Adaptive Inventories
A Practical Guide for Applied Researchers

This Element explains the statistical foundations of computerized adaptive inventories and how to use the tools provided to implement them.

Jacob M. Montgomery (Author), Erin L. Rossiter (Author)

9781108797269, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 July 2022

75 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.16 kg

The goal of this Element is to provide a detailed introduction to adaptive inventories, an approach to making surveys adjust to respondents' answers dynamically. This method can help survey researchers measure important latent traits or attitudes accurately while minimizing the number of questions respondents must answer. The Element provides both a theoretical overview of the method and a suite of tools and tricks for integrating it into the normal survey process. It also provides practical advice and direction on how to calibrate, evaluate, and field adaptive batteries using example batteries that measure variety of latent traits of interest to survey researchers across the social sciences.

1. Introducing Adaptive Inventories
2. Introduction to CAT for Binary Outcomes
3. Exploring Your Options: Alternative CAT Algorithms
4. CAT for Polytomous Outcomes
5. Evaluating Adaptive Inventories
6. Tools and Tricks for Applied Researchers
7. Implications and Future Directions

Subject Areas: Data mining [UNF], Probability & statistics [PBT], Social research & statistics [JHBC], Society & social sciences [J], Research methods: general [GPS], Coding theory & cryptology [GPJ]