10 Inter-Rater Reliability Examples (Tips for Students)

What is inter-rater reliability and what are the types and examples of inter-rater reliability?

Inter-rater reliability refers to the level to which multiple raters, judges, inspectors, or appraisers agree. Multiple observers involved in observation research will make judgements about observed behaviours.

The observers will be more concerned if they agree on a common outcome or not. Different inspectors observing to get results will have different reviews.

However, it’s important the level of agreement improved as it enhances the internal reliability of a study.

What Is Inter-Rater Reliability?

Inter-rater reliability refers to the level to which multiple raters, judges, inspectors, or appraisers agree. It measures the agreement between subjective ratings by judges, inspectors, or appraisers.

Let’s say two experts were sent to a hospital to observe waiting times and the appearance of the waiting rooms and examination rooms. If the two experts involves in this observation agree on all items, inter-rater reliability would be just perfect.

High inter-rater reliability means that two or more rater ratings for the same item are consistent, while low reliability indicates that they are inconsistent.

For example, judges often review the quality of academic writing samples by rating performances from 1-5.

Accessing inter-rater reliability is very important for understanding how measurement systems will likely misclassify an item.

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Inter-Rater vs. Intra-Rater Reliability

Inter-rater reliability refers to the level to which multiple raters, judges, inspectors, or appraisers agree. There is a difference between inter-rater reliability and intra-rater reliability.

When an individual judges an event for a longer period of time, it’s important they are not biased in their judgements.

Educators are expected to grade every student’s work accordingly regardless of what time of the day or the semester the classes were taken. That defines intra-rater reliability.

A simple way to check for this type of validity is to use the test-retest design. The same work will be presented to the judge more than once to check if the work will be scored similarly.

Types of Inter-Rater Reliability

Generally, there are two simple methods of evaluating inter-rater reliability, which is the percentage agreement and Cohen’s Kappa.

Percentage Agreement

This simply involves tallying the percentage of times two raters agreed. The number will range from 0-100 and when it is closer to 100, the greater the agreement.

Cohen’s Kappa

Percentage agreement and Cohen’s Kappa are very similar. However, the formula used takes into account that raters sometimes will have a common agreement within themselves.

The formula will likely give a number ranging from 0 to 1 and the closer to 1, the greater the level of agreement.

Inter-Rater Reliability Examples

Inter-rater reliability measures the agreement between ratings by multiple judges or raters and here are some examples;

Observational Research Moderation

Observing how couples in a shopping mall interact as two observers rate their behaviour based on the level of affection or neutral.

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Grade Moderation at University

This involves experienced teachers grading the essays of students who submitted applications for admission to an academic program.

Getting Outsider Expert Review of New Exams

Generally asking a math teacher with years of experience to rate the level of difficulty of questions in a new examination.

Experienced and Inexperienced Professional Comparing Notes

Also, asking experts in the nursing profession to score the performance of new nurses participating in several simulated medical emergencies.

Experienced Professionals Rating Inexperienced Colleagues.

Trainees performing CPR in first-aid courses and their performances are rated by experienced paramedics.

More Detailed Intra-Rater Reliability Examples

Several researchers before now have carried out observational research to understand behaviours.

Coding the Linguistics Patterns of Parent/Child Interactions

It’s important researchers and educators understand the factors involved in linguistics development. Getting a better understanding will give researchers some insight into one of the essential skills in child development.

Good verbal skill plays an important role in excelling in academics and generally in life.

Because of this many researchers remain devoted to this area of study. Observing the interaction between parents and infants has given more accurate data over the years.

To get results, researchers may have trained observers to observe behaviours closely in homes.

When a parent and a child engage in different interacting activities, their behaviours will be observed by trained observers and scores will be recorded.

The researcher will assess the inter-rater reliability of his ratings to ensure that recorded scores are reliable.

The Ainsworth Strange Situations Test

Famous American-Canadian developmental psychologist, Dr, Mary Ainsworth created a lab method of evaluating the attachment style of infants.

A simple way to monitor the child’s behaviour is to observe everything behind a two-way mirror. The trained observers seated behind the two-way mirror will rate the child’s action once the mother returns.

Judging the Reliability of a Judge at a Tasting Competition

The outcome of a tasting competition will either promote a product or put companies out of business.

Since there is so much at stake at this event, there are several reasons to doubt the credibility of the judges. A simple decision can affect the sales of a product in the market.

To ensure that judges are not biased in their ratings, a different panel of four judges were invited to taste replicate samples of 30 beverages entered in a California competition.

About 68 judges participated in the completion each year and they rated the products on the same scale in the competition. Only about 10% of the judges replicated the ratings they gave during the competition.

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Bandura Bobo Doll Study

During the 1960s, one of the most influential studies in psychology was carried out by Canadian-American psychologist, Dr. Albert Bandura.

The study involved allowing young children to watch a video where an adult is aggressive or non-aggressive towards a Bobo doll.

The children were taken to a separate room with the Bodo doll and they were observed closely as they played with it.

Judging Synchronized Swimming

During synchronized swimming competitions, performance is reviewed and rated by a panel of judges. The number of judges may be more than 20 during a competition to evaluate the quality of routines.

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How to Calculate Inter-Rater Reliability

There are several methods to calculate intra-rater reliability, which include;

Percentage Agreement
Cohen’s Kappa
Krippendorff’s Alpha
Spearman’s Rho

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are frequently asked questions on inter-rater reliability examples.

What is the difference between test-retest and intra-rater reliability?

Test-retest design and inter-rater reliability are able to check if an individual will get the same score at different times. While the test retest design is used to test the reliability of any objectively scored test, the inter-rater reliability tests if the scorer will give a similar score during a subjective assessment.

What is interscorer reliability?

In a situation where more than one person oversees the ratings or judging of people, it’s essential they make the right and similar decisions.

Interscorer reliability is a measure of the extent of agreement between judges.

Conclusion

Inter-rater reliability refers to the level to which multiple raters, judges, inspectors, or appraisers agree. People will accept the outcome of psychological research as they mostly rely on the evaluation of trained observers.

Raters are trained properly in what to observe and how to classify their observations effectively. They must understand how to classify their observations before data are collected.

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References

Helpfulprofessors: 15 Inter-Rater Reliability Examples
Statisticsbyjim: Inter-Rater Reliability: Definition, Examples & Assessing
Study.com: What is Inter-Rater Reliability?
Link.Springer: Inter-rater Reliability
ScienceDirect: Interrater agreement and interrater reliability: Key concepts, approaches, and applications
SimplyPsychology: Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment On Social Learning