TitleDual-Objective Item Selection Criteria in Cognitive Diagnostic Computerized Adaptive Testing
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsKang, H-A, Zhang, S, Chang, H-H
JournalJournal of Educational Measurement
Volume54
Number2
Pagination165–183
ISSN1745-3984
AbstractThe development of cognitive diagnostic-computerized adaptive testing (CD-CAT) has provided a new perspective for gaining information about examinees' mastery on a set of cognitive attributes. This study proposes a new item selection method within the framework of dual-objective CD-CAT that simultaneously addresses examinees' attribute mastery status and overall test performance. The new procedure is based on the Jensen-Shannon (JS) divergence, a symmetrized version of the Kullback-Leibler divergence. We show that the JS divergence resolves the noncomparability problem of the dual information index and has close relationships with Shannon entropy, mutual information, and Fisher information. The performance of the JS divergence is evaluated in simulation studies in comparison with the methods available in the literature. Results suggest that the JS divergence achieves parallel or more precise recovery of latent trait variables compared to the existing methods and maintains practical advantages in computation and item pool usage.
URLhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jedm.12139
DOI10.1111/jedm.12139