Psychology 859: Item Response Theory

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Topics

• An intellectual history of item response theory (IRT)
• Some IRT models for dichotomous responses: Normal Ogive, 1PL, 2PL, 3PL, perhaps 4PLs
• Some IRT models for polytomous responses: Graded, Nominal, Multiple Choice
• Estimation algorithms: Maximum Likelihood, MCMC
• An approach to the analysis of differential item functioning (DIF)
• Multidimensional IRT
• Score Combination
• Augmented sub-scores
• Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT)

This course is appropriate for graduate students in psychology, education, and other disciplines that make use of tests and/or questionnaires. Students must have completed Psych 831 (formerly Psych 282) or its equivalent. A final paper and associated oral presentation, as well as a small number of small homework problems, will be required.

Some pages for the Spring, 2008 realization of the course are available:

• The Spring 2008 Schedule

Some useful links (thanks to Greg Cizek for suggesting these) are:

• A web-based tutorial on IRT formerly at ERIC
• A web-based tutorial on IRT at UIUC
• A CAT tutorial formerly at ERIC
• Mini-Rasch software
• Mini-"Facets" software