ScholarOne - A Generalized Multi-Detectors Combination Approach for
Differential Item Functioning Detection
Abstract
To achieve more accurate and robust Differential Item Functioning (DIF)
detection, this study introduces a novel approach called Multi-Detectors
Combination (MDC). The main innovation of the MDC approach lies in
effectively integrating multiple existing single DIF detection methods
under observable examination conditions. Four specific MDC methods (LR,
NB, TAN, and SVM) are evaluated using simulated data (360 testing
conditions). The results indicate that MDC methods outperform single DIF
detection in accuracy (AUC: 81.2% to 82.3%), surpassing the AUC values
of other methods, which ranged only from 59.4% to 77.4%. Moreover, MDC
methods demonstrate enhanced precision (RMSE: 0.528 to 0.531) in ability
estimation. Analysis of actual data further validates the MDC approach’s
superior stability in ability estimation, achieved by excluding flagged
DIF items.