis of patientreported outcomes, and. In a highly readable way it presents concepts of irt, without requiring to work through the mathematics. The nook book ebook of the item response theory by susan e. Ordinal item response theory sage publications inc. These three books item response theory principles and applications, item. Item response theory columbia university mailman school of. Item response theory irt has moved beyond the confines of educational measurement into assessment domains such as personality, psychopathology, and patientreported outcomes. This is a modern test theory as opposed to classical test theory. It provides a powerful means to study individual responses to a variety of stimuli, and the methodology has been extended and. Chapter 8 the new psychometrics item response theory. Drawing on the work of internationally acclaimed experts in the field, handbook of item response theory, volume one.
Item response theory irt has become the new theoretical basis for educational and psychological testing and measurement. Item response theory irt has grown from its roots in postwar mentaltesting problems, through intensive use in educational measurements in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, to become a mature statistical toolkit for modeling of multivariate discrete response data using subjectlevel latent variables. While item response theory may be known primarily for its advances in theoretical modeling of responses to test items, equal progress has been made in its. Despite the name, item response theory irt is not really a theory but rather a collection of measurement models. The item response theory irt, also known as the latent response. It provides a powerful means to study individual responses to a variety of stimuli, and the methodology has been extended and developed to cover many different models of. Dec 31, 1984 in the decade of the 1970s, item response theory became the dominant topic for study by measurement specialists. Compares this method to models for classical test theory such as.
1543 1038 422 784 264 1230 562 1195 1570 1640 639 969 429 1524 355 364 408 692 1339 454 1147 207 400 1332 1469 978 193 1070 1141