Fundamentals of Item Response Theory

Ronald K. Hambleton, Hariharan Swaminathan, H. Jane Rogers

SAGE, 1991 - Psychology - 174 pages

By using familiar concepts from classical measurement methods and basic statistics, this book introduces the basics of item response theory (IRT) and explains the application of IRT methods to problems in test construction, identification of potentially biased test items, test equating and computerized-adaptive testing. The book also includes a thorough discussion of alternative procedures for estimating IRT parameters and concludes with an exploration of new directions in IRT research and development.

Contents

• Concepts Models and Features: 7
• Ability and Item Parameter Estimation: 32
• Assessment of ModelData Fit: 61
• The Ability Scale: 77
• Item and Test Information and Efficiency Functions: 91
• Test Construction: 99
• Identification of Potentially Biased Test Items: 109
• Test Score Equating: 123
• Computerized Adaptive Testing: 145
• Future Directions of Item Response Theory: 153

About the author

Dave Bartram is Past President of the International Test Commission and is heading ITC projects on international guidelines for standards in test use and standards for computer-based testing and the Internet. He is Chair of the British Psychological Society's Steering Committee on Test Standards and Convenor of the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations Standing Committee on Tests and Testing. He is President-Elect of the IAAP's Division 2.
Professor Bartram is Research Director for SHL Group plc. Prior to his appointment with SHL in 1998, he was Dean of the Faculty of Science and the Environment, and Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hull. He is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a Fellow of the Ergonomics Society. In 2004 he received the BPS award for Distinguished Contributions to Professional Psychology. His specialist area is computer-based testing and Internet assessment systems. Within SHL he is leading the development of their next generation of Internet-based delivery systems and the development of a multi-dimensional generic Competency Framework.
He has published large numbers of popular, professional and academic articles and book chapters, and has been the Senior Editor of the BPS Test Reviews. He has been an editor or co-author of several works including the 1992, 1995 and 1997 BPS Reviews of Psychometric Tests; Organisational Effectiveness: the Role of Psychology (with Ivan Robertson and Militza Callinan, published in 2002 by Wiley) and the BPS Open Learning Programme for Level A (Occupational) Test Use (with Pat Lindley, published by BPS Blackwell in1994).

Ronald K. Hambleton holds the title of Distinguished University Professor and is Chairperson of the Research and Evaluation Methods Program and Executive Director of the Center for Educational Assessment at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in the United States. He earned a B.A. in 1966 from the University of Waterloo in Canada with majors in mathematics and psychology, and an M.A. in 1967 and Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Toronto with specialties in psychometric methods and statistics. Professor Hambleton teaches graduate-level courses in educational and psychological testing, item response theory and applications, and classical test theory models and methods, and offers seminar courses on applied measurement topics. He is co-author of several textbooks including (with H. Swaminathan and H. Jane Rogers) Fundamentals of Item Response Theory (published by Sage in 1991) and Item Response Theory: Principles and Applications (published by Kluwer in 1985), and co-editor of several books including International Perspectives on Academic Assessment (with Thomas Oakland, published by Kluwer in 1995), Handbook of Modern Item Response Theory (with Wim van der Linden, published by Springer in 1997) and Adaptation of Educational and Psychological Tests for Cross-Cultural Assessment (with Peter Merenda and Charles Spielberger, published by Erlbaum in 2005). His research interests are in the areas of item response model applications to educational achievement and credentialing exams, standard-setting, test adaptation methodology, score reporting and computer-based testing. He has received several honors and awards for his more than 35 years of measurement research includinghonorary doctorates from Umea University in Sweden and the University of Oviedo in Spain, the 1994 National Council on Measurement in Education Career Award, the 2003 Association of Test Publisher National Award for Contributions to Computer-Based Testing, and the 2005 E. F. Lindquist Award for Contributions to Assessment. Professor Hambleton is a frequent consultant to state departments of education, national government agencies and credentialing organizations.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Fundamentals of Item Response Theory; Volume 2 of Measurement Methods for the So; Measurement Methods for the Social Science
• Authors: Ronald K. Hambleton, Hariharan Swaminathan, H. Jane Rogers
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: SAGE, 1991
• ISBN: 0803936478, 9780803936478
• Length: 174 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / General; Social Science / Research