摘要：When administering large-scale assessments, item-position effects are of
particular importance because the applied test designs very often contain
several test booklets with the same items presented at different test positions.
Establishing such position effects would be most critical; it would mean that
the estimated item parameters do not depend exclusively on the items’
difficulties due to content but also on their presentation positions. As a
consequence, item calibration would be biased. By means of the linear logistic
test model (LLTM), item-position effects can be tested. In this paper, the
results of a simulation study demonstrating how LLTM is indeed able to detect
certain position effects in the framework of a large-scale assessment are
presented first. Second, empirical item-position effects of a specific
large-scale competence assessment in mathematics (4th grade students) are
analyzed using the LLTM. The results indicate that a small fatigue effect seems
to take place. The most important consequence of the given paper is that it is
advisable to try pertinent simulation studies before an analysis of empirical
data takes place; the reason is, that for the given example, the suggested
Likelihood-Ratio test neither holds the nominal type-I-risk, nor qualifies as
“robust”, and furthermore occasionally shows very low power.
