Implications for Altering the Context in Which Test Items Appear: A Historical Perspective on an Immediate Concern

Abstract

Research into the effects of item arrangement has been motivated by the need to know the potential effects on item statistics of different item arrangement schemes. This review of the literature confirms that many of the salient and common features of the research can be identified as a function of the practical psychometric concerns of the time. The studies are separated into three periods. The earliest studies investigated the simple main effect of item order on test performance; the late 1960s reflected a change in emphasis to a design that included interactions between item order and factors of examinees’ psychological and biological characteristics; current concern with test disclosure and development of individual adaptive testing instruments has shifted the emphasis to the effects of item order on the stability of item parameters. The literature has produced evidence of context effects, but has not demonstrated that the effects are so strong as to invalidate test theory or practice that is dependent on an assumption of item parameter invariance.