Moreover, we assume that the positive effect of item difficulty on test-taking disengagement is weaker for more able test-takers because the relative item difficulty is lower for them.
The relative item parameter estimates (for each country, the mean value of the item parameter estimates is zero) are used to examine statistically significant differences as an indication for DIF.
In both conditions, the relative item familiarity of the items in the configurations was the same, while the configurations of the items was manipulated.
One possible explanation of the observed activity (II > IR) is that the relative item memory in the II condition is greater than that of the IR condition.
Secondly, the relative item characteristics for each theme (skills, anatomy and professionalism) were compared by performing a Rasch analysis separately for each exam.
Thus, in the ROIs selected to show differences in activity between associative (II) and non-associative (IR) trials, activity associated with subsequently forgotten trials was in-between the other two indicating that the observed difference in activity is due to something other than the relative item memory strength in each condition.
Although an associative strategy would be the most effective way to solve this task, it is worth considering the possibility that participants based their responses to previously encountered stimuli on the relative item familiarity of those stimuli and treated the three response options as three points on a confidence-rating scale.
People with MS, stroke, or HIV/AIDS do experience fatigue interference differently, as evidenced by the varying relative item hierarchies and the diagnostic differences in four of the FSS-7 items.
Therefore it is justifiable to conclude that the different relative item thresholds compared with US data, does not require alteration to the cut-points of two affirmatives for the classification of 'food insecurity without hunger' or five affirmatives for 'food insecurity with hunger'.
Other considerations include the targeting of relative item difficulties to the abilities of the candidate population, and the statistical quality of the test items themselves.
