scholarly journals Item Response Theory Analysis of the Texas Functional Living Scale

Author(s):  
Deborah A Lowe ◽  
John F Linck

Abstract Objective The Texas Functional Living Scale (TFLS) is a performance-based measure of functional abilities assessing the domains of time, money and calculation, communication, and memory. It is likely that certain items are more sensitive at different levels of functional impairment, with some signaling milder degrees of functional difficulty. This study analyzed psychometric characteristics of individual TFLS items using item response theory (IRT) in an outpatient clinical sample. Method In total, 270 adult outpatients completed the TFLS during clinical neuropsychological evaluation. IRT analysis using 2PL and graded response model was applied to the TFLS. Results Item parameters, item characteristic curves, and information curves were produced. Item difficulty (a) parameters ranged from 1.05 to 2.23, and item discrimination (b) parameters ranged from −4.11 to 0.51. Conclusions TFLS items were differentially sensitive along the continuum of functional impairment. Items that were most sensitive to milder degrees of functional impairment involved clock drawing, microwave programming, financial calculation, and prospective memory. Other items that were optimally precise in more severe degrees of functional impairment involved interacting with a calendar and a relatively simple financial calculation task. These findings suggest that the ability to pass at least some of the items on the TFLS may not necessarily reflect fully intact functional abilities. Certain TFLS items may be able to detect the presence of subtle functional difficulties.

Arthritis ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thelma J. Mielenz ◽  
Michael C. Edwards ◽  
Leigh F. Callahan

Using item response theory (IRT), we examined the Rheumatoid Arthritis Self-efficacy scale (RASE) collected from a People with Arthritis Can Exercise RCT (346 participants) and 2 subscales of the Arthritis Self-efficacy scale (ASE) collected from an Active Living Every Day (ALED) RCT (354 participants) to determine which one better identifies low arthritis self-efficacy in community-based adults with arthritis. The item parameters were estimated in Multilog using the graded response model. The 2 ASE subscales are adequately explained by one factor. There was evidence for 2 locally dependent item pairs; two items from these pairs were removed when we reran the model. The exploratory factor analysis results for RASE showed a multifactor solution which led to a 9-factor solution. In order to perform IRT analysis, one item from each of the 9 subfactors was selected. Both scales were effective at measuring a range of arthritis SE.


Assessment ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 655-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Li ◽  
Steven P. Reise ◽  
Andrea Chronis-Tuscano ◽  
Amori Yee Mikami ◽  
Steve S. Lee

Item response theory (IRT) was separately applied to parent- and teacher-rated symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from a pooled sample of 526 six- to twelve-year-old children with and without ADHD. The dimensional structure ADHD was first examined using confirmatory factor analyses, including the bifactor model. A general ADHD factor and two group factors, representing inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive dimensions, optimally fit the data. Using the graded response model, we estimated discrimination and location parameters and information functions for all 18 symptoms of ADHD. Parent- and teacher-rated symptoms demonstrated adequate discrimination and location values, although these estimates varied substantially. For parent ratings, the test information curve peaked between −2 and +2 SD, suggesting that ADHD symptoms exhibited excellent overall reliability at measuring children in the low to moderate range of the general ADHD factor, but not in the extreme ranges. Similar results emerged for teacher ratings, in which the peak range of measurement precision was from −1.40 to 1.90 SD. Several symptoms were comparatively more informative than others; for example, is often easily distracted (“Distracted”) was the most informative parent- and teacher-rated symptom across the latent trait continuum. Clinical implications for the assessment of ADHD as well as relevant considerations for future revisions to diagnostic criteria are discussed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thelma J. Mielenz ◽  
Michael C. Edwards ◽  
Leigh F. Callahan

Benefits of physical activity for those with arthritis are clear, yet physical activity is difficult to initiate and maintain. Self-efficacy is a key modifiable psychosocial determinant of physical activity. This study examined two scales for self-efficacy for exercise behavior (SEEB) to identify their strengths and weaknesses using item response theory (IRT) from community-based randomized controlled trials of physical activity programs in adults with arthritis. The 2 SEEB scales included the 9-item scale by Resnick developed with older adults and the 5-item scale by Marcus developed with employed adults. All IRT analyses were conducted using the graded-response model. IRT assumptions were assessed using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The IRT analyses indicated that these scales are precise and reliable measures for identifying people with arthritis and low SEEB. The Resnick SEEB scale is slightly more precise at lower levels of self-efficacy in older adults with arthritis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Silvia ◽  
Rebekah Rodriguez ◽  
James C. Kaufman ◽  
Roni Reiter-Palmon ◽  
Jeb S. Puryear

The original 90-item Creative Behavior Inventory (CBI) was a landmark self-report scale in creativity research, and the 28-item brief form developed nearly 20 years ago is a popular measure of everyday creativity. Relatively little is known, however, about the psychometric properties of this widely used scale. In the current research, we conduct a detailed psychometric investigation into the 28-item CBI by applying methods from item response theory using a sample of 2,082 adults. Our investigation revealed several strengths of the current scale: excellent reliability, suitable dimensionality, appropriate item difficulty, and reasonably good item discrimination. Several areas for improvement were highlighted as well: (1) the four-point response scale should probably have fewer options; (2) a handful of items showed gender-based differential item functioning, indicating some item bias; and (3) local dependence statistics revealed clusters of items that are probably redundant. These analyses support the continued use of the CBI for assessing engagement in everyday creative behaviors and suggest that the CBI could benefit from thoughtful revision.


2021 ◽  
pp. 014662162110405
Author(s):  
Huseyin Yildiz

In the last decade, many R packages were published to perform item response theory (IRT) analysis. Some researchers and practitioners have difficulty in using these functional tools because of their insufficient coding skills. The IRTGUI package provides these researchers a user-friendly GUI where they can perform unidimensional IRT analysis without coding skills. Using the IRTGUI package, person and item parameters, model and item fit indices can be obtained. Dimensionality and local independence assumptions can be tested. With the IRTGUI package, users can generate dichotomous data sets with customizable conditions. Also, Wright Maps, item characteristics and information curves can be graphically displayed. All outputs can be easily downloaded by users.


Author(s):  
Brian Wesolowski

This chapter presents an introductory overview of concepts that underscore the general framework of item response theory. “Item response theory” is a broad umbrella term used to describe a family of mathematical measurement models that consider observed test scores to be a function of latent, unobservable constructs. Most musical constructs cannot be directly measured and are therefore unobservable. Musical constructs can therefore only be inferred based on secondary, observable behaviors. Item response theory uses observable behaviors as probabilistic distributions of responses as a logistic function of person and item parameters in order to define latent constructs. This chapter describes philosophical, theoretical, and applied perspectives of item response theory in the context of measuring musical behaviors.


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