A Feasibility Study for Developing a Computerized Adaptive Form of Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices Test for Omani Children Based on the Item Response Theory

Abstract

The current study investigated the feasibility of developing a computerized adaptive form of Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices test, one of the most important culture-free intelligent tests, using the Item Response Theory. The test consists of 36 items divided into three groups. The data used in the current study were adapted from the study by Kadhim et al. (2008), which included 1042 subjects, aged 5 to 10 from both genders and distributed into 11 Omani governorates. Item Response Theory assumptions were met and then the mirtCAT package was used to evaluate a computerized adaptive form of the test. Raven’s test items were compatible with the three-parameter model which was used to scale the test items. The Maximum Fisher Information method was used to select items in the adaptive form. The full and the adaptive forms were compared to each other across the different simulated conditions in the current study. The results indicated that using 17 items of the adaptive form could accurately estimate the subjects’ abilities without a substantial loss of information. The previous finding is a preliminary indication of the possibility of developing an adaptive form of the colored progressive matrices test that can be used in various assessments that practitioners may need to assess, classify or diagnose children.