Branched adaptive testing with a Rasch model calibrated test: Analysing item presentation’s sequence effects using the Rasch-model-based LLTM

Item position effects provoke serious problems within adaptive testing. This is because different testees are necessarily presented with the same item at different presentation positions, as a consequence of which comparing their ability parameter estimations in the case of such effects would not at all be fair. In this article, a specific adaptive Rasch-model-calibrated test, AID 2 (Adaptive Intelligence Diagnosticum - Version 2.2; Kubinger, 2009a), is analyzed according to a suggestion of Kubinger (2008, 2009b): applying the Rasch-model-based Linear logistic test model (LLTM) to test item presentation's sequence effects. AID 2's subtests are to be administered along a branched testing design; 5 of these subtests are now under consideration. Results showed no stringent trend of an item position effect for any specific subtest or generally for any combinations of item subsets; to the extent that such an effect was established, it was not really large enough to be of practical relevance.