Patent ID: 6301571
Filing Date: 2001-10-09
Classification: G01R,G06Q

Abstract:
A method for interacting with a test subject with respect to knowledge or functionality characterized by a plurality of states in one or more domains, a domain being a set of facts, a set of values, or a combination of a set of facts and a set of values, the set of facts for a knowledge domain being any set of facts, the set of facts for a functionality domain being a set of facts relating to the functionality of a test subject, a state being denoted as a fact state, a value state or a combination state, a fact state being characterized by a subset of facts, a value state being characterized by a subset of values, a combination state being characterized by a combination of a subset of facts and a subset of values, a first state being higher than or equal to a second state and a second state being lower than or equal to a first state if (1) the subset of facts or a subset of values associated with the first state respectively includes the subset of facts or is greater than or equal to the subset of values associated with the second state or (2) the subset of facts and the subset of values associated with the first state respectively includes the subset of facts and is greater than or equal to the subset of values associated with the second state, the method comprising the steps:(a) specifying one or more domains where each domain comprises a plurality of states and determining the higher-lower-neither relationships for each state in each domain, the higher-lower-neither relationships for a state being a specification of which states are higher, which states are lower, and which states are neither higher or lower, the plurality of states for at least one domain including a first, second, and third fact state characterized by subsets of facts wherein (1) the first and second fact states are higher than the third fact state and the first fact state is neither higher nor lower than the second fact state or (2) the first fact state is higher than the second and third fact states and the second fact state is neither higher nor lower than the third fact state;(b) specifying a domain pool for each domain comprising a plurality of test item blocks, a test item block consisting of one or more test items, a test item administered to a test subject resulting in one of a plurality of possible responses;(c) specifying a class conditional density f.sub.ibd (x.vertline.s) for each test item i in test item block b for domain d for each state s in each domain, a class conditional density being a specification of the probability of a test subject in state s of domain d providing a response x to the test item i in the test item block b, each test item partitioning one or more domains into a plurality of partitions according to the class conditional densities associated with the test item, a partition being a subset of states for which the class conditional densities are the same or the union of such subsets;(d) selecting one or more test item blocks from the one or more domain pools to be administered to a test subject;(e) processing the responses of the test subject to the one or more test item blocks administered to the test subject, the relationship of the test subject to domains being representable by a state probability set (SPS); and(z) repeating method from step (d) until method termination criteria are satisfied.