Rethinking the Interpretation of Item Discrimination and Factor Loadings
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Rethinking the Interpretation of Item Discrimination and Factor Loadings. / Jordan, Pascal; Spiess, Martin.
In: EDUC PSYCHOL MEAS, Vol. 79, No. 6, 12.2019, p. 1103-1132.Research output: SCORING: Contribution to journal › SCORING: Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Rethinking the Interpretation of Item Discrimination and Factor Loadings
AU - Jordan, Pascal
AU - Spiess, Martin
N1 - © The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/12
Y1 - 2019/12
N2 - Factor loadings and item discrimination parameters play a key role in scale construction. A multitude of heuristics regarding their interpretation are hardwired into practice-for example, neglecting low loadings and assigning items to exactly one scale. We challenge the common sense interpretation of these parameters by providing counterexamples and general results which altogether cast doubt on our understanding of these parameters. In particular, we highlight the counterintuitive way in which the best prediction of a test taker's latent ability depends on the factor loadings. As a consequence, we emphasize that practitioners need to shift their focus from interpreting item discrimination parameters by their relative loading to an interpretation which incorporates the structure of the model-based latent ability estimate.
AB - Factor loadings and item discrimination parameters play a key role in scale construction. A multitude of heuristics regarding their interpretation are hardwired into practice-for example, neglecting low loadings and assigning items to exactly one scale. We challenge the common sense interpretation of these parameters by providing counterexamples and general results which altogether cast doubt on our understanding of these parameters. In particular, we highlight the counterintuitive way in which the best prediction of a test taker's latent ability depends on the factor loadings. As a consequence, we emphasize that practitioners need to shift their focus from interpreting item discrimination parameters by their relative loading to an interpretation which incorporates the structure of the model-based latent ability estimate.
U2 - 10.1177/0013164419843164
DO - 10.1177/0013164419843164
M3 - SCORING: Journal article
C2 - 31619841
VL - 79
SP - 1103
EP - 1132
JO - EDUC PSYCHOL MEAS
JF - EDUC PSYCHOL MEAS
SN - 0013-1644
IS - 6
ER -
