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A Note on Item Analysis and the Criterion of Internal Consistency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Charles I. Mosier*
Affiliation:
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Abstract

The implications contained in Richardson's article on item analysis in March 1936 issue of Psychometrika are examined in the light of multiple factor theory. It is shown that item analysis is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for the construction of a test which shall measure a single trait. The intercorrelations of certain items selected by a method of item analysis are examined, found to contain many zero and some negative correlations. Multiple factor analysis showed that eight traits were measured by the items which had been asserted to measure only one.

Type
Original Paper
Copyright
Copyright © 1936 The Psychometric Society

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