Development of Tests to Estimate Discrimination Ability of Design Style by Item Response Theory

Abstract

In this study, we developed four tests to estimate the ability to discriminate the design style of MUJI, which is a well-known retail brand. These tests are designed to measure a participant's ability to discriminate unknown designs by using prior knowledge of the design style. There were four steps used to develop the tests. First, one hundred and one items were developed. Second, a survey with three hundred and seven participants was conducted to examine effectiveness of the items. Third, after conducting an item analysis and verification of unidimensionality, seventy-three items were excluded. Next, an item response theory analysis was performed to the remaining twenty-eight items and their parameters of slope (discrimination) and location (difficulty) were calculated. As a result, we constructed four tests. The first two tests have similar characteristics and performances. The other two tests were for participants that had high or low ability using the twenty-eight items.