Open AccessHOW UNIDIMENSIONAL ARE TESTS COMPRISING BOTH MULTIPLE‐CHOICE AND FREE‐RESPONSE ITEMS? AN ANALYSIS OF TWO TESTS 1
Author(s) -
Thissen David,
Wainer Howard,
Wang XiangBo
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2333-8504.1993.tb01539.x
Subject(s) - item response theory , psychology , confirmatory factor analysis , measure (data warehouse) , test (biology) , statistics , econometrics , multiple choice , social psychology , psychometrics , mathematics , structural equation modeling , computer science , data mining , significant difference , paleontology , biology
We consider the relationship between the multiple‐choice and free‐response sections on the Computer Science and Chemistry tests of the College Board's Advanced Placement program. Confirmatory factor analysis shows that the free‐response sections measure the same underlying proficiency as the multiple‐choice sections for the most part. However, there is also a significant, if relatively small, amount of local dependence among the free‐response items that produces a small degree of multidimensionality for each test.