Melin Jeanette, Cano Stefan, Pendrill Leslie
Department of Measurement Science and Technology, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), AWL Sven Hultins Plats 5, vån 4, 412 58 Göteborg, Sweden.
Modus Outcomes, Spirella Building, Letchworth Garden City SG6 4ET, UK.
Entropy (Basel). 2021 Feb 9;23(2):212. doi: 10.3390/e23020212.
Commonly used rating scales and tests have been found lacking reliability and validity, for example in neurodegenerative diseases studies, owing to not making recourse to the inherent ordinality of human responses, nor acknowledging the separability of person ability and item difficulty parameters according to the well-known Rasch model. Here, we adopt an information theory approach, particularly extending deployment of the classic Brillouin entropy expression when explaining the difficulty of recalling non-verbal sequences in memory tests (i.e., Corsi Block Test and Digit Span Test): a more ordered task, of less entropy, will generally be easier to perform. Construct specification equations (CSEs) as a part of a methodological development, with entropy-based variables dominating, are found experimentally to explain ( =R2 = 0.98) and predict the construct of task difficulty for short-term memory tests using data from the NeuroMET (n = 88) and Gothenburg MCI (n = 257) studies. We propose entropy-based equivalence criteria, whereby different tasks (in the form of items) from different tests can be combined, enabling new memory tests to be formed by choosing a bespoke selection of items, leading to more efficient testing, improved reliability (reduced uncertainties) and validity. This provides opportunities for more practical and accurate measurement in clinical practice, research and trials.
人们发现，常用的评分量表和测试缺乏可靠性和有效性，例如在神经退行性疾病研究中，这是因为它们没有利用人类反应固有的顺序性，也没有根据著名的拉施模型承认个体能力和项目难度参数的可分离性。在此，我们采用一种信息论方法，特别是在解释记忆测试（即科西块测试和数字广度测试）中回忆非语言序列的难度时，扩展经典布里渊熵表达式的应用：一个更有序、熵更低的任务通常执行起来更容易。作为方法学发展的一部分，构建规范方程（CSEs），其中基于熵的变量占主导地位，通过实验发现，使用来自神经MET（n = 88）和哥德堡轻度认知障碍（n = 257）研究的数据，可以解释（=R2 = 0.98）并预测短期记忆测试的任务难度结构。我们提出基于熵的等效标准，据此可以组合来自不同测试的不同任务（以项目形式），通过选择定制的项目选择来形成新的记忆测试，从而实现更高效的测试、提高可靠性（减少不确定性）和有效性。这为临床实践、研究和试验中更实际、准确的测量提供了机会。
