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Accounting for Aberrant Test Response Patterns Using Multilevel Models
Author(s) -
Petridou Alexandra,
Williams Julian
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of educational measurement
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.917
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-3984
pISSN - 0022-0655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-3984.2007.00036.x
Subject(s) - multilevel model , test (biology) , psychology , set (abstract data type) , test anxiety , cognitive psychology , anxiety , developmental psychology , computer science , statistics , mathematics , paleontology , psychiatry , biology , programming language
Hypotheses about aberrant test‐response behavior and hence invalid person‐measurement have hitherto included factors like ability, gender, language, test‐anxiety, and motivation, but these have not previously been collectively investigated with real data, or with multilevel models. This study analyzes the effect of these factors on person aberrance using a real mathematics assessment data set under the framework of a two‐level (person and classroom) hierarchical model. The results suggest that higher‐scoring pupils, and, to a lesser extent, second‐language learners are significantly more often aberrant. But more importantly, we find that the classroom makes a significant contribution to person aberrance and conclude that studies that investigate the sources of person aberrance with real data should model the classroom as well as individual levels.