TitleSome alternatives to Sympson-Hetter item-exposure control in computerized adaptive testing
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2003
Authorsvan der Linden, WJ
JournalJournal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
Volume28
Number3
Pagination249-265
Publication Languageeng
KeywordsAdaptive Testing, Computer Assisted Testing, Test Items computerized adaptive testing
Abstract

TheHetter and Sympson (1997; 1985) method is a method of probabilistic item-exposure control in computerized adaptive testing. Setting its control parameters to admissible values requires an iterative process of computer simulations that has been found to be time consuming, particularly if the parameters have to be set conditional on a realistic set of values for the examinees’ ability parameter. Formal properties of the method are identified that help us explain why this iterative process can be slow and does not guarantee admissibility. In addition, some alternatives to the SH method are introduced. The behavior of these alternatives was estimated for an adaptive test from an item pool from the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Two of the alternatives showed attractive behavior and converged smoothly to admissibility for all items in a relatively small number of iteration steps.