ctt_distr: Option/Category Response Distribution and Distractor Analysis

In irtQ: Unidimensional Item Response Theory Modeling

Option/Category Response Distribution and Distractor Analysis

Description

Computes, for each item, the percentage of examinees choosing each response option (or, for already-scored polytomous data, each score category), together with each option's/category's point-biserial correlation with the total score. When an answer key is supplied, the function operates in "selected-response" mode - treating data as raw, unscored option responses (as consumed by score_resp()) - and additionally reports omission/double-marking rates and flags distractors (incorrect options) whose correlation with the total score is positive, a common indicator of a miskeyed or poorly written item. When no key is supplied, the function operates in "scored-category" mode - treating data as an already-scored response matrix (0, 1, 2, ..., cats - 1) - and simply reports each score category's response proportion and category-total correlation, with no notion of a "correct" option to flag distractors against.

Usage

ctt_distr(
  data,
  item.id = NULL,
  key = NULL,
  opt = NULL,
  cats = NULL,
  total = NULL,
  correct = FALSE,
  missing = NA,
  crit.distractor = 0
)

Arguments

data	In selected-response mode (key supplied), a data frame or matrix of raw item responses in the same format as the data argument of score_resp() (a selected option number, a missing-response indicator, or a comma-separated string such as "1,5" for a double-marked response). In scored-category mode (key = NULL), a data frame or matrix of already-scored item responses with scores 0 to cats[j] - 1 for each item j. Either way, examinees are rows and items are columns.
item.id	A character vector of item identifiers, in the same order as the columns of data. If NULL (default), item IDs are generated automatically as paste0("V", 1:ncol(data)), following the convention used elsewhere in irtQ (e.g., shape_df(), est_irt()). Note that this generated ID does not fall back to colnames(data); pass item.id explicitly to label items using the column names of data or any other identifier scheme.
key	NULL (default) for scored-category mode, or - to use selected-response mode - either a vector of correct options in item order, or a data frame with columns item and key, exactly as accepted by score_resp(). As in score_resp(), each item's option-coding scheme (numeric, Latin-letter, or general label such as a Korean syllable label) is inferred independently from its own key value; see Details.
opt	A vector giving the full set of possible response option values in selected-response mode (e.g., 1:5 for a five-option item, or c("A", "B", "C", "D", "E") for a letter-coded item), applied to every item. Only used when key is supplied; it is silently ignored in scored-category mode (key = NULL), which instead derives its category set from cats. If NULL (default), the option set is inferred as the sorted set of all single (non-blank, non-double-marked) response values observed anywhere in data, using each item's own option-coding scheme to decide what counts as a single response (see Details). Because opt is shared across every item, ctt_distr() assumes a test form uses one consistent option-coding scheme throughout; see Details for what happens if items actually differ.
cats	A numeric vector giving the number of score categories per item, following the same convention as ctt(). Only used in scored-category mode (key = NULL); silently ignored when key is supplied. If NULL (default), inferred per item as the observed maximum score plus one.
total	An optional numeric vector of total scores, one per examinee, aligned with the rows of data. If NULL (default), the total score is computed internally: via score_resp() in selected-response mode, or as rowSums(data) in scored-category mode (see Details for how total interacts with missing/listwise deletion in scored-category mode).
correct	Logical. Both the raw (uncorrected) item-total correlation - where an item (or, in ctt_distr(), a response option/category) is correlated with the total score that includes its own contribution - and the corrected item-total correlation - excluding its own contribution - are always computed and reported as separate columns (see Details/Value). This argument only controls which of the two is used for flagging: if TRUE, flagging (in ctt_item()'s flag column, ctt_alpha()'s summary discrimination figure, and, in ctt_distr(), the crit.distractor check) is based on the corrected value; if FALSE (default), on the raw value.
missing	A value indicating missing responses, analogous to the missing argument in est_irt() and score_resp(). Its effect differs by mode (see Details): in selected-response mode, a cell equal to missing is recoded to NA and then treated as a blank (omitted) response, contributing to that item's omission rate, without removing the examinee from the analysis. In scored-category mode, a cell equal to missing is recoded to NA and the examinee's row is then excluded listwise, as in ctt(). Default is NA.
crit.distractor	A single numeric value; in selected-response mode, a distractor (non-key option) is flagged when its point-biserial correlation with the total score exceeds this value. Default is 0.

Details

In selected-response mode, each item's option-coding scheme is inferred from its own key value, using exactly the same three-way rule as score_resp(): a key value that parses as a number is compared numerically; a key value consisting of one or more Latin letters is compared as letters, case-insensitively, and a response must itself consist only of Latin letters to count as a single valid option; any other key value (e.g., a Korean syllable label, a Roman numeral written in a non-Latin numeral script, or a circled-number symbol) is treated as a general option label, under which any non-blank, non-double-marked response is accepted as a single valid option and compared to the key (and to opt) with a case-insensitive exact string match. This ensures ctt_distr() interprets a given data/key pair identically to score_resp(). Because opt (the option universe used for every item's frequency table) is a single vector shared across all items, ctt_distr() is intended for a test form that uses one consistent option-coding scheme throughout (e.g., every item numbered 1-5, or every item lettered A-E); mixing schemes across items within a single call is not well-supported, since the shared opt cannot represent two different option universes at once.

The two modes handle missing responses differently because they represent different kinds of data. In selected-response mode, an omitted response is itself a meaningful, common outcome for a selected-response item (the examinee saw the item and chose not to answer it), so omissions are tabulated as their own category rather than causing the examinee to be dropped, exactly as in score_resp(). In scored-category mode, data is assumed to already be a scored response matrix (as used by ctt()), where a missing cell instead means the item was not administered to, or not observed for, that examinee, so the examinee's row is excluded listwise for that analysis. When total is supplied together with scored-category mode's listwise deletion, total is assumed to align with the original rows of data; it is subset using the same completeness mask before use, so its length need only match the original nrow(data).

Point-biserial correlations are computed as the Pearson correlation between a 0/1 indicator (whether the examinee chose that particular option, or scored in that particular category) and the total score. As with the item-level discrimination statistics computed by ctt(), both the raw (uncorrected, item/option-included) and corrected (item-excluded) versions are always computed and returned as separate columns (pb_raw/pb_corrected); correct only selects which of the two feeds the crit.distractor flagging criterion in selected-response mode. A point-biserial correlation is undefined, and reported as NA, whenever an option/category was chosen by zero or all examinees (a constant indicator).

Value

A list with these elements:

distr

A data frame in long format with one row per item x option (selected-response mode) or item x category (scored-category mode), containing item, option (the option number, option label, or score category; numeric for a numeric-coded or scored-category test form, character for a letter- or general-label-coded test form), is_key (logical; whether this option is the item's correct answer, or NA in scored-category mode), freq (the raw number of examinees choosing this option/category), pct (the same count expressed as a percentage of examinees), pb_raw (raw, uncorrected point-biserial correlation with the total score), pb_corrected (corrected, item-excluded point-biserial correlation with the total score), and flag (a description of crit.distractor violations, based on whichever of pb_raw/pb_corrected is selected by correct, in selected-response mode, or "" otherwise).

omit

In selected-response mode, a data frame with one row per item giving the blank/omission and double-marked response percentages (pct_blank, pct_double). NULL in scored-category mode.

Note

Selected-response mode (key supplied) is restricted to dichotomous, single-key items only, exactly like score_resp(), which it calls internally to obtain the 0/1 scored responses and total score: a selected-response item has exactly one correct option and therefore cannot yield a partial-credit score by construction, so a mixed dichotomous/polytomous test form cannot be analyzed in this mode. Scored-category mode (key = NULL) has no such restriction: because cats is always a per-item vector, a single call fully supports a genuinely mixed dichotomous/polytomous test form (see Examples). If raw selected-response data and already-scored polytomous data need to be analyzed together, score the selected-response items first (via score_resp() or this function's own selected-response mode), then combine the result with the polytomous scores and call ctt_distr() again in scored-category mode on the combined matrix.

Author(s)

Hwanggyu Lim [e-mail]

See Also

score_resp(), ctt()

Examples

# Selected-response mode: raw option responses + an answer key
raw <- data.frame(
  V1 = c("1", "2", "1", "1", "3", "2", "1", "4"),
  V2 = c("4", "4", "2", "2,4", "4", "1", "4", "4")
)
key <- c(1, 4)
out <- ctt_distr(data = raw, key = key)
out$distr
out$omit

# Scored-category mode: an already-scored polytomous matrix, no key
set.seed(1)
scored <- data.frame(matrix(sample(0:2, 8 * 3, replace = TRUE), nrow = 8))
out2 <- ctt_distr(data = scored)
out2$distr

# Scored-category mode also handles a genuinely mixed dichotomous/
# polytomous test form in a single call, since `cats` is always a
# per-item vector (see Note): item 3 below contributes 3 category rows
# while items 1-2 contribute 2 each
mixed <- data.frame(
  I1 = c(1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1),   # dichotomous item (cats = 2)
  I2 = c(0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1),   # dichotomous item (cats = 2)
  I3 = c(2, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1)    # polytomous item (cats = 3)
)
out2b <- ctt_distr(data = mixed, cats = c(2, 2, 3))
out2b$distr

# Selected-response mode with letter-coded (A-E) options: each item's
# coding scheme is inferred from its own key value, exactly as in
# irtQ::score_resp()
raw3 <- data.frame(
  V1 = c("A", "B", "A", "A", "C", "B", "A", "D"),
  V2 = c("D", "D", "B", "B,D", "D", "A", "D", "D")
)
key3 <- c("A", "D")
out3 <- ctt_distr(data = raw3, key = key3)
out3$distr

irtQ documentation built on Oct. 5, 2026, 5:08 p.m.