Test Design with Cognition in Mind

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Abstract
One of the primary themes of the National Research Council's 2001 book Knowing What Students Know was the importance of cognition as a component of assessment design and measurement theory (NRC, 2001). One reaction to the book has been an increased use of sophisticated statistical methods to model cognitive information available in test data. However, the application of these cognitive‐psychometric methods is fruitless if the tests to which they are applied lack a formal cognitive structure. If assessments are to provide meaningful information about student ability, then cognition must be incorporated into the test development process much earlier than in data analysis. This paper reviews recent advancements in cognitively‐based test development and validation, and suggests various ways practitioners can incorporate similar methods into their own work.

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