Item Order Effects on Attitude Measures

<p>The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the effects of altered item order on attitude measures for both computerized adaptive and conventional survey formats. Based on items modified from a dissertation/thesis completion survey (Green & Kluever, 1997) with three scales, three survey versions were generated with items ordered by difficulty as hard-to-easy (H-E), easy-to-hard (E-H), and five medium trait level items presented first followed by randomly ordered items (M-R) for conventional survey format. Significant differences in item difficulty and item discrimination were found for two of the three scales. Differences in scale reliability were detected for the procrastination and responsibility scales. Also, significant correlations between scale total score and scale attitude strength were discovered with each survey version.</p> <p>Further, two computerized adaptive survey version were generated. One began with items at medium and the other at extremely high trait levels. Results showed significant differences in number of items administered to achieve a set level of precision for two scales and significant differences in reaction time were found for one scale between the two versions. The version of item starting at the extreme trait level required more items, and took longer to respond to. Further, significant differences in the estimated person parameter were found for one scale between the two survey versions. Based on the results of both survey formats indicating item order effects pose a problem for assessing attitude.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2010

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Pei-Hua

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kathy E. Green, Ph.D.
• Donald Bacon
• Duan Zhang

• Attitude measure
• Computerized adaptive testing
• Item order effect
• Categorical Data Analysis
• Design of Experiments and Sample Surveys
• Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/778

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1777