Confirmatory analyses of componential test structure using multidimensional item response theory

The componential structure of synonym tasks is investigated using confirmat ory multidimensional two-parameter IRT models. It was hypothesized that an open synonym task is decomposable into generating synonym candidates and ev aluating these candidate words with respect to their synonymy with the stim ulus word. Two subtasks were constructed to identify these two components. Different confirmatory models were estimated both with TESTMAP and with NOH ARM. The componential hypothesis was supported, but it was found that the g eneration subtask also involved some evaluation and that generation and eva luation were highly correlated.