A supervised learning approach to estimating IRT models in small samples

Abstract Existing estimators of parameters of item response theory (IRT) models exploit the likelihood function. In small samples, however, the IRT likelihood oftentimes contains little informative value, potentially resulting in biased and/or unstable parameter estimates and large standard errors. To facilitate small‐sample IRT estimation, we introduce a novel approach that does not rely on the likelihood. Our estimation approach derives features from response data and then maps the features to item parameters using a neural network (NN). We describe and evaluate our approach for the three‐parameter logistic model; however, it is applicable to any model with an item characteristic curve. Three types of NNs are developed, supporting the obtainment of both point estimates and confidence intervals for IRT model parameters. The results of a simulation study demonstrate that these NNs perform better than Bayesian estimation using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods in terms of the quality of the point estimates and confidence intervals while also being much faster. These properties facilitate (1) pretesting items in a real‐time testing environment, (2) pretesting more items and (3) pretesting items only in a secured environment to eradicate possible compromise of new items in online testing.