A Common Framework for Classical and Tree-Based Item Response Models Including Extended Hierarchically Structured Models
Gerhard Tutz, Clemens Draxler · Open access LMU (Ludwid Maxmilian's Universitat Munchen) · 2019
A common framework is provided that comprises classical ordinal item response models as the cumulative, sequential and adjacent categories models as well as the more recently propagated item response tree models. The obtained taxonomy is based on the role that binary models play as building blocks of the various models. The study of the binary models contained in ordinal latent trait models clarifies the interpretation of item parameters in classical models. The taxonomy for ordinal models also contains a new general class of hierarchically structured models, which can be seen as a generalization of item response tree models. For this class of models estimation methods are developed, which make use of commonly available program packages.