Robust Estimation of Ability and Mental Speed Employing the Hierarchical Model for Responses and Response Times

Van der Linden's hierarchical model for responses and response times can be used in order to infer the ability and mental speed of test takers from their responses and response times in an educational test. A standard approach for this is maximum likelihood estimation. In real‐world applications, the data of some test takers might be partly irregular, resulting from rapid guessing or item preknowledge. The maximum likelihood estimator is not...