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ADAPTING TO ADAPTIVE TESTING
Author(s) -
OVERTON RANDALL C.,
HARMS HARVEY J.,
TAYLOR L. ROGERS,
J. ZICKAR MICHAEL
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1997.tb00907.x
Subject(s) - computerized adaptive testing , programmer , test (biology) , reliability (semiconductor) , test validity , scale (ratio) , reliability engineering , computer science , psychology , psychometrics , programming language , engineering , clinical psychology , paleontology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
Computer adaptive testing (CAT) is a relatively recent innovation in large scale testing programs, but has had very limited application in private industry. This paper describes the development of a CAT for use by a large insurance company in selecting computer programmer trainees. Incumbents provided the calibration and evaluation data. The CAT led to increased item security, but did not decrease required testing time. Further, the CAT was found to be similar to a conventional, fixed‐item test in reliability and validity. In addition to actual test results, computer simulated test data were used in a more detailed evaluation of the CAT's effectiveness. The concluding discussion notes the advantages and disadvantages observed from the use of adaptive testing.