Establishing a Longitudinal Comparable Scale of Chinese Children's Cognitive Development through Calibrated Projection Linking

In the past decades, the longitudinal approach has been remarkably and increasingly used in the investigations of children's cognitive development. Recently, many researchers have started to realize the importance and necessity of examining measurement invariance for any further longitudinal an...

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Main Authors: Xiangzi Ouyang, Qiusi Zhang, Tao Xin, Fu Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-02-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00097/full
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spelling doaj-8e43617b6975424b86b4db622004fda72020-11-24T21:03:17ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782018-02-01910.3389/fpsyg.2018.00097312122Establishing a Longitudinal Comparable Scale of Chinese Children's Cognitive Development through Calibrated Projection LinkingXiangzi Ouyang0Qiusi Zhang1Tao Xin2Fu Liu3Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, ChinaDepartment of English, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United StatesCollaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, ChinaShenzhen Seaskyland Educational Evaluation Co. Ltd, Shenzhen, ChinaIn the past decades, the longitudinal approach has been remarkably and increasingly used in the investigations of children's cognitive development. Recently, many researchers have started to realize the importance and necessity of examining measurement invariance for any further longitudinal analysis. However, there are few empirical studies demonstrating how to conduct further analysis when the assumption of measurement invariance of an instrument is violated. The primary purpose of this study is to explore how a newly-developed calibrated projection method can be applied to reduce the impact of lack of parameter invariance in a longitudinal study of preschool children's cognitive development. The sample consisted of 882 children from China who participated in two waves of the cognitive tests when they were 4 and 5 years old. Before this study was conducted, the IRT method was used to examine the measurement invariance of the instrument. The results showed that five items presented difficulty parameter drift and three items presented discrimination/slope parameter drift. In the study, the invariant items were treated as “common items” and calibrated projection linking was used to establish a comparable scale across two time points. Then the linking method was evaluated by three properties: grade-to-grade growth, grade-to-grade variability, and the separation of distributions. The results showed that the grade-to-grade growth across two waves was larger and exhibited a larger effect size; the grade-to-grade variability showed less scale shrinkage, which indicated a smaller measurement error; the separation of distributions showed a larger growth as well.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00097/fullchildren cognitionmeasurement invariancelongitudinal studymultidimensional IRTcalibrated projection
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Xiangzi Ouyang
Qiusi Zhang
Tao Xin
Fu Liu
spellingShingle Xiangzi Ouyang
Qiusi Zhang
Tao Xin
Fu Liu
Establishing a Longitudinal Comparable Scale of Chinese Children's Cognitive Development through Calibrated Projection Linking
Frontiers in Psychology
children cognition
measurement invariance
longitudinal study
multidimensional IRT
calibrated projection
author_facet Xiangzi Ouyang
Qiusi Zhang
Tao Xin
Fu Liu
author_sort Xiangzi Ouyang
title Establishing a Longitudinal Comparable Scale of Chinese Children's Cognitive Development through Calibrated Projection Linking
title_short Establishing a Longitudinal Comparable Scale of Chinese Children's Cognitive Development through Calibrated Projection Linking
title_full Establishing a Longitudinal Comparable Scale of Chinese Children's Cognitive Development through Calibrated Projection Linking
title_fullStr Establishing a Longitudinal Comparable Scale of Chinese Children's Cognitive Development through Calibrated Projection Linking
title_full_unstemmed Establishing a Longitudinal Comparable Scale of Chinese Children's Cognitive Development through Calibrated Projection Linking
title_sort establishing a longitudinal comparable scale of chinese children's cognitive development through calibrated projection linking
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Psychology
issn 1664-1078
publishDate 2018-02-01
description In the past decades, the longitudinal approach has been remarkably and increasingly used in the investigations of children's cognitive development. Recently, many researchers have started to realize the importance and necessity of examining measurement invariance for any further longitudinal analysis. However, there are few empirical studies demonstrating how to conduct further analysis when the assumption of measurement invariance of an instrument is violated. The primary purpose of this study is to explore how a newly-developed calibrated projection method can be applied to reduce the impact of lack of parameter invariance in a longitudinal study of preschool children's cognitive development. The sample consisted of 882 children from China who participated in two waves of the cognitive tests when they were 4 and 5 years old. Before this study was conducted, the IRT method was used to examine the measurement invariance of the instrument. The results showed that five items presented difficulty parameter drift and three items presented discrimination/slope parameter drift. In the study, the invariant items were treated as “common items” and calibrated projection linking was used to establish a comparable scale across two time points. Then the linking method was evaluated by three properties: grade-to-grade growth, grade-to-grade variability, and the separation of distributions. The results showed that the grade-to-grade growth across two waves was larger and exhibited a larger effect size; the grade-to-grade variability showed less scale shrinkage, which indicated a smaller measurement error; the separation of distributions showed a larger growth as well.
topic children cognition
measurement invariance
longitudinal study
multidimensional IRT
calibrated projection
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00097/full
work_keys_str_mv AT xiangziouyang establishingalongitudinalcomparablescaleofchinesechildrenscognitivedevelopmentthroughcalibratedprojectionlinking
AT qiusizhang establishingalongitudinalcomparablescaleofchinesechildrenscognitivedevelopmentthroughcalibratedprojectionlinking
AT taoxin establishingalongitudinalcomparablescaleofchinesechildrenscognitivedevelopmentthroughcalibratedprojectionlinking
AT fuliu establishingalongitudinalcomparablescaleofchinesechildrenscognitivedevelopmentthroughcalibratedprojectionlinking
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