--- title: "Calibrating generated items with predicted priors" output: markdown::html_format vignette: > %\VignetteIndexEntry{Calibrating generated items with predicted priors} %\VignetteEngine{knitr::knitr} %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8} --- ```{r, include = FALSE} knitr::opts_chunk$set(collapse = TRUE, comment = "#>") ``` Automatic item generation produces items faster than pretesting can calibrate them. coldstart predicts each new item's difficulty from its features, uses the prediction as a robust prior, and finds template families where the prediction cannot be trusted. ## A bank with features Legacy items have calibrated difficulties; new generated items have only features (any numeric representation works, such as embeddings from any text model or cognitive-attribute codes) and a template family. In the simulation, one family's template drifted, making its new items harder than its history suggests. ```{r} library(coldstart) sim <- cs_simulate(n_train = 400, n_new = 150, seed = 3) it <- sim$items tr <- it$set == "train" table(it$set) ``` ## Predict difficulty, with honest uncertainty ```{r} pr <- cs_predictor(it$b_legacy[tr], sim$features[tr, ], it$family[tr], seed = 1) pr pred <- predict(pr, sim$features[!tr, ], it$family[!tr]) head(pred) ``` The predictive SD is estimated out of sample. It is larger for a family never seen in training, because the family's own effect is then unknown. ## How many pretest responses do we need? ```{r} plan <- cs_plan(pred, target_sd = 0.3) summary(plan[c("n_with_prior", "n_without_prior")]) ``` ## Calibrate from a small pretest ```{r} resp <- cs_responses(sim, n_per_item = 25, seed = 4) cal <- cs_calibrate(resp, pred) truth <- it$b_true[match(cal$item, it$item)] c(baseline = sqrt(mean((cal$base_mean - truth)^2)), with_prior = sqrt(mean((cal$post_mean - truth)^2))) ``` ## Which families can we trust? A prediction is only as good as the family template it comes from. If a template has drifted (the items are now harder or easier than the features say), every item of that family is mispredicted in the same direction. `cs_check()` compares the pretest estimates with the predictions, family by family, and flags families whose items conflict with their priors: ```{r} fam <- setNames(it$family[!tr], it$item[!tr]) chk <- cs_check(cs_calibrate(cs_responses(sim, 100, seed = 5), pred), fam) chk unique(it$family[it$rogue]) ``` The drifted family is flagged. The family that never appeared in training is not, even though its predictions are the least certain. Priors for families that fail the check are withdrawn before the final calibration: ```{r} resp100 <- cs_responses(sim, 100, seed = 5) final <- cs_calibrate(resp100, cs_distrust(pred, chk)) head(final[c("item", "n", "post_mean", "post_sd")]) ``` ### Items of a family share prediction error Items of the same family do not err independently: they share the error in the family's estimated effect. For a family unseen in training, the whole family effect is unknown, so all of its items are off by the same unknown amount. `predict()` reports this shared part as `sd_shared`, alongside each item's total predictive SD: ```{r} unique(pred[c("family_seen", "sd", "sd_shared")]) ``` Since version 0.2.0, `cs_check()` tests each family's conflicts under this correlation. Version 0.1.0 treated the items as independent, so a new family whose effect happened to sit away from the average could fail the check merely for being new, even when its predictions were as honest as they claimed. The difference is easy to see on a bank where that happens. Setting `prior_sd_shared` to zero reproduces the old, independent test: ```{r} sim2 <- cs_simulate(n_train = 400, n_new = 150, seed = 110) it2 <- sim2$items; tr2 <- it2$set == "train" pr2 <- cs_predictor(it2$b_legacy[tr2], sim2$features[tr2, ], it2$family[tr2], seed = 10) pred2 <- predict(pr2, sim2$features[!tr2, ], it2$family[!tr2]) cal2 <- cs_calibrate(cs_responses(sim2, 100, seed = 10), pred2) fam2 <- setNames(it2$family[!tr2], it2$item[!tr2]) c(unseen = unique(it2$family[it2$unseen_family]), drifted = unique(it2$family[it2$rogue])) correlated <- cs_check(cal2, fam2) independent <- cs_check(transform(cal2, prior_sd_shared = 0), fam2) correlated[!correlated$trustworthy, c("family", "n_items", "mean_z", "p_value")] independent[!independent$trustworthy, c("family", "n_items", "mean_z", "p_value")] ``` Both tests flag the drifted family. Only the independent test also flags the new family, whose items sit on average 1.3 SD below their predictions: the kind of common shift that `sd_shared` says to expect for a new family. In the package's simulations, this correction lowered the rate at which the unseen family was falsely flagged from 3–7% to about 1% (at `alpha = 0.01`), while the drifted family was still detected. See `?cs_check` for the test.