Web Survey Bibliography
We present the results of six experiments that demonstrate the impact of visual features of survey questions on the responses they elicit, the response process they initiate, or both. All six experiments were embedded in Web surveys. Experiments 1 and 2 investigate the effects of the placement of nonsubstantive response options (for example, "No opinion" and "Don't know" answer options) in relation to the substantive options. The results suggest that when these options are not differentiated visually (by a line or a space) from the substantive options, respondents may be misled about the midpoint of the scale; respondents seemed to use the visual rather than the conceptual midpoint of the scale as a reference point for responding. Experiment 3, which varied the spacing of the substantive options, showed a similar result. Responses were pushed in the direction of the visual midpoint when it fell to one side of the conceptual midpoint of the response scale. Experiment 4 examined the effects of varying whether the response options, which were arrayed vertically, followed a logical progression from top to bottom. Respondents answered more quickly when the options followed a logical order. Experiment 5 examined the effects of the placement of an unfamiliar item among a series of similar items. For example, one set of items asked respondents to say whether several makes and models of cars were expensive or not. The answers for the unfamiliar items depended on the items that were nearby on the list. Our last experiment varied whether a battery of related items was administered on a single screen, across two screens, or with each item on its own screen. The intercorrelations among the items were highest when they were all on the same screen. Respondents seem to apply interpretive heuristics in assigning meaning to visual cues in questionnaires. They see the visual midpoint of a scale as representing the typical or middle response; they expect options to be arrayed in a progression beginning with the leftmost or topmost item; and they expect items that are physically close to be related to each other conceptually.
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Web survey bibliography - Conrad, F. G. (38)
- Comparing acquiescent and extreme response styles in face-to-face and web surveys; 2017; Liu, M.; Conrad, F. G.; Lee, S.
- Respondent mode choice in a smartphone survey ; 2017; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F., Antoun, C., Yan, H. Y., Hupp, A., Johnston, M., Ehlen, P., Vickers, L...
- Effects of Mobile versus PC Web on Survey Response Quality: a Crossover Experiment in a Probability...; 2017; Antoun, C.; Couper, M. P.; G. G.Conrad, F. G.
- Comparisons of Online Recruitment Strategies for Convenience Samples: Craigslist, Google AdWords, Facebook...; 2016; Antoun, C., Zhang, C., Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F.
- The Effect of Respondent Commitment and Tailored Fe edback on Response Quality in an Online Survey ; 2016; Cibelli Hibben, K.; Conrad, F. G.
- Comprehension and engagement in survey interviews with virtual agents; 2016; Conrad, F. G.; Schober, M. F.; Jans, M.; Orlowski, R. A.; Nielsen, D.; Levenstein, R. M.
- Social Media Analyses for Social Measurement; 2016; Schober, M. F.; Pasek, J.; Guggenheim, L.; Lampe, C.; Conrad, F. G.
- An experiment testing six formats of 101-point rating scales; 2015; Liu, M.; Conrad, F. G.
- Matrix versus paging designs in a brand attribution task; 2014; Conrad, F. G., McCullough, W., Nishimura, R.
- Speeding in Web Surveys: The tendency to answer very fast and its association with straightlining; 2013; Conrad, F. G.; Zhang, Che.
- Disfluencies and Gaze Aversion in Unreliable Responses to Survey Questions; 2012; Schober, M. F., Conrad, F. G., Dijkstra, W., Ongena, Y. P.
- Database Lookup in Web Surveys; 2012; Couper, M. P., Zhang, C., Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R.
- Interactive interventions in web surveys can increase response accuracy.; 2011; Conrad, F. G.
- Race-of-Virtual-Interviewer Effects; 2011; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F., Nielsen, D.
- Which Web Survey Respondents Are Most Likely to Click for Clarification?; 2011; Coiner, T., Schober, M. F., Conrad, F. G.
- Should I Stay or Should I go: The Effects of Progress Feedback, Promised Task Duration, and Length of...; 2011; Yan, T., Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P.
- Professional Web Respondents and Data Quality; 2010; Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P., Zhang, C.
- Increasing Respondents' Use of Definitions in Web Surveys; 2010; Peytchev, A., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R.
- Interactive Interventions in Web Surveys Can Increase Respondent Conscientiousness; 2009; Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P., Kennedy, C.
- Envisioning the Survey Interview of the Future ; 2009; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F.
- Experimenting With Speech Interactive Voice Response, Touchtone Data Entry and the Web for the National...; 2009; Cantor, D., Brick, P. D., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G.
- Interactive feedback can improve accuracy of responses in web surveys; 2009; Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R., Galesic, M.
- Response Order and Response Distributions: The Format of the Response Options in a Web Survey; 2009; Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Balter, O.
- Improving the Design of Complex Matrix Questions; 2009; Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G.
- Classifying Open Occupation Descriptions in the Current Population Survey; 2008; Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P.
- Social Cues Can Affect Answers to Threatening Questions in Virtual Interviews; 2008; Lind, L. H., Schober, M. F., Conrad, F. G.
- Virtual Interviews on Mundane, Non-Sensitive Topics: Dialog Capability Affects Response Accuracy More...; 2008; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F., Jans, M., Orlowski, R. A., Nielsen, D.
- The Impact of the Spacing of the Scale Options in a Web Survey; 2008; Kennedy, C., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Redline, C. D.
- Surveys interviews and new communication technologies; 2007; Schober, M. F., Conrad, F. G.
- Interactive Features of Web Surveys; 2007; Conrad, F. G.
- The Impact of the Visible: The Design of Web Surveys; 2007; Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P., Conrad, F. G.
- Color, Labels, and Interpretive Heuristics for Response Scales; 2006; Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P., Conrad, F. G.
- Promoting Uniform Question Understanding in Today's and Tomorrow's Surveys; 2005; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F.
- Visual Context Effects in Web Surveys; 2005; Couper, M. P., Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R.
- Spacing, Position, and Order: Interpretive Heuristics for Visual Features of Survey Questions; 2004; Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P.
- Web Survey Design: Paging vs. Scrolling; 2004; Peytchev, A., Crawford, S. D., McCabe, S. E., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P.
- Use and non-use of clarification features in web surveys; 2003; Tourangeau, R., P., Couper, M. P., Conrad, F. G., Baker, R. P.
- What They See Is What We Get: Response Options for Web Surveys; 2003; Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G., Crawford, S. D.