


































Frontiers of Contemporary Education 
ISSN 2690-3520 (Print) ISSN 2690-3539 (Online) 

Vol. 2, No. 1, 2021 

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41 
 

Original Paper 

A Systematic Review of Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment and 

Modeling through Concept Mapping 

Jingshun Zhang
1*

, Eunice Jang
2
 & Saad Chahine

2
 

1
 Jingshun Zhang, Department of Leadership, Technology, and Research, Florida Gulf Coast University, 

Fort Myers, FL, USA  

2
 Eunice Jang, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development. OISE, University of 

Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada  

3 
Saad Chahine, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada 

*
 Jingshun Zhang, E-mail: jzhang@fgcu.edu 

 

Received: December 23, 2020      Accepted: January 4, 2021     Online Published: April 8, 2021 

doi:10.22158/fce.v2n1p41              URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/fce.v2n1p41 

 

Abstract 

Traditional assessments are typically constructed on logical taxonomies and content specifications but 

lack explicit cognitive models of the processes and problem-solving strategies that underlie student 

performance. Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment (CDA) fills this gap by combining cognitive science 

and psychometrics. CDA is in its infancy, but over 1,000 relevant studies have been conducted in this 

area during the last 20 years. Facing these complicated studies, many beginners struggle to understand 

the whole picture of CDA. This paper systematically reviews the literature on CDA and relevant 

cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) with the application of a concept mapping technology. Concept 

mapping is graphical representation of concepts and their relationships. Its use in this study allows 

researchers and students to gain in-depth knowledge about CDA and CDM and identify areas of future 

research.  

Keywords 

literature review, cognitive diagnostic assessment and modeling, concept mapping  

 

1. Introduction 

The history of assessment can be traced back to the Chinese civil service in 2200 B.C. (Bowman, 1989), 

ancient Greeks’ individual difference testing (Doyle, 1974), and the European governments’ test 

systems of the 19th century. Testing received a great boost in the 20th century due to rising interest in 

individual differences (Kline, 2005). In the United States especially, spurred by the A Nation at Risk 



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report in 1983 and the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, the role of Large-Scale Assessment (LSA) in 

public education grew tremendously beginning in the mid-1980s, flourished during the 1990s, and 

unquestionably continued to grow with the implementation of assessment and accountability 

requirements (DePascale, 2003; Kifer, 2001). Today, assessments of student performance are more 

prevalent than at any other period in history. National and international assessments have become 

increasingly frequent as has the use of college admission and placement tests. The development of LSA 

has been an ongoing process with many aspects still in need of improvement. For example, “the 

contents of standardized tests and the examination can assess only limited forms of competence, and 

teachers are quite able to predict which aspects of competence will be assessed” (Wiliam, 2001, p. 165). 

LSA is an important component of determining achievement in education. It should be carried out in a 

systematic fashion (Taylor & Tubianosa, 2001) and shows the general public the effectiveness of 

students, schools, and teachers where there is increased accuracy and objectivity in examining 

achievement (Crundwell, 2005). 

Cognitive(ly) Diagnostic Assessment (CDA) makes explicit the cognitive models of learning beyond 

the logical taxonomies and discrete content specifications that are prevalent in traditional LSAs. CDA 

is designed to measure specific knowledge structures and processing skills in students to provide 

information about their cognitive strengths and weaknesses; it provides formative diagnostic feedback 

through fine-grained reporting of test takers’ skill mastery profiles (Buck & Tatsuoka, 1998; DiBello et 

al., 1995; Jang, 2009a; Javidanmehr & Anani Sarab, 2017; Nichols, Chipman, & Brennan, 1995). 

Cognitive Diagnostic Models (CDMs) have been developed “to help construct diagnostic assessments 

and estimate students’ attribute mastery patterns associated with different cognitive skills” (Cui et al., 

2006, p. 4). The rapid advance and a growing interest in CDA have resulted in extensive research and 

theories in the past two decades. Because of its relative infancy and technical complexities, researchers 

interested in CDA may find it daunting to comprehend the entire picture of this body of research. In 

this project, we analyzed the relevant studies on CDA and CDMs using concept maps. Concept maps 

are used to visually represent concepts in a body of knowledge and their relationship to each other. 

Concept maps show the hierarchy of these concepts and emphasize the links between them. They are 

valuable pedagogical tools (Cañas et al.; Clark & James, 2004; Novak, 1990). 

The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of CDA and its accompanying statistical 

modelling approaches through concept mapping. This paper specifically focuses on the application of a 

particular concept mapping technology to the literature on CDA over the last four years. It 

demonstrates a systematic approach to mapping the multiple areas of interests underlying the research 

on CDA. Through graphical representation of those areas, the study results shed light on emerging 

issues that require further development in research on CDA. 

 

 

 



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2. Literature Review 

CDA is designed to measure specific knowledge structures and processing skills that students have 

acquired and to provide fine-grained diagnostic information about their cognitive strengths and 

weaknesses (DiBello, Stout, & Roussos, 1995; Jang, 2009; Nichols, Chipman, & Brennan, 1995). CDA 

can give instructors and policy makers more information about the strategies students use to attack 

problems, the relationships students perceive among concepts, and the principles students understand in 

a domain. It provides useful information for educators and policymakers to draw conclusions about 

students’ instructional needs and the effectiveness of instructional programs (Nichols, 1994). By 

measuring different cognitive processes and the knowledge required to solve test items in a domain of 

interest, CDA can provide a profile of students’ mastery and non-mastery of particular cognitive skills. 

CDA can have a significant impact on the improvement of instruction and learning by giving students 

and teachers reliable feedback on student strengths and weaknesses (Roussos, Templin, & Henson, 

2007) and “further help design effective interventions for individual students” (Cui et al., 2006, p. 4). 

CDA provides relevant procedures for application such as cognitive foundations of structured item 

response models, the Fusion model skill diagnosis system, diagnostic inferences about cognitive skills, 

and cognitive-diagnostic score reporting.  

CDA is “still in its infancy, but its parentage is fairly well established” (Leighton & Gierl, 2007, p. 1) 

because it can be traced back to the 1950s when prominent researchers, such as Messick, Snow, and 

Lohman, put these perspectives forward. Over the past three decades, a growing number of researchers 

have argued that cognitive science and psychometrics should be tightly aligned in the service of 

instruction (Messick, 1984; Snow & Lohman, 1989). In the 1990s, some influential work was 

published in books and journals, such as A Framework for Developing Cognitively Diagnostic 

Assessments (Nichols, 1994) and Cognitively Diagnostic Assessment (Nichols, Chipman, & Brennan, 

1995). Recently, Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment for Education: Theory and Applications (Leighton 

& Gierl, 2007) and Diagnostic Measurement: Theory, Methods, and Applications (Rupp, Templin, & 

Henson, 2010) have become important sources of new ideas leading to innovations in CDA. Much 

attention has been paid to developing psychometric models that are capable of estimating students’ 

cognitive profiles. CDA has also drawn much attention from practitioners and policy makers who strive 

for specific information about students’ knowledge states and proficiencies that are necessary for 

making decisions about the allocation of resources as well as planning effective instructional 

interventions for individual students (Cui et al., 2006; Nichols, 1994; Roussos, Templin, & Henson, 

2007). There have also been many studies of relevant theories and models, such as the Fusion model 

skills diagnosis system, the IRT-based parametric latent class models, the rule space model, the 

attribute hierarchy method (Cui, 2007; Cui & Leighton, 2008; Cui et al., 2006; Gierl, 2007; Jang, 2008; 

Roussos et al., 2007) and studies of the broad application of CDA such as skill diagnostics (Jang, 2005, 

2009; Jang et al., 2008; Leighton & Gierl, 2007; Zhang, 2013).  

 



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During the last decade, evidence in over 600 publications in various forms has shown a rapid growth in 

the use of CDA (Zhang, Jang, & Chahine, 2011). These studies reported high numbers of broadly 

classified theoretical debates, psychometric modeling, and applications to a range of testing contexts 

including both large-scale and classroom assessments when using CDAs. With this rapid growth and 

CDA's technical complexities, many researchers have expressed a need for a clear framework that can 

guide test design and validation processes. Despite the large body of published work about CDA, 

beginning researchers often find it difficult to discern the salient issues that await further research. 

Therefore, our intent was to examine the status quo of research on CDA and offer a systematic 

roadmap that could be useful both for developing a much-needed framework of CDA and for beginning 

researchers. 

A systematic literature review is “designed to locate, appraise and synthesize the best available 

evidence relating to a specific research question in order to provide informative and evidence-based 

answers” (Boland, Cherry, & Dickson, 2017, p. 2). The systematic review of literature in a narrow area 

is very important and has “recently become a major area of methodological development” (Gough, 

Oliver, & Thomas, 2017, p. 9). This idea arose in the 1980s in studies featuring statistical meta-analysis 

(Glass et al., 1981) and meta-ethnography (Noblit & Hare, 1988). Although the literature review as a 

form of study has been continuously developed over many years (Boland, Cherry, & Dickson, 2017; 

Bolin, 2012; Shadish & Lecy, 2015; Sheble, 2017), the systematic literature review is “still a young and 

rapidly developing field of study and methods of reviewing have not been developed for all areas of 

science” (Gough, Oliver, & Thomas, 2017, p. 9). There are still many challenges to be overcome 

(Dickersin, 2015; Oakley et al., 2005) such as conceptual and methodological challenges, resource 

constraints, the constraints related to the use of reviews, and broader political challenges (Gough, 

Oliver, & Thomas, 2017). However, many scholars have continued to improve the process used for 

conducting a systematic literature review in areas such as planning, finding materials to include in the 

review, describing them, assessing them, analyzing them, synthesizing results, and appraising them 

(Boland, Cherry, & Dickson, 2017; Lockwood, Munn, & Porritt, 2015; Gough, Oliver, & Thomas, 

2012).  

This study applied a systematic literature review to the development of CDA to help us to understand 

its holistic and longitudinal content and relevant theories. Also, this process helped us to enhance a 

particular research and learning method via concept mapping.  

 

3. Research Methods 

3.1 Data Source 

We intentionally started to collect relevant references three years ago when we undertook some related 

studies. After we had accumulated an applicable number of references, we systematically searched 

them for studies related to CDA. Our research began by locating published sources on CDA research 

through a university library system. We were able to identify 538 sources in various types of 

https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/author/david-gough
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/author/sandy-oliver


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publications (see Table 1). Among them, 40.5% were journal articles, 17.5% conferences papers, and 

16.4% book chapters. Twenty-three books dealt with issues related to CDA, and among them, five 

focused specifically on CDA or CDM. 

 

Table 1. The Types of Studies in CDA and CDM 

Type of studies Total studies 

(1957-2010) 

Studies in this project 

(2007-2010) 

 Frequency Percent Frequency Percent 

Book 23 4.3 6+2 4.2 

Book chapter 88 16.4 27 14.3 

Conference 94 17.5 47 24.9 

Dissertation 31 5.8 7 3.7 

Journal 218 40.5 71 37.6 

Report 42 7.8 13 4.2 

Workshop 13 2.4 8 4.2 

Other 29 5.4 8 4.2 

Total 538 100.0 189 100 

 

Initially, we identified sources that spanned the period between 1957 and 2010. Figure 1 shows the 

distribution of the identified sources. Note that there is a big gap in the years between 1957 and 1973, 

and that the most significant development of CDA and CDM took place after 2004. Before 2004, the 

development of CDA and CDM progressed slowly yet steadily. 

 

 

Figure 1. The Distribution of Studies in CDA and CDM 



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We narrowed our search to focus on sources published between 2007 and 2010, a period that showed a 

peak in relevant studies. Over the course of these four years, there were 187 sources, which accounted 

for 34.8% of the total studies from 1957 to 2010. The types of sources are listed in Table 1. These 187 

sample sources were reformatted in APA style and numerically coded in a table format. We inputted 

relevant information about each source, including key words, study contexts, publication type and year, 

and authors’ affiliations. 

3.2 Concept Mapping 

Alias and Suradi have stated, “Conducting a systematic literature review is an essential research 

activity in ensuring a good piece of research” (2008, p. 1). A literature review is a multi-stage process 

that involves scanning information, making notes of reviews, synthesizing and structuring information, 

writing a critical review of the literature, and building a repertoire of resources (Ali, Mahfouz, & 

Arisha, 2017; Novak & Cañas, 2006; Rowley & Slack, 2004). Concept mapping can be helpful for 

conducting literature reviews because it visualizes information using nodes and links arranged in a 

spatial distribution to reflect the domain information (Alias & Suradi, 2008; Arruarte, Rueda, & 

Elorriaga, 2008; Carnot, 2006). Rowley and Slack (2004) noted that concept mapping can be useful for 

identifying key concepts in a collection of documents or a research area, comprehending the structure 

of a literature review in preparation for writing the review, and understanding theory and concepts as 

well as the relationships between them. It can serve as a tool for establishing the relationships among 

areas that are not apparent and are often hierarchical (Novak, 1984). The content, structure, links, and 

organization of the concept map can be used as the framework for the literature review. There are many 

kinds of software for concept mapping, both commercial software tools (e.g., 3D Topicscape, 

Inspiration) as well as free software (e.g., Compendium, Cmap Tools). In this review, a program called 

Inspiration 9 was used. 

 

4. Result 

Based on the relevant literature, the concept mapping in this study took place in three steps: mapping 

the preliminary structure of CDA and CDM, creating a comprehensive map, and deeply analyzing this 

map. 

In the first stage, we created a preliminary structure map of CDA and CDM based on four main books 

and four articles (Jang, 2008; Leighton & Gierl, 2007; Nichols, 1994; Nichols, Chipman, & Brennan, 

1995; Rupp, Templin, & Henson, 2010; Tatsuoka, 2009). This preliminary structure map included a 

center (CDA) and four sub-groups, as shown in the following graphic. 



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Figure 2. The Preliminary Structure Map 

 

Subsequently, we created a comprehensive CDA and CDM map based on the basic map from step 1. 

We reviewed all 187 studies and mapped them according to the expanded key words. It was necessary 

to revisit the original articles to gain some additional information. If an article was involved in a 

particular area, we would input this study’s code into a relevant circle. If there was no relevant circle, a 

new one would be created based on its relationships with other areas. As a result, the map in Figure 3 

successfully represented areas covered by all 187 sources. In our last step, we analyzed each area more 

substantively and identified distinct issues associated with it. 



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Figure 3. The Comprehensive Map of the Literature Review of CDA and CDM 



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Figure 4. Detail of a Subsection of the Comprehensive Map 

 

After we obtained the comprehensive map in Figure 3, we clarified its hierarchical structures in 

Microsoft Word format by outputting them from Inspiration 9. For example, we could focus on 

particular subsections of our comprehensive map, as shown by the dark lines in Figure 3. Figure 4 

details the subsection of the comprehensive map that related to the real-life data application of CDA. 

Table 2 shows its hierarchical structure as it was outputted in Microsoft Word format.   

 

Table 2. Microsoft Word Output of The Hierarchical Structure of Literature in CDA Map   

III. Application  

A. Scale 

1. Classroom Assessment [68] 

2.  LSA [223] 

a. TOEFL [494] 

b. TIMMS [64/65/67/68/ 111/181] 

c. NAEP [72/181/ 228/522] 

d. PIRLS [74] 

e. MELAB [150] 

f. SAT [158/ 163/165/1 67/168/ 169/ 502/504 /537] 

g. ECPE [385] 



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B. Domains 

1. Language Assessment 

[2/3/82/244/275 /282/369]  

a. Reading skills [7/42/150/151/ 185/245/246 /502/504] 

b. Listening Skills [281/403] 

2. Mathematics [65/67/72/111/ 154/157/158/163/ 165/167/168/185/ 

265/315/399/417/537] 

3. Writing [82/] 

4. Physics Learning [187] 

5. Geometry/399] 

C. Administration 

1. Traditional test 

2. CAT [69/70/82 115/170/ 183/237/238/ 322/358/400/417/ 482/484/487 

/516/528/530/538] 

3. IBT [2/181/ 243/403/] 

 

 

We gained many benefits from the concept mapping process beside the visual maps generated by 

Inspiration 9. After we created the maps, Inspiration 9 could export additional results in different formats 

such as PDF, Word, or image files. For example, as mentioned above, Table 2 shows the output of maps 

in Microsoft Word format. Each file included two parts: at the top of the file, we could retrieve an image 

of the relevant map; then, the structure of the map became available in text format, which showed the 

relevant concepts, nodes, and studies in the different categories and levels. This allowed us to recognize 

the categories and hierarchical structure of the relevant studies; we also could easily track the original 

studies. In addition, we could establish the areas in which each individual study was involved.  

By applying concept mapping, we broadly analyzed the relevant studies on CDA and CDM; we acquired 

many interesting results. We also considered this process to be a learning experience. By collecting 

references, analyzing these references, creating maps, and summarizing the maps and relevant outputs, 

we continued to learn more knowledge and skills that allowed us to adjust our maps continually. Through 

comparing the many maps made during the process, we found that we also enhanced our research skills 

and extended our knowledge in more broad areas beside CDA and CDM. 

 

4. Discussion 

The project developed over a two-year period. The project included two types of contributions to our 

CDA development, in theoretical research and in technical support. Theoretically, the results from the 

application of concept mapping to the literature on CDA offered useful insight into what has and has not 

been researched. Applying the concept mapping technology to a literature review of CDA helped us to 



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visually compartmentalize the large body of literature. We categorized the literature into three main 

classifications: a) real-life data application, b) theoretical and conceptual issues, and c) psychometric 

modeling (see Figure 2). It appears that much attention has been given to the development of 

psychometric models, and more research is necessary to examine the validity of CDA in specific learning 

contexts. The field will benefit from a systematic and comprehensive framework for developing and 

validating CDA. Two books (Leighton & Gierl, 2007; Rupp, Templin, & Henson, 2010) have done 

excellent work in this direction.  

In the technical and academic support for CDA and CDM, the approach used in this project might prove 

to be a very useful practice (Zhang, 2016). Concept mapping, as we used it, can be a deductive method 

for building a conceptual model. As Dr. Jackie Leighton said in the keynote address of the Division D 

award of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2010, the larger measurement 

community must develop a conceptual-visual model of CDA to further establish it as an important field; 

such a model can serve as a method of communication and can open CDA up to the larger research 

community. This will allow more researchers to understand the literature well and to draw on several 

sections of it when writing papers. In connection with the above discussions, what we advocate is a 

deductive approach—instead of thinking up a conceptual model based on our experience or our ideas, we 

may be able to concept map the literature in order to develop a conceptual model of a theory.  

Based on our results, we would suggest the creation of an academic online platform build up a virtual 

on-line academic community for relevant technical and academic support of CDA and CDM. This online 

platform might serve some of the following functions: 

1) Concept maps of CDA and CDM would create visual images of the relevant studies and theories that 

researchers and learners could refer to.  

2) Reference pools would include links to all part and points in these maps. Users interested in some 

parts or points could click on them to track the relevant references.  

3) Key elements such as reference lists in APA style, key words, and abstracts for each reference could 

be included in the reference pools. We could post the relevant articles on the web system after 

receiving copyright permission for their use in this project. The academic online platform, which 

could be named The Systematic Review of CDA and CDM, could be an open system. We could set 

up a function that would allow for group discussion. It would be open to all researchers and learners. 

Members could discuss any question and share ideas after registering to obtain a user account.  

Using this system, we hope to build an online and virtual learning community that would be helpful for 

researchers, learners, and CDA’s development in the future (Kernan, Basch, & Cadorett, 2018).  

In summary, we conducted the first systematic review of the literature relevant to CDA and CDM using a 

concept mapping method. This study contributes to the field by applying this new method of literature 

review to CDA and CDM studies. This study showed this method is useful for building an entire picture 

of a complex body of research and opening a window to future studies in theoretical and technical 

support. Posting these maps on-line could provide beginners, researchers, and others with information on 



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relevant studies and clarify the framework of CDA and CDM.  

 

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