Definition
Test-retest reliability is the degree to which test scores remain unchanged when measuring a stable individual characteristic on different occasions.
Description
Test-retest reliability measures the stability of the scores of a stable construct obtained from the same person on two or more separate occasions. Reliability concerns the degree to which scores can be distinguished from each other, despite measurement error. In the case of test-retest assessment, intraindividual response variability is used to estimate measurement error (Hays, Anderson, & Revicki, 1993).
Evaluation of the Test-Retest Reliability of a Continuous Variable
The Classical Test Theory Approach
According to classical test theory (CTT), reliability (R) is defined as the ratio of true score variance \( ({\sigma_t}^2) \) to total score variance, which is the sum of the true score variance and the error variance \(...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bland, J. M., & Altman, D. G. (1986). Statistical methods for assessing agreement between two methods of clinical measurement. Lancet, 1, 307–310.
Cronbach, L. (1947). Test “reliability”: Its meaning and determination. Psychometrika, 12, 1–16.
Guttman, L. (1945). A basis for analyzing test-retest reliability. Psychometrika, 10, 255–282.
Hays, R. D., Anderson, R., & Revicki, D. (1993). Psychometric considerations in evaluating health-related quality of life measures. Quality of Life Research, 2, 441–449.
Luiz, R. R., Costa, A. J., Kale, P. L., & Werneck, G. L. (2003). Assessment of agreement of a quantitative variable: a new graphical approach. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 56, 963–967.
McArdle, J. J., & Woodcock, R. W. (1997). Expanding test-retest designs to include developmental time-lag components. Psychological Methods, 2, 403–435.
McGraw, K. O., & Wong, S. P. (1996). Forming inferences about some intraclass correlation coefficients. Psychological Methods, 1, 30–46.
Monti, K. (1995). Folded empirical distribution function curves-Mountain plots. The American Statistician, 49, 342–345.
Morrison, D. (1981). A stochastic model for test-retest correlations. Psychometrika, 46, 143–151.
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Shrout, P. E., & Fleiss, J. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 420–428.
Streiner, D. L., & Norman, G. R. (1989). Health measurement scales: A practical guide to their development and use. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Terwee, C. B., Bot, S. D., De Boer, M. R., van der Windt, D. A., Knol, D. L., Dekker, J., et al. (2007). Quality criteria were proposed for measurement properties of health status questionnaires. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 60, 34–42.
Tisak, J., & Tisak, M. S. (1996). Longitudinal models of reliability and validity: A latent curve approach. Applied Psychological Measurement, 20, 275–288.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Vilagut, G. (2014). Test-Retest Reliability. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_3001
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_3001
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0752-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0753-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law