Partially and Fully Noncompensatory Response Models for Dichotomous and Polytomous Items

Abstract

This article extends Sympson’s partially noncompensatory dichtomous response model to ordered response data, and introduces a set of fully noncompensatory models for dichotomous and polytomous response data. The theoretical properties of the partially and fully noncompensatory response models are contrasted, and a small set of Monte Carlo simulations are presented to evaluate their parameter recovery performance. Results indicate that the respective models fit the data similarly when correctly matched to their respective population generating model. The fully noncompensatory models, however, demonstrated lower sampling variability and smaller degrees of bias than the partially noncompensatory counterparts. Based on the theoretical properties and empirical performance, it is argued that the fully noncompensatory models should be considered in item response theory applications when investigating conjunctive response processes.