An investigation of item difficulty in the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale, fourth edition

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Authors
Troyka, Rebecca J.
Advisor
Church, Jay K.
Issue Date
1989
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (Ph. D.)
Department
Department of Educational Psychology
Other Identifiers
Abstract

Introduced in 1986, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition differs radically from its predecessors. Because of the adaptive testing format and the limited number of items given to each subject, it is especially important that consecutive levels in each of the tests increase in difficulty. The purpose of this study was to investigate the progression of difficulty among items in the Fourth Edition.Three hundred sixty-four subjects f iii Indiana who ranged in age from 3 years, 0 months to 23 years, 4 months were administered the Fourth Edition. The study was limited to those subjects earning a Composite SAS Score at or above 68.Data were presented to indicate trends in the difficulty of each item as well as in the difficulty of each level in the Fourth Edition. Three research questions were answered. 1.) Are the items at each level equally difficult? 2.) Are the levels in each test arranged so that the level with the least difficult items is first followed by levels with more and more difficult items? 3.) In each test is an item easier for subjects who have entered at a higher level than it is for subjects who have entered at a lower level?The results supported the hypotheses, confirming that the Fourth Edition is a solidly constructed test in terms of item difficulty levels. Most item pairs within a level were found to be approximately equal in difficulty. Nearly all of the levels in each test were followed by increasingly more difficult levels. And each item was found to be more difficult for subjects entering at a lower entry level than for those entering at a higher entry level with very few exceptions. For these few discrepancies found, there was no reason to believe that these were caused by anything other than chance.