Modeling Person Response Styles

A measurement ideal is that each respondent uses the rating scale in the same way. But this doesn't always happen. Does allowing for personal idiosyncrasies solve the problem?

I asked 62 hikers to rate the difficulty of 20 mountains on the Appalachian Trail, using a 5-point rating scale, from 1=easy to 5=extremely hard. The respondents rated each of the 20 mountains in comparison to some other "standard" mountain of the respondent's choice. It was clear from the comments of the hikers that they were answering this item idiosyncratically. One hiker said that, compared to the Rocky Mountains, the mountains on the Appalachian Trail were easy, and so he never used the 4 and 5 ratings. Another hiker said that there is no such thing as an easy mountain, and never used the 1 and 2 ratings.

When I modelled all the hikers to use the rating scale in the same way, I found that 13 of the hikers showed noticeable misfit, with infit or outfit greater than 1.4 (see Figure). This motivated me to hope that the misfit was caused by each hiker defining a separate rating scale.

In a new calibration, in which the 13 misfitting hikers were modelled to have their own rating scales, there was some overall improvement in fit and statistical separations improved slightly, but most misfit was still unexplained. It looks like the real solution to personal idiosyncrasies is to rewrite my questionnaire.

Ryan Bowles

Modeling person response styles. Bowles R. … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 2000, 14:1 p.739

Rasch-Related Resources: Rasch Measurement YouTube Channel
Rasch Measurement Transactions & Rasch Measurement research papers - free	An Introduction to the Rasch Model with Examples in R (eRm, etc.), Debelak, Strobl, Zeigenfuse	Rasch Measurement Theory Analysis in R, Wind, Hua	Applying the Rasch Model in Social Sciences Using R, Lamprianou	El modelo métrico de Rasch: Fundamentación, implementación e interpretación de la medida en ciencias sociales (Spanish Edition), Manuel González-Montesinos M.
Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar	Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch	Rasch Models for Measurement, David Andrich	Constructing Measures, Mark Wilson	Best Test Design - free, Wright & Stone Rating Scale Analysis - free, Wright & Masters
Virtual Standard Setting: Setting Cut Scores, Charalambos Kollias	Diseño de Mejores Pruebas - free, Spanish Best Test Design	A Course in Rasch Measurement Theory, Andrich, Marais	Rasch Models in Health, Christensen, Kreiner, Mesba	Multivariate and Mixture Distribution Rasch Models, von Davier, Carstensen
Rasch Books and Publications: Winsteps and Facets
Applying the Rasch Model (Winsteps, Facets) 4th Ed., Bond, Yan, Heene	Advances in Rasch Analyses in the Human Sciences (Winsteps, Facets) 1st Ed., Boone, Staver	Advances in Applications of Rasch Measurement in Science Education, X. Liu & W. J. Boone	Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences (Winsteps) Boone, Staver, Yale	Appliquer le modèle de Rasch: Défis et pistes de solution (Winsteps) E. Dionne, S. Béland
Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets), Thomas Eckes	Rasch Models for Solving Measurement Problems (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Jue Wang	Statistical Analyses for Language Testers (Facets), Rita Green	Invariant Measurement with Raters and Rating Scales: Rasch Models for Rater-Mediated Assessments (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Stefanie Wind	Aplicação do Modelo de Rasch (Português), de Bond, Trevor G., Fox, Christine M
Exploring Rating Scale Functioning for Survey Research (R, Facets), Stefanie Wind	Rasch Measurement: Applications, Khine	Winsteps Tutorials - free Facets Tutorials - free	Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets) - free, J.M. Linacre	Fairness, Justice and Language Assessment (Winsteps, Facets), McNamara, Knoch, Fan

Forum

Rasch Measurement Forum to discuss any Rasch-related topic

Go to Top of Page
Go to index of all Rasch Measurement Transactions
AERA members: Join the Rasch Measurement SIG and receive the printed version of RMT
Some back issues of RMT are available as bound volumes
Subscribe to Journal of Applied Measurement

Go to Institute for Objective Measurement Home Page. The Rasch Measurement SIG (AERA) thanks the Institute for Objective Measurement for inviting the publication of Rasch Measurement Transactions on the Institute's website, www.rasch.org.

The URL of this page is www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt141m.htm

Website: www.rasch.org/rmt/contents.htm