Notice: the WebSM website has not been updated since the beginning of 2018.

Web Survey Bibliography

Title Cognitive processes in Web Surveys
Author Fuchs, M.
Year 2002
Access date 24.03.2004
Abstract

Previous research could demonstrate that the respondent‘s cognitive processes when answering a web survey are quite similar compared to other self-administrated survey mode. However, some remarkable differences could be demonstrated in the way respondents work their way thru the series of question: Previous question order experiments in web surveys indicate that respondents treat questions more independent from each other, thus, context effects are less pronounced (Fuchs 2001, 2002). Even though this might be interpreted as an improvement of data quality one might also be concerned with respect to the respondent‘s cognitive understanding of the questions. In this paper we will further assess the question answer process in web surveys by combining question order experiments and client side response time measurement in order to develop a deeper understanding of the respondent‘s behavior while answering questions over the internet. We will investigate whether or not web respondents show less pronounced context effects due to a faster working pace (shorter response time) or due to a more segmented view of the questionnaire. Based on field experimental data from n=800 respondents we will also investigate the effect of interactive elements (probing for item-nonresponse and pop-up windows) on the size of context effects. This paper will contribute to general understanding of the cognitive processes while answering a web survey.

Access/Direct link

Homepage (abstract)

Year of publication2003
2002
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Print

Web survey bibliography - Fuchs, M. (33)