title: Empirical Comparison Between Factor Analysis and Multidimensional Item Response Models.
abstract: Many factor analysis and multidimensional item response models for dichotomous variables have been proposed in literature. The models and various methods for estimating the item parameters are reviewed briefly. In a simulation study these methods are compared with respect to their estimates of the item parameters both in terms of an item response theory formulation and in terms of a factor analysis formulation. It is concluded that for multidimensional data a common factor analysis on the matrix of tetrachoric correlations performs at least as well as the theoretically appropriate multidimensional item response models.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Knol
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Berger