NEWS

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MAT 2.3.3

• New functions for convergence plots: plot_mcat_path() and plot_mcat_paths() draw the path of one examinee's trait estimates in three dimensions (box with back-wall grids, start value, true position), plot_mcat_distance() and mcat_distance() give the distance to the true position after each item, and mat_history() extracts one examinee's history from a MAT() result. Base graphics only.
• MAT() gains plot.summary (default plot.audit.trail). The summary plots (CAT versus full-bank thetas and the content distribution) were drawn on every call, even with plot.audit.trail = FALSE, opening graphics windows during simulations. They now appear only when requested.
• MAT(): with topN > 1 (randomesque exposure control), unavailable items (already administered or outside the targeted content area) could be ranked first and selected. Only available items are ranked now.
• MAT(): content.order is now checked against ncc (the number of content categories) instead of p.
• MAT(): no error or warning from the summary plot when only one examinee is simulated (r = NA).
• simM3PL(): the correlation structure is now always applied. Previously, if any off-diagonal element of cors was exactly 0 (for example one uncorrelated pair), all traits were generated as independent.
• Documentation: removed the stale requires MASS note; DESCRIPTION now lists grDevices, graphics and stats in Imports, matching NAMESPACE; updated the package date.