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flexmet (version 1.1)

greek2b: Find the b Vector from a Greek-Letter Parameterization of Item Parameters.

Description

Convert the Greek-letter parameterization of item parameters (used to ensure monotonicitiy) to the b-vector parameterization (polynomial coefficients).

Usage

greek2b(xi, omega, alpha = NULL, tau = NULL)

Arguments

xi

see details

omega

see details

alpha

see details, vector of length k, set to NULL if k = 0

tau

see details, vector of length k, set to NULL if k = 0

Value

A vector of item parameters in the b parameterization.

Details

For $$m(\theta) = b_{0} + b_{1}\theta + b_{2}\theta^2 + \cdots + b_{2k+1}\theta^{2k+1}$$ to be a monotonic function, a necessary and sufficient condition is that its first derivative, $$p(\theta) = a_{0} + a_{1}\theta + ... + a_{2k}\theta^{2k},$$ is nonnegative at all theta. Here, let $$b_{0} = \xi$$ be the constant of integration and $$b_{s} = a_{s-1}/s$$ for \(s = 1, 2, ..., 2k+1\). Notice that \(p(\theta)\) is a polynomial function of degree \(2k\). A nonnegative polynomial of an even degree can be re-expressed as the product of k quadratic functions.

If \(k \geq 1\): $$p(\theta) = \exp{\omega} \Pi_{s=1}^{k}[1 - 2\alpha_{s}\theta + (\alpha_{s}^2+ \exp(\tau_{s}))\theta^2]$$

If \(k = 0\): $$p(\theta) = 0.$$

References

Liang, L., & Browne, M. W. (2015). A quasi-parametric method for fitting flexible item response functions. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 40, 5--34. 10.3102/1076998614556816

See Also

b2greek

Examples

Run this code
# NOT RUN {
(bvec <- greek2b(xi = 0, omega = 1, alpha = .1, tau = -1))
## 0.0000000  2.7182818 -0.2718282  0.3423943

(b2greek(bvec))
##  0.0  1.0  0.1 -1.0

# }

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