Handbook of Modern Item Response Theory [Hardcover]

Wim J. van der Linden (Editor), Ronald K. Hambleton (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1996

Item response theory has become an essential component in the toolkit of every researcher in the behavioral sciences. It provides a powerful means to study individual responses to a variety of stimuli, and the methodology has been extended and developed to cover many different models of interaction. This volume presents a wide-ranging handbook to item response theory - and its applications to educational and psychological testing. It will serve as both an introduction to the subject and also as a comprehensive reference volume for practitioners and researchers. It is organized into six major sections: the nominal categories model, models for response time or multiple attempts on items, models for multiple abilities or cognitive components, nonparametric models, models for nonmonotone items, and models with special assumptions. Each chapter in the book has been written by an expert of that particular topic, and the chapters have been carefully edited to ensure that a uniform style of notation and presentation is used throughout. As a result, all researchers whose work uses item response theory will find this an indispensable companion to their work and it will be the subject's reference volume for many years to come.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 525 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (November 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387946616
• ISBN-13: 978-0387946610
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,266,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive look at IRT circa mid 90s, December 21, 2007

By 

JVerkuilen (BAYSIDE, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Handbook of Modern Item Response Theory (Hardcover)

This edited volume provides synoptic chapters on the field of item response models. Nearly every variant of model--there were a lot then, more now--gets a chapter, usually written by one of the most prominent names associated with the model. For instance, R. Darrell Bock wrote the chapter on nominal models. The writing is generally clear and notation is consistent, as another reviewer noted. However... the field has changed a lot in the intervening time since publication. This book represents an overview of "state of the art" circa the mid 1990s. If you need an introduction to a lot of models, it's good since those haven't changed, even though many have been added. However, you still see things like joint maximum likelihood estimation (JMLE) seriously discussed and there is, if I recall correctly, no mention of MCMC methods or of the more "modern" view of IRT as a generalized linear mixed model, discussed in books like the volume edited by Paul de Boeck and Mark Wilson (2004), Explanatory Item Response Models.

At publication, this would have been *****, but it loses one due to age.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehenstive Account of Item Response Theory, April 30, 2007

By 

Wei H. Lin - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Handbook of Modern Item Response Theory (Hardcover)

The book, edited by van der Linden and Hambleton, is a comprehensive

account of Item Response Theory. The "modern" in the title of the

book is indeed reflected in new developments such as nonparametric

models and mixture models. The audience of the book is targeted

toward those who want to further develop models around Item Response

Theory. People who are more interested in applying IRT may prefer

books like Applying the Rasch Model: Fundamental Measurement in the Human Sciences.

Although the book was contributed by multiple authors, the two editors

indeed made efforts making notation consistent and the structure of

every chapter similar (Introduction, Model Description, Parameter

Estimation, Examples, References), which is very important for readers

like me who don't follow the book from cover to cover.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good item, poor response, February 10, 2010

By 

Yi-fu Chen "Snosrap" (Athens, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Handbook of Modern Item Response Theory (Hardcover)

This is a good deal for the book. The book is like-new as described in the website. However, the seller did not response to my question when I asked about the late delivery.