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The paired-comparison analogue of the test-information function. The Fisher information a single comparison carries about the location difference d = beta_a - beta_b is, in this exponential family, the variance of its score – P(1 - P) for the dichotomous choice and the graded response variance V for the ordinal extension (the score is the sufficient statistic for d, so its variance is the information). Weighted by each comparison's replication count and summed over the comparisons the design actually contains, this gives a design information for every object: how much the observed comparisons pin its location down, the counterpart of an item's contribution to test information. Because the information peaks at gap zero and falls away with the location gap, near-neighbour contests are the informative ones.

Usage

btl_information(fit)

Arguments

fit

A paired-comparison fit from btl.

Value

A list of class "rasch_btl_info": objects (per object: location, the fit's se, n_comparisons, the design information, and se_naive); pairs (per observed pair: n, the mean location gap, and the pair's information); comparisons (per comparison: the signed gap, weight, and the single-comparison information); the scalar total information; m; the clustered flag; and notes.

Details

The design information inverts to se_naive = 1 / sqrt(information): the error the object's comparisons would give if its location were the ONLY free parameter – a single-parameter lower bound, useful for reading which objects the design serves well. It is not the model's standard error even with independent comparisons (every location is estimated jointly with the others, and the fit's own se is additionally the judge-clustered Godambe sandwich), so se sits above se_naive as a rule; treat their ratio as descriptive, not as a clustering test.

References

Pollitt, A. (2012). The method of adaptive comparative judgement. Assessment in Education, 19(3), 281-300.

Examples

set.seed(1)
beta <- c(A = -1, B = -0.3, C = 0.4, D = 0.9)
pr <- t(combn(names(beta), 2))
d <- data.frame(a = rep(pr[, 1], each = 30), b = rep(pr[, 2], each = 30))
d$win <- ifelse(runif(nrow(d)) < plogis(beta[d$a] - beta[d$b]), d$a, d$b)
btl_information(btl(d, "a", "b", "win"))
#> Paired-comparison design information: 4 objects, total 30.04
#> One-comparison Fisher information about the location gap (dichotomous: P(1 - P))
#>  object location    se n_comparisons information se_naive
#>       A   -1.238 0.214            90      12.487    0.283
#>       B   -0.354 0.186            90      17.100    0.242
#>       C    0.448 0.180            90      17.030    0.242
#>       D    1.144 0.209            90      13.463    0.273
#> Note: se is the Godambe sandwich standard error; se_naive = 1/sqrt(information) is a single-parameter lower bound (as if the object's location were the only free parameter), so se sits above it as a rule