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A Comment on ‘Some Standard Errors in Item Response Theory’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Dato N. M. de Gruijter
Dato N. M. de Gruijter*
Affiliation:
University of Leyden
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Dato N. M. de Gruijter, Educational Research Center, Boerbaavelaan 2, 2334 EN Leyden, The Netherlands.
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Abstract

In maximum likelihood estimation the standard error of the location parameter of the three parameter logistic model can be large, due to inaccurate estimation of the lower asymptote. Thissen and Wainer who demonstrated this effect, suggested that the introduction of a prior distribution for the lower asymptote might alleviate the problems. Here it is demonstrated in some detail that the standard error of the location parameter can be made acceptably small in this way.

Keywords

asymptotic standard errorsBayesian analysisitem response theory
Type
Notes And Comments
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , June 1984 , pp. 269 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

The author thanks Pieter Vijn for his helpful comments.

References

de Gruijter, D. N. M. and Mooijaart, A. (1983). Least squares estimation of the item parameters in the three-parameter logistic model. Tijdschrift voor Onderwijsresearch, 8, 218–223.Google Scholar
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Swaminathan, H. and Gifford, J. A. (1981). Bayesian estimation in the three-parameter logistic model, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Thissen, D. and Wainer, H. (1982). Some standard errors in item response theory. Psychometrika, 47, 397–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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