ADAPTING TO ADAPTIVE TESTING

Computer adaptive testing (CAT) is a relatively recent-innovation in l arge scale testing programs, but has had very limited application in p rivate industry. This paper describes the development of a CAT for use by a large insurance company in selecting computer programmer trainee s. Incumbents provided the calibration and evaluation data. The CAT le d to increased item security, but did not decrease required testing ti me. Further, the CAT was found to be similar to a conventional, fixed- item test in reliability and validity. In addition to actual test resu lts, computer simulated test data were used in a more detailed evaluat ion of the CAT's effectiveness. The concluding discussion notes the ad vantages and disadvantages observed from the use of adaptive testing.