Compute various measures of internal consistencies for tests or item-scales of questionnaires.
item_difficulty(x, maximum_value = NULL)A data frame with three columns: The name(s) of the item(s), the item difficulties for each item, and the ideal item difficulty.
Depending on the function, x may be a matrix as
returned by the cor()-function, or a data frame
with items (e.g. from a test or questionnaire).
Numeric value, indicating the maximum value of an item.
If NULL (default), the maximum is taken from the maximum value of all
columns in x (assuming that the maximum value at least appears once in
the data). If NA, each item's maximum value is taken as maximum. If the
required maximum value is not present in the data, specify the theoreritcal
maximum using maximum_value.
Item difficutly of an item is defined as the quotient of the sum
actually achieved for this item of all and the maximum achievable score.
This function calculates the item difficulty, which should range between
0.2 and 0.8. Lower values are a signal for more difficult items, while
higher values close to one are a sign for easier items. The ideal value
for item difficulty is p + (1 - p) / 2, where p = 1 / max(x). In most
cases, the ideal item difficulty lies between 0.5 and 0.8.
Bortz, J., and Döring, N. (2006). Quantitative Methoden der Datenerhebung. In J. Bortz and N. Döring, Forschungsmethoden und Evaluation. Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg: 137–293
Kelava A, Moosbrugger H (2020). Deskriptivstatistische Itemanalyse und Testwertbestimmung. In: Moosbrugger H, Kelava A, editors. Testtheorie und Fragebogenkonstruktion. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 143–158
data(mtcars)
x <- mtcars[, c("cyl", "gear", "carb", "hp")]
item_difficulty(x)
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