Information value of multiple response questions

Abstract

Answers to Multiple Response (MR) questions carry more information than we usually utilize. Simple idea that all options of MR questions should be scored as independent test items has two major difficulties: 1) false options have item-response characteristics that are hard to model and use with other items; and 2) responses to individual options within the same MR question could be too dependent on each other. These difficulties lead to an overestimation of item discrimination and test information function. A few scoring methods that could increase information value obtained from MR questions are proposed and evaluated in this paper.

Keywords

• multiple response questions
• item information
• test scoring
• item response theory