A systematic review of the methodology for person fit research in Item Response Theory: Lessons about generalizability of inferences from the design of simulation studies

This paper is a systematic review of the methodology for person fit research targeted specifically at methodologists in training. I analyze the ways in which researchers in the area of person fit have conducted simulation studies for parametric and nonparametric unidimensional IRT models since the seminal review paper by Meijer and Sijtsma (2001). I specifically review how researchers have operationalized different types of aberrant responding for particular testing conditions in order to compare these simulation design characteristics with features of the real-life testing situations for which person fit analyses are officially reported. I discuss the alignment between the theoretical and practical work and the implications for future simulation work and guidelines for best practice.