TY - JOUR T1 - Development of an item bank for the assessment of depression in persons with mental illnesses and physical diseases using Rasch analysis JF - Rehabilitation Psychology Y1 - 2009 A1 - Forkmann, T. A1 - Boecker, M. A1 - Norra, C. A1 - Eberle, N. A1 - Kircher, T. A1 - Schauerte, P. A1 - Mischke, K. A1 - Westhofen, M. A1 - Gauggel, S. A1 - Wirtz, M. KW - Adaptation, Psychological KW - Adult KW - Aged KW - Depressive Disorder/*diagnosis/psychology KW - Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted KW - Female KW - Heart Diseases/*psychology KW - Humans KW - Male KW - Mental Disorders/*psychology KW - Middle Aged KW - Models, Statistical KW - Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases/*psychology KW - Personality Assessment/statistics & numerical data KW - Personality Inventory/*statistics & numerical data KW - Psychometrics/statistics & numerical data KW - Questionnaires KW - Reproducibility of Results KW - Sick Role AB - OBJECTIVE: The calibration of item banks provides the basis for computerized adaptive testing that ensures high diagnostic precision and minimizes participants' test burden. The present study aimed at developing a new item bank that allows for assessing depression in persons with mental and persons with somatic diseases. METHOD: The sample consisted of 161 participants treated for a depressive syndrome, and 206 participants with somatic illnesses (103 cardiologic, 103 otorhinolaryngologic; overall mean age = 44.1 years, SD =14.0; 44.7% women) to allow for validation of the item bank in both groups. Persons answered a pool of 182 depression items on a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Evaluation of Rasch model fit (infit < 1.3), differential item functioning, dimensionality, local independence, item spread, item and person separation (>2.0), and reliability (>.80) resulted in a bank of 79 items with good psychometric properties. CONCLUSIONS: The bank provides items with a wide range of content coverage and may serve as a sound basis for computerized adaptive testing applications. It might also be useful for researchers who wish to develop new fixed-length scales for the assessment of depression in specific rehabilitation settings. VL - 54 SN - 0090-5550 (Print)0090-5550 (Linking) N1 - Forkmann, ThomasBoecker, MarenNorra, ChristineEberle, NicoleKircher, TiloSchauerte, PatrickMischke, KarlWesthofen, MartinGauggel, SiegfriedWirtz, MarkusResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tUnited StatesRehabilitation psychologyRehabil Psychol. 2009 May;54(2):186-97. ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Predicting item exposure parameters in computerized adaptive testing JF - British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology Y1 - 2008 A1 - Chen, S-Y. A1 - Doong, S. H. KW - *Algorithms KW - *Artificial Intelligence KW - Aptitude Tests/*statistics & numerical data KW - Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted/*statistics & numerical data KW - Humans KW - Models, Statistical KW - Psychometrics/statistics & numerical data KW - Reproducibility of Results KW - Software AB - The purpose of this study is to find a formula that describes the relationship between item exposure parameters and item parameters in computerized adaptive tests by using genetic programming (GP) - a biologically inspired artificial intelligence technique. Based on the formula, item exposure parameters for new parallel item pools can be predicted without conducting additional iterative simulations. Results show that an interesting formula between item exposure parameters and item parameters in a pool can be found by using GP. The item exposure parameters predicted based on the found formula were close to those observed from the Sympson and Hetter (1985) procedure and performed well in controlling item exposure rates. Similar results were observed for the Stocking and Lewis (1998) multinomial model for item selection and the Sympson and Hetter procedure with content balancing. The proposed GP approach has provided a knowledge-based solution for finding item exposure parameters. VL - 61 SN - 0007-1102 (Print)0007-1102 (Linking) N1 - Chen, Shu-YingDoong, Shing-HwangResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tEnglandThe British journal of mathematical and statistical psychologyBr J Math Stat Psychol. 2008 May;61(Pt 1):75-91. ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Rotating item banks versus restriction of maximum exposure rates in computerized adaptive testing JF - Spanish Journal of Psychology Y1 - 2008 A1 - Barrada, J A1 - Olea, J. A1 - Abad, F. J. KW - *Character KW - *Databases KW - *Software Design KW - Aptitude Tests/*statistics & numerical data KW - Bias (Epidemiology) KW - Computing Methodologies KW - Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted/*statistics & numerical data KW - Educational Measurement/*statistics & numerical data KW - Humans KW - Mathematical Computing KW - Psychometrics/statistics & numerical data AB -

If examinees were to know, beforehand, part of the content of a computerized adaptive test, their estimated trait levels would then have a marked positive bias. One of the strategies to avoid this consists of dividing a large item bank into several sub-banks and rotating the sub-bank employed (Ariel, Veldkamp & van der Linden, 2004). This strategy permits substantial improvements in exposure control at little cost to measurement accuracy, However, we do not know whether this option provides better results than using the master bank with greater restriction in the maximum exposure rates (Sympson & Hetter, 1985). In order to investigate this issue, we worked with several simulated banks of 2100 items, comparing them, for RMSE and overlap rate, with the same banks divided in two, three... up to seven sub-banks. By means of extensive manipulation of the maximum exposure rate in each bank, we found that the option of rotating banks slightly outperformed the option of restricting maximum exposure rate of the master bank by means of the Sympson-Hetter method.

VL - 11 SN - 1138-7416 N1 - Barrada, Juan RamonOlea, JulioAbad, Francisco JoseResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSpainThe Spanish journal of psychologySpan J Psychol. 2008 Nov;11(2):618-25. ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Computerized adaptive personality testing: A review and illustration with the MMPI-2 Computerized Adaptive Version JF - Psychological Assessment Y1 - 2007 A1 - Forbey, J. D. A1 - Ben-Porath, Y. S. KW - Adolescent KW - Adult KW - Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted/*statistics & numerical data KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Male KW - MMPI/*statistics & numerical data KW - Personality Assessment/*statistics & numerical data KW - Psychometrics/statistics & numerical data KW - Reference Values KW - Reproducibility of Results AB - Computerized adaptive testing in personality assessment can improve efficiency by significantly reducing the number of items administered to answer an assessment question. Two approaches have been explored for adaptive testing in computerized personality assessment: item response theory and the countdown method. In this article, the authors review the literature on each and report the results of an investigation designed to explore the utility, in terms of item and time savings, and validity, in terms of correlations with external criterion measures, of an expanded countdown method-based research version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), the MMPI-2 Computerized Adaptive Version (MMPI-2-CA). Participants were 433 undergraduate college students (170 men and 263 women). Results indicated considerable item savings and corresponding time savings for the adaptive testing modalities compared with a conventional computerized MMPI-2 administration. Furthermore, computerized adaptive administration yielded comparable results to computerized conventional administration of the MMPI-2 in terms of both test scores and their validity. Future directions for computerized adaptive personality testing are discussed. VL - 19 SN - 1040-3590 (Print) N1 - Forbey, Johnathan DBen-Porath, Yossef SResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tUnited StatesPsychological assessmentPsychol Assess. 2007 Mar;19(1):14-24. ER -