| Winsteps Program Manual |
| Control Variable Index |
| Control Variable Index by function |
| Input Files Index |
| Output Table Index |
| Output Files Index |
| Output Graphs and Plots Index |
 | Introduction |
| Rasch analysis and WINSTEPS |
| References |
| About the Program Manual |
| Getting further help |
| Installation and Execution |
| What is supplied |
| Installation instructions for WINSTEPS |
| Starting WINSTEPS in Windows |
| Using Winsteps under Windows |
| Uninstalling WINSTEPS |
| Stopping WINSTEPS |
| Menus |
| Menu bar |
| Batch menu |
| Data Setup menu |
| Diagnosis menu |
| Edit menu |
| Excel/RSSST menu |
| File menu |
| Graphs menu |
| Help menu |
| Output Files menu |
| Output Tables menu |
| Plots menu |
| Right-click menus |
| Specification menu |
| Control and Data File Setup |
| Control and data file setup window |
| Reading in a pre-existent control file |
| Data display |
| Item labels |
| Category labels |
| The Control and Data Files |
| Do-it-yourself control and data file construction |
| Control file and template.txt |
| Data file |
| Data from Excel files |
| Data from R Statistics files |
| Data from SAS files |
| Data from SPSS files |
| Data from STATA files |
| Data from Text files (with Tabs) |
| Data from Excel and other spreadsheets |
| Data file with other delimiters |
| Examples of Control and Data Files |
| Example 0: Rating scale data: The Liking for Science data |
| Example 1: Dichotomous data: Simple control file with data included |
| Example 2: Control and anchor files |
| Example 3: Item recoding and item deletion |
| Example 4: Selective item recoding |
| Example 5: Scoring key for items, also CAT responses |
| Example 6: Keys in data record FORMAT |
| Example 7: A partial credit analysis |
| Example 8: Items with various rating scale models |
| Example 9: Grouping and modeling items |
| Example 10: Combining tests with common items |
| Example 11: Item responses two characters wide |
| Example 12: Comparing high and low samples with rating scales |
| Example 13: Paired comparisons as the basis for measurement |
| Example 14: Multiple rescorings, response structures and widths |
| Example 15: Figure skating: Multidimensionality, DIF or Bias |
| Example 16: Disordered categories - thresholds and person anchoring |
| Example 17: Rack, stack, principal components |
| Control Variables |
| ALPHANUM= alphabetic numbering |
| ASCII= characters |
| ASYMPTOTE= item upper and lower asymptotes |
| BATCH= Batch mode analysis |
| BYITEM= display graphs for items |
| CATREF= reference category for Table 2 |
| CFILE= scored category label file |
| CHART= graphical plots in Tables 10, 13-15 |
| CLFILE= codes label file |
| CODES= valid data codes |
| CONVERGE= select convergence criteria |
| CSV= comma-separated values in output files |
| CURVES= probability curves for Table 21 and Table 2 |
| CUTHI= cut off responses with high probability of success |
| CUTLO= cut off responses with low probability of success |
| DATA= name of data file |
| DELIMITER= data field delimiters |
| DIF= columns within person label for Table 30 |
| DISCRIMINATION= item discrimination |
| DISFILE= category/distractor/option count file |
| DISTRACTOR= output option counts in Tables 10, 13-15 |
| DPF= columns within item label for Table 31 |
| EDFILE= edit data file |
| END LABELS or END NAMES |
| EQFILE= code equivalences |
| EXCAT= extreme category adjustment = 0 |
| EXTRSC= extreme score correction for extreme measures |
| FITHIGH= higher bar in charts |
| FITI= item misfit criterion |
| FITLOW= lower bar in charts |
| FITP= person misfit criterion |
| FORMAT= reformat data |
| FORMFD= the form feed character |
| FRANGE= half-range of fit statistics on plots |
| FSHOW= show files created from control file |
| GRFILE= probability curve coordinate output file |
| GROUPS= or ISGROUPS= assigns items to rating scale groupings |
| GRPFROM= location of ISGROUPS |
| GUFILE= (G0ZONE=, G1ZONE=) Guttmanized response file |
| HEADER= display or suppress subtable headings |
| HIADJ= correction for top rating scale categories |
| HLINES= heading lines in output files |
| IAFILE= item anchor file |
| IANCHQU= anchor items interactively |
| ICORFILE= item residual correlation file |
| IDELETE= item one-line item deletion |
| IDELQU= delete items interactively |
| IDFILE= item deletion file |
| IDROPEXTREME= drop items with extreme scores |
| IFILE= item output file |
| ILFILE= item label file |
| IMAP= item label on item maps Tables 1, 12 |
| INUMB= label items by sequence numbers |
| IPMATRIX= response-level matrix |
| IPRFILE= change codes for blocks of persons and items |
| IREFER= identifying items for recoding |
| ISELECT= item selection criterion |
| ISFILE= item structure output file |
| ISORT= column within item name for alphabetical sort in Table 15 |
| ISUBTOTAL= columns within item label for subtotals in Table 27 |
| ITEM= title for item labels |
| ITEM1= column number of first response |
| ITLEN= maximum length of item label |
| IVALUEx= recoding of data |
| IWEIGHT= item (variable) weighting |
| KEYFROM= location of KEYn |
| KEYn= scoring key |
| KEYSCR= reassign scoring keys |
| LCONV= logit change at convergence |
| LINELENGTH= length of printed lines in Tables 7, 10-16, 22 |
| LOCAL= locally restandardize fit statistics |
| LOGFILE= accumulates control files |
| LOWADJ= correction for bottom rating scale categories |
| MAKEKEY= construct MCQ key |
| MATRIX= correlation output format |
| MAXPAGE= the maximum number of lines per page |
| MFORMS= reformat input data |
| MHSLICE= Mantel-Haenszel slice width |
| MISSCORE= scoring of missing data codes |
| MJMLE= maximum number of JMLE iterations |
| MNSQ= show mean-square or standardized fit statistics |
| MODELS= assigns model types to items |
| MODFROM= location of MODELS |
| MPROX= maximum number of PROX iterations |
| MRANGE= half-range of measures on plots |
| NAME1= first column of person label |
| NAMLEN= length of person label |
| NAMLMP= name length on map for Tables 1, 12, 16 |
| NEWSCORE= recoding values |
| NI= number of items |
| NORMAL= normal distribution for standardizing fit |
| OSORT= option/distractor sort |
| OUTFIT= sort misfits on infit or outfit |
| PAFILE= person anchor file |
| PAIRED= correction for paired comparison data |
| PANCHQU= anchor persons interactively |
| PCORFIL= person residual correlation file |
| PDELETE= person one-line item deletion |
| PDELQU= delete persons interactively |
| PDFILE= person deletion file |
| PDROPEXTREME= drop persons with extreme scores |
| PERSON= title for person labels |
| PFILE= person output file |
| PMAP= person label on person map: Tables 1, 16 |
| PRCOMP= residual type for principal components analyses in Tables 23, 24 |
| PSELECT= person selection criterion |
| PSORT= column within person label for alphabetical sort in Table 19 |
| PSUBTOTAL= columns within person label for subtotals in Table 28 |
| PTBISERIAL= compute point-biserial correlation coefficients |
| PVALUE= proportion correct or average rating |
| PWEIGHT= person (case) weighting |
| QUOTED= quote-marks around labels |
| RCONV= score residual at convergence |
| REALSE= inflate S.E. for misfit |
| RESCORE= response recoding |
| RESFROM= location of RESCORE |
| RFILE= scored response file |
| RMSR= report root-mean-square residuals in measure tables |
| SAFILE= item structure anchor file |
| SAITEM= item numbers in SAFILE with one grouping |
| SANCHQ= anchor category structure interactively |
| SCOREFILE= person score file |
| SDELQU= delete category structure interactively |
| SDFILE= category structure deletion file |
| SFILE= category structure output file |
| SICOMPLETE= simulate complete data |
| SIEXTREME= simulate extreme scores |
| SIFILE= simulated data file |
| SIMEASURE= measure or data = Yes |
| SINUMBER= number of simulated data files |
| SIRESAMPLE= number of persons resampled |
| SISEED= simulated data seed |
| SPFILE= supplementary control file |
| STBIAS= correct for estimation bias |
| STEPT3= include category structure summary in Table 3.2 or 21 |
| STKEEP= keep non-observed intermediate categories in structure |
| SUBSETS= perform subset detection = Yes |
| SVDFACTORS= singular-value decomposition factors |
| SVDFILE= singular-value decomposition file |
| SVDMIN= singular-value decomposition minimum improvement |
| SVDTYPE= singular-value decomposition residual type |
| T1I#= number of items summarized by "#" symbol in Table 1 |
| T1P#= number of persons summarized by "#" symbol in Table 1 |
| TABLES= output tables |
| TARGET= estimate using information-weighting |
| TFILE= input file listing tables to be output |
| TITLE= title for output listing |
| TOTALSCORE= show total scores with extreme observations |
| TRPOFILE= transposing the data matrix |
| TRPOTYPE= transposing specifications |
| UAMOVE= move all anchor values a pre-set amount |
| UANCHOR= anchor values supplied in user-scaled units |
| UASCALE= anchor user-scale value of 1 logit |
| UCOUNT= number of unexpected responses: Tables 6, 10 |
| UDECIMALS= number of decimal places reported |
| UIMEAN= the mean or center of the item difficulties |
| UPMEAN= the mean or center of the person abilities |
| USCALE= the user-scaled value of 1 logit |
| W300= Output files in Winsteps 3.00 format |
| WEBFONT= font of webpages |
| WHEXACT= Wilson-Hilferty exact normalization |
| XFILE= analyzed response file |
| XMLE= consistent, almost unbiased, estimation |
| XWIDE= columns per response |
| &END end of control variables |
| &INST start of control instructions |
| @Field= name for location in label |
| The Analysis Window |
| The Analysis Window |
| Output Tables |
| Table heading |
| Table 1.0 Distribution map |
| Table 1.1 Distribution map |
| Table 1.2, 1.3 Distribution maps |
| Table 1.10, 1.12 Distribution maps_2 |
| Table 1.4 Polytomous distribution map |
| Table 2 Multiple-choice distractor plot |
| Table 2 Most probable, expected, cumulative, structure, average measures |
| Table 3.1 Summaries of persons and items |
| Table 3.2 Summary of rating scale category structure |
| Table 4.1, 5.1, 8.1, 9.1 Fit plots |
| Table 5.2, 9.2 Fit plots |
| Table 6.1 Person statistics in misfit order |
| Table 6.2, 10.2, 13.2, 14.2, 15.2, 17.2, 18.2, 19.2, 25.2 Person and item statistics |
| Table 6.4 Person most-misfitting response strings |
| Table 6.5 Person most-unexpected observations |
| Table 6.6 Person most-unexpected response list |
| Table 7.1 Misfitting responses by person |
| Table 7.2, 17.3, 18.3, 19.3 Diagnostic KeyForms for Persons |
| Table 10.1 Item statistics |
| Table 10.3 Item option & distractor frequencies |
| Table 10.4 Item most-misfitting response strings |
| Table 10.5 Item most-unexpected observations |
| Table 10.6 Item most-unexpected response list |
| Table 11.1 Misfitting responses by item |
| Table 12.2, 12.12 Item distribution maps |
| Table 12.5 Item map with expected score zones |
| Table 12.6 Item map with 50% cumulative probabilities |
| Table 13.1 Item statistics in measure order |
| Table 13.3 Item option & distractor frequencies |
| Table 14.1 Item statistics in entry order |
| Table 14.3 Item option & distractor frequencies |
| Table 15.1 Item statistics in label order |
| Table 15.3 Item option & distractor frequencies |
| Table 16.3 Person distribution map |
| Table 17.1 Person statistics in measure order |
| Table 18.1 Person statistics in entry order |
| Table 19.1 Person statistics in label order |
| Table 20.1 Complete score-to-measure table on test of all items |
| Table 20.2 Person score and measure distribution |
| Table 20.3 Complete score-to-calibration table for tests based on whole sample |
| Table 21 Probability curves |
| Table 22.1 Sorted observed data matrix (scalogram) |
| Table 22.2 Guttman scalogram of zoned responses. |
| Table 22.3 Guttman scalogram of original codes |
| Table 23.0 Variance components scree plot for items |
| Table 23.2, 24.2 Principal components plots of item or person loadings |
| Table 23.3, 24.3 Principal components analysis/contrast of residuals |
| Table 23.4, 24.4 Person or item contrast |
| Table 23.99, 24.99 Largest residual correlations for items or persons |
| Table 24.0 Variance components scree plot for persons |
| Table 25.1 Item statistics in displacement order |
| Table 26.1 Item statistics in correlation order |
| Table 27.1 Item subtotal summaries on one line |
| Table 27.2 Item subtotal measure bar charts |
| Table 27.3 Item subtotal detailed summary statistics |
| Table 28.1 Person subtotal summaries on one line |
| Table 28.2 Person subtotal measure bar charts |
| Table 28.3 Person subtotal detailed summary statistics |
| Table 29 Empirical ICCs and option frequencies |
| Table 30.1 Differential item functioning DIF pairwise |
| Table 30.2 Differential item functioning DIF list |
| Table 30.3 Differential item functioning DIF list |
| Table 30.4 Differential item functioning DIF fit summary |
| Table 31.1 Differential person functioning DPF pairwise |
| Table 31.2 Differential person functioning DPF list |
| Table 31.3 Differential person functioning DPF list |
| Table 31.4 Differential person functioning DPF fit summary |
| Table 32 Control specifications |
| Table 33.1 Differential group functioning DGF pairwise |
| Table 33.2 Differential group functioning DGF pairwise |
| Table 33.3 Differential group functioning DGF list |
| Table 33.4 Differential group functioning DGF list |
| Table 34 Columnar statistical comparison and scatterplot |
| Table 0 The title page |
| Table 0.1 Analysis identification |
| Table 0.2 Convergence report |
| Table 0.3 Control file |
| Graphs |
| Graph window |
| Category information function |
| Category probability curves |
| Conditional probability curves |
| Cumulative probabilities |
| Empirical category curves |
| Empirical ICC |
| Empirical randomness |
| Expected score ICC |
| Item information function |
| Multiple item ICCs |
| Non-uniform DIF ICCs |
| Person-item barchart |
| Points and lines |
| Test characteristic curve |
| Test information function |
| Test randomness |
| Plots |
| Bubble charts |
| Scatterplot: Compare statistics |
| Datapoint labels |
| DGF DIF-DPF Plot |
| DIF Plot |
| DPF Plot |
| Keyform plot |
| Output dialogs |
| DGF specifications |
| DIF specifications |
| DPF specifications |
| Edit Initial Settings (Winsteps.ini) file |
| Output file formats |
| Output file specifications |
| Simulated file specifications |
| SVD specifications |
| Transpose file specifications |
| Special Topics |
| Advice to novice analysts |
| Anchored estimation |
| Automating file selection |
| Average measures, distractors and rating scales |
| Batch mode example: Score Tables |
| Biserial correlation |
| Category boundaries and thresholds |
| Category mean-square fit statistics |
| Column and classification selection and transformation |
| Comparing tests or instruments |
| Comparing estimates with other Rasch software |
| ConstructMap (GradeMap) interface |
| Convergence considerations |
| Correlations: point-biserial, point-measure, residual |
| Decimal, percentage and continuous data |
| Dependency and unidimensionality |
| Dichotomous mean-square fit statistics |
| DIF - DPF - bias - interactions concepts |
| Dimensionality: contrasts & variances |
| Dimensionality: when is a test multidimensional? |
| Disjoint strings of responses |
| Disordered rating categories |
| Displacement measures |
| Edit taskbar caption |
| Equating and linking tests |
| Estimation bias correction - warnings |
| Estimation methods: JMLE, PROX, XMLE |
| Exact Match: OBS% and EXP% |
| Excel item map |
| Exporting Tables to EXCEL |
| Extra Specifications prompt |
| Extreme scores: what happens |
| Global fit statistics |
| Glossary |
| Guttman patterns |
| Half-rounding |
| How big an analysis can I do? |
| How long will an analysis take? |
| Inestimable measures |
| Information - item and test |
| Installing multiple versions of Winsteps |
| Item difficulty: definition |
| Item discrimination or slope estimation |
| Iterations - PROX & JMLE |
| Local Dependence |
| Logit and probit |
| Mantel and Mantel-Haenszel DIF statistics |
| Misfit diagnosis: infit outfit mean-square standardized |
| Missing data |
| Mixed-Mixture Models and Saltus models |
| Multidimensionality - an example |
| Multiple t-tests - Bonferroni |
| Non-uniform DIF tables |
| Null or unobserved categories |
| One observation per respondent |
| Order of elements in Control file |
| Partial Credit model |
| Person characteristic curves |
| Plausible values |
| Plotting with EXCEL |
| Poisson counts |
| Polytomous mean-square fit statistics |
| Probabilities from measures |
| Quality-control misfit selection criteria |
| Rank order data |
| Rating scale conceptualization |
| Rectangular copying |
| Reliability and separation of measures |
| Rules for assigning values to control variables (key-words) |
| Shortcut Keys |
| Specifying how data are to be recoded |
| Split items - procedure |
| Standard errors: model and real |
| Starting Winsteps from the DOS prompt |
| Subsets and connection ambiguities |
| Subtest scoring |
| t-statistics |
| Testlet effects |
| Unobserved and dropped categories |
| Weighting items and persons |
| User-friendly rescaling |
| Using a word processor or text editor |
| Validity investigation |
| Winsteps: history and steps |
| Problems and Error Messages |
| Data vanishes |
| Display too big |
| File misread problems |
| Help problem |
| If Winsteps does not work |
| Initialization fails |
| Not enough disk space |
| Not enough memory |
| Plotting problems |
| SPSS functional check |
| Tab-delimited file problems |
| Winsteps problems and error codes |
| Winsteps SPSS error codes |