Synonyms
Equivalent forms; Parallel forms
Definition
Alternate test forms are designed to avoid or reduce content- or item-specific practice effects that are associated with repeated administrations of the same neuropsychological test(s) (Fastenau et al. 2002). Examination of the manuals for many intellectual and neuropsychological tests illustrates that practice effects are common, especially over brief retest intervals (e.g., days or weeks). Regarding test construction, alternate test forms should include the same number of items, and the items should be of equivalent difficulty. Moreover, the test instructions, time limits, examples, and format should be identical to the original instrument developed during standardization, to reduce measurement error (Jackson 2009). Of course, measurement error can never be eliminated. For example, content-sampling error and time-sampling error – inherent in all test-retest paradigms – are always concerns in developing alternate test forms...
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Iverson, G.L., Ferguson, K.E. (2018). Alternate Test Forms. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1170
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1170
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