A Comparison of Information Functions of Multiple-Choice and Free-Response Vocabulary Items.

摘要

Twenty multiple-choice vocabulary items and 20 free-response vocabulary items were administered to 660 college students. The free-response items consisted of the stem words of the multiple-choice items. Testees were asked to respond to the free-response items with synonyms. A computer algorithm was developed to transform the numerous free-responses entered by the testees into a manageable number of categories. The multiple-choice and the free-response items were then calibrated occording to Bock's polychotomous logistic model. One item was discarded because of extremely poor fit with the model, and test information functions were determined from the other 19 items. Higher levels of information were obtained from the free-response items over most of the range of abilities between theta = -3.0 to theta = +3.0. (Author)