Simulating computer adaptive testing with the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire.

In a post hoc simulation study (N = 3,597 psychiatric outpatients), we investigated whether the efficiency of the 90-item Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ) could be improved for assessing clinical subjects with computerized adaptive testing (CAT). A CAT simulation was performed on each of the 3 MASQ subscales (Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Somatic Anxiety). With the CAT simulation's stopping rule set at a high level of measurement precision, the results showed that patients' test administration can be shortened substantially; the mean decrease in items used for the subscales ranged from 56% up to 74%. Furthermore, the predictive utility of the CAT simulations was sufficient for all MASQ scales. The findings reveal that developing a MASQ CAT for clinical subjects is useful as it leads to more efficient measurement without compromising the reliability of the test outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).