A Mokken Scale Analysis of the Last Series of the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM-LS)

By Nils Myszkowski in Psychometrics Test development Item-Response Theory Scaling

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What it’s about

In this paper, I reanalyze a dataset for a special issue of Journal of Intelligence. The analysis uses the framework of Mokken Scale Analysis (MSA), which is a non-parametric approach to relations between item responses and attributes (i.e. Item-Response Theory).

Abstract

Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven 1941) is a widely used 60-item long measure of general mental ability. It was recently suggested that, for situations where taking this test is too time consuming, a shorter version, comprised of only the last series of the Standard Progressive Matrices (Myszkowski and Storme 2018) could be used, while preserving satisfactory psychometric properties (Garcia-Garzon et al. 2019; Myszkowski and Storme 2018). In this study, I argue, however, that some psychometric properties have been left aside by previous investigations. As part of this special issue on the reinvestigation of Myszkowski and Storme’s dataset, I propose to use the non-parametric Item Response Theory framework of Mokken Scale Analysis (Mokken 1971, 1997) and its current developments (Sijtsma and van der Ark 2017) to shed new light on the SPM-LS. Extending previous findings, this investigation indicated that the SPM-LS had satisfactory scalability (\(H = 0.469\)), local independence and reliability (\(MS = 0.841\), \(LCRC = 0.874\)). Further, all item response functions were monotonically increasing, and there was overall evidence for invariant item ordering (\(H_T = 0.475\)), supporting the Double Monotonicity Model (Mokken 1997). Item 1, however, appeared problematic in most analyses. I discuss the implications of these results, notably regarding whether to discard item 1, whether the SPM-LS sum scores can confidently be used to order persons, and whether the invariant item ordering of the SPM-LS allows to use a stopping rule to further shorten test administration.

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Posted on:
May 12, 2020
Length:
2 minute read, 293 words
Categories:
Psychometrics Test development Item-Response Theory Scaling
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