Selection items (or selected response items) are test items on which the examinee selects one of a set of choices, rather than generating an original response. Examples of selection items include conventional and complex multiple-choice items, context-dependent item sets, single and multiple true-false items, alternate-choice items, and matching items. A selection item from a set that is based on a single premise or idea is context dependent; an item alone is context independent.

A primary advantage of selection items is that they are objectively scored based on match to a preexisting key. Thus, scores from selection items tend to be relatively reliable because interscorer agreement is virtually 100%, removing variation based on scorer as one source of construct-irrelevant variance. Also due to objective scoring, selection items ...