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 - Public Opinion Quarterly (POQ) (90)
- Necessary but Insufficient: Why Measurement Invariance Tests Need Online Probing as a Complementary...; 2017; Meitinger, K.
- Nonresponse in Organizational Surveying: Attitudinal Distribution Form and Conditional Response Probabilities...; 2017; Kulas, J. T.; Robinson, D. H.; Kellar, D. Z.; Smith, J. A.
- Theory and Practice in Nonprobability Surveys: Parallels between Causal Inference and Survey Inference...; 2017; Mercer, A. W.; Kreuter, F.; Keeter, S.; Stuart, E. A.
- Is There a Future for Surveys; 2017; Miller, P. V.
- 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.
- The Low Response Score (LRS): A Metric to Locate, Predict, and Manage Hard-to-Survey Populations; 2016; Erdman, C.; Bates, N.
- Targeted Appeals for Participation in Letters to Panel Survey Members; 2016; Lynn, P.
- Fieldwork Effort, Response Rate, and the Distribution of Survey Outcomes: A Multilevel Meta-analysis; 2016; Sturgis, P.; Williams, Jo.; Brunton-Smith, I.; Moore, J.
- Measuring Generalized Trust: An Examination of Question Wording and the Number of Scale Points; 2016; Lundmark, S.; Giljam, M.; Dahlberg, S.
- Social Media Analyses for Social Measurement; 2016; Schober, M. F.; Pasek, J.; Guggenheim, L.; Lampe, C.; Conrad, F. G.
- Do Attempts to Improve Respondent Attention Increase Social Desirability Bias?; 2015; Clifford, S.; Jerit, J.
- Response Rates, Nonresponse Bias, and Data Quality: Results from a National Survey of Senior Healthcare...; 2015; Meterko, M.; Restuccia, J. D.; Stolzmann, K.; Mohr, D.; Brennan, C. W.; Glasgow, J.; Kaboli, P.
- Respondent Screening and Revealed Preference Axioms: Testing Quarantining Methods for Enhanced Data...; 2015; Jones, M. S.; House, L. A.; Zhifeng, G.
- Exploring the Effects of Removing "Too Fast" Responses and Respondents from Web Surveys; 2015; Greszki, R.; Meyer, M.; Schoen, H.
- The Effects of the Direction of Rating Scales on Survey Responses in a Telephone Survey; 2015; Keusch, F., Yan, T.
- Assessing the Potential of Paradata and Other Auxiliary Data for Nonresponse Adjustments; 2014; Krueger, B. S., West, B. T.
- Improving Response Rates and Questionnaire Design for Mobile Web Surveys; 2014; de Bruijne, M., Wijnant, A.
- Assessing Within-Household Selection Methods in Household Mail Surveys; 2014; Olson, K., Stange, M., Smyth, J. D.
- Mobile Technologies for Conducting, Augmenting and Potentially Replacing Surveys: Report of the AAPOR...; 2014; Link, M. W., Murphy, J., Schober, M. F., Buskirk, T. D., Childs, J. H., Tesfaye, C.
- Clicking vs. Dragging: Different Uses of the Mouse and Their Implications for Online Surveys; 2014; Sikkel, D., Steenbergen, R., Gras, S.
- The Effect of Benefit Wording on Consent to Link Survey and Administrative Records in a Web Survey; 2014; Sakshaug, J. W., Kreuter, F.
- Video Content in Web Surveys: Effects on Selection Bias and Validity; 2013; Shapiro-Luft, D., Cappella, J.
- Panel Conditioning in Difficult Attitudinal Questions; 2013; Binswanger, J., Schunk, D., Toepoel, V.
- Clarifying Categorical Concepts in a Web Survey.; 2013; Redline, C. D.
- Recruiting A Probability Sample For An Online Panel: Effects Of Contact Mode, Incentives, And Information...; 2012; Scherpenzeel, A., Toepoel, V.
- Does Giving People Their Preferred Survey Mode Actually Increase Survey Participation Rates?; 2012; Olson, K., Smyth, J. D., Wood, H.
- The changing role of address-based sampling in survey research; 2011; Iannacchione, V. G.
- Measuring americans' issue priorities. A new version of the most important problem question reveals...; 2011; Yeager, D. S., Larson, S. B., Krosnick, J. A., Tompson, T.
- Questions for Surveys: Current Trends and Future Directions; 2011; Schaeffer, N. C., Schaeffer, N. C.
- The Future of Modes of Data Collection; 2011; Couper, M. P.
- The Future of Survey Sampling; 2011; Brick, J. M.
- The Impact of “Forgiving” Introductions on the Reporting of Sensitive Behavior in Surveys...; 2011; Peter, J., Valkenburg, P. M.
- Surveying the General Public over the Internet Using Address-Based Sampling and Mail Contact Procedures...; 2011; Messer, B. L., Dillman, D. A.
- Use of Cognitive Shortcuts in Landline and Cell Phone Surveys; 2011; Everett, S. E., Kennedy, C.
- An Alternative to the Response Rate for Measuring a Survey's Realization of the Target Population; 2011; Skalland, B.
- Can Verbal Instructions Counteract Visual Context Effects in Web Surveys?; 2011; Toepoel, V., Couper, M. P.
- Nonresponse Error, Measurement Error, And Mode Of Data Collection: Tradeoffs in a Multi-mode Survey...; 2011; Sakshaug, J. W., Yan, T., Tourangeau, R.
- A Method for Evaluating Mode Effects in Mixed-mode Surveys; 2011; Vannieuwenhuyze, J., Loosveldt, G., Molenberghs, G.
- Total Survey Error: past, present, and future; 2010; Groves, R. M., Lyberg, L. E.
- Research synthesis. AAPOR report on online panels; 2010; Brick, J. M., Baker, R., Blumberg, S. J., Couper, M. P., Courtright, M., Dennis, J. M., Dillman, D....
- Recruiting probability samples for a multi-mode research panel with Internet and mail components; 2010; Rao, K.
- Cell-Phone-Only Voters in the 2008 Exit Poll and Implications for Future Noncoverage Bias ; 2009; Mokrzycki, M., Keeter, S., Kennedy, C.
- Zero Banks: Coverage Error and Bias in Rdd Samples Based on Hundred Banks with Listed Numbers ; 2009; Boyle, J., Bucuvalas, M., Piekarski, L., Weiss, A.
- National Surveys Via RDD Telephone Interviewing vs. the Internet: Comparing Sample Representativeness...; 2009; Chang, L. C., Krosnick, J. A.
- Impact of T-ACASI on Survey Measurements of Subjective Phenomena ; 2009; Harmon, T., Rogers, S. M., Eggleston, E., Roman, A. M., Villarroel, M. A., Chromy, J. R., Ganapathi,...
- Open-Ended Questions in Web Surveys: Can Increasing the Size of Answer Boxes and Providing Extra Verbal...; 2009; Smyth, J. D., Dillman, D. A., Christian, L. M., McBride, M.
- Web Survey Methods: Introduction; 2009; Couper, M. P., Miller, P. V.
- Social desirability bias in CATI, IVR and Web surveys: The effects of mode and question sensitivity; 2008; Kreuter, F., Presser, S., Tourangeau, R.
- Does a Probability-Based Household Panel Benefit from Assignment to Postal Response as an Alternative...; 2008; Rookey, B. D., Hanway, S., Dillman, D. A.