Web Survey Bibliography
Title Instructions in Self-administered Survey Questions: Do They Improve Data Quality or Just Make the Questionnaire Longer?
Author Redline, C. D.; Zukerberg, A.; Owens, C.; Ho, A.
Year 2016
Access date 09.06.2016
Abstract
Pre-testing techniques utilized in the development of production self-administered questionnaires, such as cognitive interviewing, often identify items where respondents misinterpret or are unclear about the meaning of terms in a question. Typically, this finding results in a recommendation to add instructions to an item, which has the detrimental effect of lengthening the questionnaire. Previous experimental research has shown that instructions have an effect on the estimates when the instructions counter theway many people naturally tend to think about a concept. For example, an instruction to exclude sneakers from a count of shoes will reduce the estimate of shoes because many respondents tend to think of sneakers as shoes. In addition, previous research has shown that instructions placed before questions are more effective than those placed after. However, few studies have looked empirically at whether or not instructions that are the product of actual production pre-testing techniques are similarly effective or useful, and worth the extra length they create. Nor have many other factors been examined that might influence the effectiveness of instructions. To examine these issues further, we report on an experiment that was administered to a nationally representative sample by web. Production questions and instructions were selected from a national teacher survey. In addition, questions and instructions were intentionally created to counter teachers’ natural conceptions of terms. These items were compared to a control group with no instructions. Utilizing a factorial experimental design, we also varied three factors that were predicted to alter the effectiveness of instructions: their location, format, and wording. Although the findings of this experiment are clearly generalizable to the web, arguably, these findings extend to mail surveys too.
Access/Direct link Conference Homepage (abstract)
Year of publication2016
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Web survey bibliography - 2016 (264)
- Mixing Modes: Challenges (and Tradeoffs) of Adapting a Mailed Paper Survey to the Web ; 2016; Wilkinson-Flicker, S.; McPhee, C. B.; Medway, R.; Kaiser, A.; Cutts, K.
- An Examination of How Survey Mode Affect Eligibility, Response and Health Condition Reporting Rates...; 2016; Stern, M. J.; Ghandour, R.
- Investigating Measurement Error through Survey Question Placement ; 2016; Wilson, A.; Wine, J.; Janson, N.; Conzelmann, J.; Peytcheva, E.
- Instructions in Self-administered Survey Questions: Do They Improve Data Quality or Just Make the Questionnaire...; 2016; Redline, C. D.; Zukerberg, A.; Owens, C.; Ho, A.
- Usability Testing within Agile Process; 2016; Holland, T.
- Exploring Why Web Surveys Take Longer to Complete on Smartphones than PCs: Findings from a Within-subjects...; 2016; Antoun, C.; Cernat, A.
- Making Mobile Web Surveys Accessible; 2016; Malakhoff, L.
- Association of Eye Tracking with Other Usability Metrics ; 2016; Olmsted, E. L.
- Cognitive Probing Methods in Usability Testing – Pros and Cons; 2016; Nichols, E. M.
- Grids and Online Surveys: Do More Complex Grids Induce Survey Satisficing? Evidence from the Gallup...; 2016; Wang, Me.; McCutcheon, A. L.
- Assessing the Accuracy of 51 Nonprobability Online Panels and River Samples: A Study of the Advertising...; 2016; Yang,Y.;Callegaro,M.;Yang,Y.;Callegaro,M.;Chin,K.;Yang,Y.;Villar,A.;Callegaro, M.; Chin, K.; Krosnick...
- Calculating Standard Errors for Nonprobability Samples when Matching to Probability Samples ; 2016; Lee, Ad.; ZuWallack, R. S.
- Communicating Data Use and Privacy: In-person versus Web based methods for message testing ; 2016; Clark Fobia, A.; Hunter Childs, J. E.
- User Experience and Eye-tracking: Results to Optimize Completion of a Web Survey and Website Design ; 2016; Walton, L.; Ricci, K.; Libman Barry, A.; Eiginger, C.; Christian, L. M.
- Estimated-control Calibrated Estimates from Nonprobability Surveys; 2016; Dever, J. A.
- Decomposing Selection Effects in Non-probability Samples ; 2016; Mercer, A. W.; Keeter, S.; Kreuter, F.
- The Effect of Emphasizing the Web Option in a Mixed-mode Establishment Survey ; 2016; O'Brien, J.; Rajapaksa, S.; Schafer, B.; Langetieg, P.
- A Multi-phase Exploration Into Web-based Panel Respondents: Assessing Differences in Recruitment, Respondents...; 2016; Redlawsk, D.; Rogers, K.; Borie-Holtz, D.
- Effect of Clarifying Instructions on Response to Numerical Open-ended Questions in Self-administered...; 2016; Kumar Chaudhary, A.; Israel, G. D.
- Exploring the Feasibility of Using Facebook for Surveying Special Interest Populations ; 2016; Lee, C.; Jang, S.
- National Estimates of Sexual Minority Women Alcohol Use through Web Based Respondent Driven Sampling...; 2016; Farrell Middleton, D.; Iachan, R.; Freedner-Maguire, N.; Trocki, K.; Evans, C.
- Bringing Fair Market Rent Surveys into the 21st Century – Evaluating the Effectiveness of MSG...; 2016; Dayton, J.; Brassell, T.; Cooper, V.; Dion, R.; Williams, R.
- Measuring Survey Behavior of Smartphone Users; 2016; Luks, S.; Phillips, R.
- Practical Considerations for Using Vignettes to Evaluate Survey Items ; 2016; Steiger, D. M.; Williams, Do.; Edwards, W. S.; Cantor, D.; Truman, J.
- Using Web Panels to Quantify the Qualitative: The National Center for Health Statistics Research and...; 2016; Scanlon, P. J.
- Impact of Field Period Length in the Estimates of Sexual Victimization in a Web-based Survey of College...; 2016; Berzofsky, M.; Peterson, K.; Shook-Sa, B. E.; Lindquist, C.; Krebs, C.
- Longitudinal Online Ego-centric Social Network Data Collection with EgoWeb 2.0 ; 2016; Amin, A.; Kennedy, D.
- Influences on Item Response Times in a Multinational Web Survey ; 2016; Phillips, B. T.; Kolenikov, S.; Howard Ecklund, E.; Ackermann, A.; Brulia, A.
- QR Codes for Survey Access: Is It Worth It?; 2016; Allen, L.; Marlar, J.
- An Exploration of the Relationship between Usability Testing and Data Verification ; 2016; Langer Tesfaye, C.; Kurmlavage, V.
- Beyond the Survey: Improving Data Insights and User Experience with Mobile Devices ; 2016; Graham, P.; Lew, G.
- User Experience Considerations for Contextual Product Surveys on Smartphones ; 2016; Sedley, A.; Mueller, H.
- The Differential Effect of Mobile-friendly Surveys on Data Quality; 2016; Horwitz, R.
- Embedding Survey Questions within Non-research Mobile Apps: A Method for Collecting High-quality Data...; 2016; Bapna, V.; Antoun, C.
- Does Changing Monetary Incentive Schemes in Panel Studies Affect Cooperation? A Quasi-experiment on...; 2016; Schaurer, I.; Bosnjak, M.
- Survey Mode and Mail Method: A Practical Experiment in Survey Fielding for a Multi-round Survey ; 2016; Sullivan, B. D.; Duda, N.; Bogen, K.; Clusen, N. A.; Wakar, B.; Zhou, H.
- Web Probing for Question Evaluation: The Effects of Probe Placement ; 2016; Fowler, S.; Willis, G. B.; Moser, R. P.; Townsend, R. L. M.; Maitland, A.; Sun, H.; Berrigan, D.
- Early-bird Incentives: Results From an Experiment to Determine Response Rate and Cost Effects ; 2016; De Santis, J.; Callahan, R.; Marsh, S.; Perez-Johnson, I.
- Using Cash Incentives to Help Recruitment in a Probability Based Web Panel: The Effects on Sign Up Rates...; 2016; Krieger, U.
- Assessing Changes in Coverage Bias of Web Surveys a s Internet Access Increases in the United States...; 2016; Sterrett, D.; Malato, D.; Benz, J.; Tompson, T.; English, N.
- Timing is Everything: Discretely Discouraging Mobile Survey Response through the Timing of Email Contacts...; 2016; Richards, A.; C.; Shook-Sa, B. E.; C.; Berzofsky, M.; Smith, A. C.
- Dynamic Instructions in Check-All-That-Apply Questions ; 2016; Kunz, T.; Fuchs, M.
- Patterns of Unit and Item Nonresponse in a Multinational Web Survey ; 2016; Ackermann, A.; Howard Ecklund, E.; Phillips, B. T.; Brulia, A.
- Debunking Myths About the Quality of Industry and O ccupation Data Collected Through Self-administered...; 2016; Hurwitz, F. I.; Stein, J.; Skaff, A. L.
- Desktops, Tablets and Phones, Oh My! Device Prefere nce for Web Based Surveys ; 2016; Schy, S.; Ghirardelli, A.; Morrison, H.
- Assessing Potential Bias in Respondent-driven Incident Based Data from a Web Survey of College Students...; 2016; Peterson, K.; Berzofsky, M.; Shook-Sa, B. E.; Krebs, C.; Lindquist, C.
- Making Connections on the Internet: Online Survey Panel Communications ; 2016; Libman Barry, A.; Eiginger, C.; Walton, L.; Ricci, K.
- The Best of Both Worlds: Utilizing Best Practices From Web and Survey Design ; 2016; Libman Barry, A.; Langer Tesfaye, C.; Levy, J.
- Characterizing Satisficers in Web Surveys Using Paradata to Target Interventions; 2016; Vetting, S. S.; Horwitz, R.; Bray, R.; Hernandez Vivier, A.; Tancreto, J.; Reiser, C.
- A Closer Look at Response Time Outliers in Online S urveys Using Paradata Survey Focus ; 2016; Schlosser, S.; Hoehne, J. K.