title: Distributions of the Kullback-Leibler divergence with applications.
abstract: The Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD) is a widely used method for measuring the fit of two distributions. In general, the distribution of the KLD is unknown. Under reasonable assumptions, common in psychometrics, the distribution of the KLD is shown to be asymptotically distributed as a scaled (non-central) chi-square with one degree of freedom or a scaled (doubly non-central) F. Applications of the KLD for detecting heterogeneous response data are discussed with particular emphasis on test security.
authors.affiliation: Law School Admission Council, Newtown, PA, USA. dbelov@Isac.org
authors.forename: Dmitry I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Belov
authors.forename: Ronald D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Armstrong
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D011338:Probability Theory; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018401:Sample Size; D013269:Stochastic Processes