This book develops an intuitive understanding of IRT principles through the use of graphical displays and analogies to familiar psychological principles. It surveys contemporary IRT models, estimation methods, and computer programs. Polytomous IRT models are given central coverage since many psychological tests use rating scales. Ideal for clinical, industrial, counseling, educational, and behavioral medicine professionals and students familiar with classical testing principles, exposure to material covered in first-year graduate statistics courses is helpful. All symbols and equations are thoroughly explained verbally and graphically.

"Item Response Theory (IRT) is, increasingly, the psychometric method used for contemporary psychological tests. The goal of this book is to explain IRT. The book is especially useful to psychologists and social scientists familiar with small-scale cognitive and personality measures, of those who want to use IRT to analyze scales used in their own research. It is also useful for graduate students and practitioners who want to understand the contemporary, psychometric foundations of the tests they administer. Familiar psychological concepts are used to help explain various IRT principles. The book develops an intuitive understanding of IRT principles through its use of graphical displays and analysis of psychological principles."--Jacket.

This book develops an intuitive understanding of item response theory (IRT) principles through the use of graphical displays and analogies to psychological principles. The IRT psychometric method is especially useful to psychologists and other social scientists that are familiar with small scale cognitive and personality measures. Familiar concepts are used to explain various principles such as contemporary IRT models and estimation methods. Polytomous IRT models are given central coverage since many psychological tests use rating scales. Applications in various research areas are described. This book is especially popular among graduate students and practitioners who need to understand the contemporary psychometric foundations of the tests that they administer and/or use to analyze IRT scales in their research. It is an ideal book for clinical, industrial, counseling, educational, and behavioral medicine professionals and students familiar with classical testing principles. Exposure to material covered in first-year graduate statistics courses is helpful. All symbols and equations are thoroughly explained verbally and graphically.

Item response theory (IRT) has become the mainstream measurement approach in social sciences concomitant with rising concerns about classical measurement techniques approach estimated item and person parameters. Related to this concern is how comparisons between different test forms could lead to somewhat inconsistent results. With IRT, comparable person estimates can be achieved irrespective of the specific set of items taken. Consequently, results from studies using different test forms can be combined. Also, comparable item estimates can be obtained irrespective of the specific group of subjects taking them. Further, IRT methods place persons and items on the same measurement scale and make comparisons between persons and items feasible. Applications of IRT models are increasingly used in developing a variety of test items in fields such as economics, education, psychology, and medicine. This entry focuses on three binary models: one-parameter logistic/Rasch, two-parameter logistic, and three-parameter logistic models followed by a brief introduction of some widely used polytomous models. Applications of IRT methods in computerized adaptive testing, linking, differential item functioning, item generation, and item banking are then discussed. Finally, a description of some popular software assisting in IRT modeling is provided with examples on how analyses are conducted.

If one were to conduct an analysis of any profession the "ability to think analogically" is more than likely to be one of the requirements for success, be it an architectural studio, a research laboratory, a legal office, or a nuclear plant. Cognitive scientists are aware of the prominence of analogical reasoning in all forms of reasoning and learning, and have devoted substantial effort to ascer taining its nature. Test builders, like cognitive scientists, are aware of the cen trality of analogical reasoning and figure, correctly, that a test that samples a student's ability to think analogically may well be a good predictor of success in a variety of fields. This book is the result of a project to investigate analogical reasoning from both an individual differences and a cognitive perspective. The book is directed to both researchers and practitioners concerned with the nature and measurement of analogical reasoning. Cognitive scientists, linguists, psycholinguists, and natural language researchers will find the seman tic taxonomy and accompanying empirical results food for thought. Test devel opers will fmd it reassuring that performance on verbal analogy items is not just a reflection of the size of a person's vocabulary, and that tests can be designed according to principles, rather than assembled to satisfy a set of statistical speci fications. Psychometricians will find that content and response modelling can go together and that there are distinct benefits in approaching psychometric re sponse modelling from that integrative perspective.