Abstract
It is investigated how a motivated choice can be made for the analysis of an item set using either a cumulative item response model with monotone tracelines, modeling dominance relations, or a unimodal item response model with single-peaked tracelines, modeling proximity relations. The focus is on item sets consisting of positively and negatively formulated items (with respect to the latent trait to be measured), where the common practice is to reverse one type of item. The differences between the cumulative and unimodal model are studied theoretically, in terms of item location and item order, and empirically, in a reanalysis of a sample of De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale data. Item locations, and, in the case of the unimodal model, also subject locations are shown to be important determinants of the differences. For the loneliness scale data the analysis with the unimodal model is preferred over the cumulative model. An outline of a recommended strategy for an IRT analysis of scaling data is given.
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Post, W.J., van Duijn, M.A.J., van Baarsen, B. (2001). Single-Peaked or Monotone Tracelines? On the Choice of an IRT Model for Scaling Data. In: Boomsma, A., van Duijn, M.A.J., Snijders, T.A.B. (eds) Essays on Item Response Theory. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol 157. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0169-1_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0169-1_21
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