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Rasch model

Dear friends, 
I am running a simple model where 424 pupils took 13 test items. I model the item easiness as fixed effects and the pupil abilities as random effects (this is basically the 'so-called' marginal maximum likelihood estimation used in some Rasch software packages. I also run the analysis using two 'traditional' Rasch packages. I have found that there is a near-perfect correlation between item estimates from the 'traditional' packages and lme4. See the results below. However, when I use ranef(model$id) to  get the 'ability' estimates of the pupils, the correlation is just 0.9! Shouldnt the correlation be much bigger? I mean, how would you estimate the ability estimates of the pupils in this context?

Thanks for any help

Generalized linear mixed model fit by the Laplace approximation 
Formula: score ~ 0 + item + (1 | id) 
   Data: rasch_data 
  AIC  BIC logLik deviance
 6502 6595  -3237     6474
Random effects:
 Groups Name        Variance Std.Dev.
 id     (Intercept) 1.9821   1.4079  
Number of obs: 5512, groups: id, 424

Fixed effects:
         Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)    
item   1  0.05819    0.13004   0.447 0.654524    
item   2  1.26791    0.14126   8.976  < 2e-16 ***
item   3  0.93972    0.13615   6.902 5.12e-12 ***
item   4  0.70219    0.13345   5.262 1.43e-07 ***
item   5  0.36877    0.13099   2.815 0.004874 ** 
item   6  0.52699    0.13197   3.993 6.52e-05 ***
item   7 -0.79568    0.13404  -5.936 2.92e-09 ***
item   8  0.38186    0.13106   2.914 0.003572 ** 
item   9 -0.61867    0.13239  -4.673 2.97e-06 ***
item  10  0.30358    0.13069   2.323 0.020184 *  
item  11  0.23870    0.13044   1.830 0.067262 .  
item  12 -0.79568    0.13404  -5.936 2.92e-09 ***
item  13 -0.47278    0.13137  -3.599 0.000320 ***
---
Signif. codes:  0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1 

Correlation of Fixed Effects:
         item1 item2 item3 item4 item5 item6 item7 item8 item9 item10 item11 item12
item   2 0.258                                                                     
item   3 0.269 0.252                                                               
item   4 0.275 0.256 0.265                                                         
item   5 0.281 0.258 0.268 0.274                                                   
item   6 0.278 0.257 0.267 0.273 0.277                                             
item   7 0.273 0.243 0.255 0.262 0.269 0.266                                       
item   8 0.280 0.258 0.268 0.274 0.279 0.277 0.269                                 
item   9 0.277 0.248 0.259 0.266 0.273 0.270 0.271 0.273                           
item  10 0.281 0.258 0.269 0.275 0.280 0.278 0.270 0.280 0.274                     
item  11 0.282 0.258 0.269 0.275 0.280 0.278 0.271 0.280 0.275 0.281               
item  12 0.273 0.243 0.255 0.262 0.269 0.266 0.268 0.269 0.271 0.270  0.271        
item  13 0.279 0.251 0.263 0.269 0.276 0.273 0.272 0.276 0.275 0.277  0.278  0.272
Generalized linear mixed model fit by the Laplace approximation 
Formula: score ~ 0 + item + (1 | id) 
   Data: rasch_data 
  AIC  BIC logLik deviance
 6502 6595  -3237     6474
Random effects:
 Groups Name        Variance Std.Dev.
 id     (Intercept) 1.9821   1.4079  
Number of obs: 5512, groups: id, 424

Fixed effects:
         Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)    
item   1  0.05819    0.13004   0.447 0.654524    
item   2  1.26791    0.14126   8.976  < 2e-16 ***
item   3  0.93972    0.13615   6.902 5.12e-12 ***
item   4  0.70219    0.13345   5.262 1.43e-07 ***
item   5  0.36877    0.13099   2.815 0.004874 ** 
item   6  0.52699    0.13197   3.993 6.52e-05 ***
item   7 -0.79568    0.13404  -5.936 2.92e-09 ***
item   8  0.38186    0.13106   2.914 0.003572 ** 
item   9 -0.61867    0.13239  -4.673 2.97e-06 ***
item  10  0.30358    0.13069   2.323 0.020184 *  
item  11  0.23870    0.13044   1.830 0.067262 .  
item  12 -0.79568    0.13404  -5.936 2.92e-09 ***
item  13 -0.47278    0.13137  -3.599 0.000320 ***
---
Signif. codes:  0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1 

Correlation of Fixed Effects:
         item1 item2 item3 item4 item5 item6 item7 item8 item9 item10 item11 item12
item   2 0.258                                                                     
item   3 0.269 0.252                                                               
item   4 0.275 0.256 0.265                                                         
item   5 0.281 0.258 0.268 0.274                                                   
item   6 0.278 0.257 0.267 0.273 0.277                                             
item   7 0.273 0.243 0.255 0.262 0.269 0.266                                       
item   8 0.280 0.258 0.268 0.274 0.279 0.277 0.269                                 
item   9 0.277 0.248 0.259 0.266 0.273 0.270 0.271 0.273                           
item  10 0.281 0.258 0.269 0.275 0.280 0.278 0.270 0.280 0.274                     
item  11 0.282 0.258 0.269 0.275 0.280 0.278 0.271 0.280 0.275 0.281               
item  12 0.273 0.243 0.255 0.262 0.269 0.266 0.268 0.269 0.271 0.270  0.271        
item  13 0.279 0.251 0.263 0.269 0.276 0.273 0.272 0.276 0.275 0.277  0.278  0.272 


Dr. Iasonas Lamprianou
Department of Education
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Tel. 0044  161 275 3485
iasonas.lamprianou at manchester.ac.uk
--- On Sat, 21/2/09, r-sig-mixed-models-request at r-project.org <r-sig-mixed-models-request at r-project.org> wrote: