title: What can we learn from Plausible Values?
abstract: In this paper, we show that the marginal distribution of plausible values is a consistent estimator of the true latent variable distribution, and, furthermore, that convergence is monotone in an embedding in which the number of items tends to infinity. We use this result to clarify some of the misconceptions that exist about plausible values, and also show how they can be used in the analyses of educational surveys.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 129-B, P.O. Box 15906, 1001  NK, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. m.marsman@uva.nl.|Cito, Schwaig, Germany. m.marsman@uva.nl.
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marsman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 129-B, P.O. Box 15906, 1001  NK, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Cito, Schwaig, Germany.
authors.forename: Gunter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maris
authors.affiliation: Cito, Schwaig, Germany.
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bechger
authors.affiliation: University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cees
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Glas
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011594:Psychometrics; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Bayesian theory; educational surveys; item response theory; plausible values