%0 Journal Article
%T A multilevel item response model for item position effects and individual persistence
%A Johannes Hartig
%A Janine Buchholz
%J Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling
%D 2012
%I Pabst Science Publishers
%X The paper presents a multilevel item response model for item position effects. It includes individual differences regarding the position effect to which we refer to as the persistence of the test-takers. The model is applied to published data from the PISA 2006 science assessment. We analyzed responses to 103 science test items from N = 64.251 students from 10 countries selected to cover a wide range of national performance levels. All effects of interest were analyzed separately for each country. A significant negative effect of item position on performance was found in all countries, which is more prominent in countries with a lower national performance level. The individual differences in persistence were relatively small in all countries, but more pronounced in countries with lower performance levels. Students¡¯ performance level is practically uncorrelated with persistence in high performing countries, while it is negatively correlated within low performing countries.
%K item response theory
%K item position effects
%U http://www.psychologie-aktuell.com/fileadmin/download/ptam/4-2012_20121224/06_Hartig.pdf