Effect of the Medium of Item Presentation on Examinee Performance and Item Characteristics

Abstract

Studies that have investigated differences in examinee performance on items administered in paper‐and‐pencil form or on a computer screen have produced equivocal results. Certain item administration procedures were hypothesized to be among the most important variables causing differences in item performance and ultimately in test scores obtained from these different administration media. A study where these item administration procedures were made as identical as possible for each presentation medium is described. In addition, a methodology is presented for studying the difficulty and discrimination of items under each presentation medium as a post hoc procedure.