Modeling Asymmetry in the Time–Distance Relation of Ordinal Personality Items

• Published in: Applied psychological measurement Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 178 - 194
• Main Authors: Molenaar, Dylan, Rózsa, Sandor, Kõ, Natasa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2021
• Subjects: Likert-type scale; response times; item response theory; personality
• ISSN: 0146-6216; 1552-3497
• DOI: 10.1177/0146621621990756

In analyzing responses and response times to personality questionnaire items, models have been proposed which include the so-called “inverted-U effect.” These models predict that response times to personality test items decrease as the latent trait value of a given person gets closer to the attractiveness of an item. Initial studies into these models have focused on dichotomous personality items, and more recently, models for Likert-type scale items have been proposed. In all these models, it is assumed that the inverted-U effect is symmetrical around 0, while, as will be explained in this article, there are substantive and statistical reasons to study this assumption. Therefore, in this article, a general inverted-U model is proposed which accommodates two sources of asymmetry between the response times and the attractiveness of the items. The viability of this model is demonstrated in a simulation study, and the model is applied to the responses and response times of the Temperament and Character Inventory–Revised, covering a broad range of personality dimensions.