Measurement Invariance and Item Response Theory Analysis of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm

The Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) is a widely used laboratory aggression task, yet item response theory (IRT) analyses of this task are nonexistent. To estimate these aspects of the TAP, we combined data from nine laboratory studies that employed the 25-trial version of the TAP (combined N = 1,856). One-factor and four-factor solutions for the TAP data exhibited evidence of measurement invariance across gender (men versus women) and experimental provocation (negative versus positive social feedback), as well as negligible instances of differential item functioning. As such, psychometric properties of the TAP were invariant across binary representations of gender and experimental provocation. Further, trials following low and high provocation were the least informative and those following moderate provocation were the most informative. Scoring approaches to the TAP may benefit from giving greater weight to trials following moderate provocation. Overall, we find great utility in applying IRT approaches to behavioral laboratory tasks.