In many testing programs it is assumed that the context or position in which an item is administered does not have a differential effect on examinee responses to the item. Violations of this assumption may bias item response theory estimates of item and person parameters. This study examines the potentially biasing effects of item position. A…

Confirmatory multidimensional item response theory (CMIRT) was used to assess the structure of the Graduate Record Examination General Test, about which much information about factorial structure exists, using a sample of 1,001 psychology majors taking the test in 1984 or 1985. Results supported previous findings that, for this population, there…

Since The Graduate Record Examination-Verbal measures two factors (reading comprehension and discrete verbal ability), the unidimensionality of item response theory is violated. The impact of this violation was examined by comparing three ability estimates: reading, discrete, and all verbal. Both dimensions were highly correlated; the impact was…

Recent assessment research joining cognitive psychology and psychometric theory has introduced a new technology, item generation. In algorithmic item generation, items are systematically created based on specific combinations of features that underlie the processing required to correctly solve a problem. Reading comprehension items have been more…

This study compares the contribution to measurement accuracy of the verbal score of each of four verbal item types included in the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test. Comparisons are based on item response theory, a methodology that allows the researcher to look at the accuracy of individual points on the score scale. This methodology…

We describe the item modeling development and evaluation process as applied to a quantitative assessment with high-stakes outcomes. In addition to expediting the item-creation process, a model-based approach may reduce pretesting costs, if the difficulty and discrimination of model-generated items may be predicted to a predefined level of…

Birnbaum's three-parameter logistic item response model was used to study guessing behavior of low ability examinees on the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test, Verbal Measure. GRE scoring procedures had recently changed, from a scoring formula which corrected for guessing, to number-right scoring. The three-parameter theory was used…

A number of hypotheses were tested concerning elements of Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) items that might affect the performance of blacks and whites differently. These elements were characteristics common to several items that otherwise measured different concepts. Seven general hypotheses were tested in the form of sixteen specific…