Stopping Rules for Computer Adaptive Testing When Item Banks Have Nonuniform Information

The () stopping rule, which terminates a (CAT) when the SE is less than a threshold, is effective when there are informative questions for all trait levels. However, in domains such as patient reported outcomes, the items in a bank might all target one end of the trait continuum (e.g., negative symptoms), and the bank may lack depth for many individuals. In such cases, the (PSER) stopping rule will stop the CAT even if the threshold has not been reached, and can avoid administering excessive questions that provide little additional information. By tuning the parameters of the PSER algorithm, a practitioner can specify a desired tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency Using simulated data for the PROMIS and banks, we demonstrate that these parameters can substantially impact CAT performance. When the parameters were optimally tuned, the PSER stopping rule was found to outperform the stopping rule overall and particularly for individuals not targeted by the bank, and presented roughly the same number of items across the trait continuum. Therefore, the PSER stopping rule provides an effective method for balancing the precision and efficiency of a CAT.