Estimation Infrastructure for Asymmetric IRT Models

This supplement provides the estimation infrastructure used in the manuscript, On the asymmetry, complexity, and predicted data pattern of nontraditional item response theory models.

It includes: (1) analysis settings, (2) Gauss-Hermite quadrature setup, (3) custom item definitions for AO, LPE, and RH with analytic gradients and Hessians, (4) prior specification and starting-value transfer routines, and (5) an LSAT7 illustration that demonstrates the full estimation pipeline from a baseline 2PLM fit through all three asymmetric models.

Analysis settings

Gauss-Hermite quadrature N(0,1)

Helpers

Create custom items

Starting values and custom fits

Safe extractors

Fixed defaults

LSAT7 illustration

Run LSAT7 illustration


--- 2PLM ---
# A tibble: 5 × 5
   item    a1     d     g     u
  <int> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
1     1 0.988 1.86      0     1
2     2 1.08  0.808     0     1
3     3 1.70  1.80      0     1
4     4 0.765 0.486     0     1
5     5 0.736 1.85      0     1

--- Custom AO ---
# A tibble: 5 × 4
   item    a1     d     eta
  <int> <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl>
1     1 1.01  1.89   0.0212
2     2 0.973 0.607 -0.315 
3     3 1.71  1.82   0.0139
4     4 0.937 0.850  0.459 
5     5 0.720 1.80  -0.0449

--- Custom LPE ---
# A tibble: 5 × 4
   item    a1     d       S
  <int> <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl>
1     1 0.984 1.93   0.0664
2     2 1.19  0.414 -0.308 
3     3 1.69  1.84   0.0329
4     4 0.707 0.920  0.349 
5     5 0.742 1.82  -0.0311

--- Custom RH ---
# A tibble: 5 × 4
   item    a1     d   delta
  <int> <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl>
1     1 0.637 1.12   0.639 
2     2 0.649 0.433 -0.578 
3     3 0.947 1.03   0.0182
4     4 0.426 0.379  1.27  
5     5 0.437 1.10   0.0829

--- Built-in LPE (5PLM with g = 0, u = 1; for comparison) ---
# A tibble: 5 × 6
   item    a1     d     g     u    logS
  <int> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl>
1     1 0.985 1.94      0     1  0.0750
2     2 1.23  0.275     0     1 -0.410 
3     3 1.68  1.83      0     1  0.0286
4     4 0.718 0.823     0     1  0.269 
5     5 0.742 1.84      0     1 -0.0141