Test collusion (TC) is a form of cheating in which, examinees operate in groups to alter normal item responses. TC is becoming increasingly common, especially within high-stakes, large-scale examinations. However, research on TC detection methods remains scarce. The present article proposes a new algorithm for TC detection, inspired by variable selection within high-dimensional statistical analysis. The algorithm relies only on item responses and supports different response similarity indices. Simulation and practical studies were conducted to (1) compare the performance of the new algorithm against the recently developed clique detector approach, and (2) verify the performance of the new algorithm in a large-scale test setting.
The questionnaire method has always been an important research method in psychology. The increasing prevalence of multidimensional trait measures in psychological research has led researchers to use longer questionnaires. However, questionnaires that are too long will inevitably reduce the quality of the completed questionnaires and the efficiency of collection. Computer adaptive testing (CAT) can be used to reduce the test length while preserving the measurement accuracy. However, it is more often used in aptitude testing and involves a large number of parametric assumptions. Applying CAT to psychological questionnaires often requires question-specific model design and preexperimentation. The present article proposes a nonparametric and item response theory (IRT)-independent CAT algorithm. The new algorithm is simple and highly generalizable. It can be quickly used in a variety of questionnaires and tests without being limited by theoretical assumptions in different research areas. Simulation and empirical studies were conducted to demonstrate the validity of the new algorithm in aptitude tests and personality measures.
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