Abstract
Frederick Conrad and Johnny Blair (1996)
"From Impressions To Data: Increasing The Objectivity Of
Cognitive Interviews," Proceedings of the Section on
Survey Research Methods, American Statistical Association.
The use of "think aloud" protocols is the most
tangible application of cognitive psychology techniques to
survey methodology - the so-called "cognitive
interview." Think aloud methods can be used
systematically but in questionnaire pretesting, the technique
is usually used differently by different practitioners and
relies heavily on the intuitions of the particular
practitioner. This paper explores an approach to the
cognitive interview that promises to increase its consistency
and to provide a theoretical basis for the method. The
central components of our technique are (1) a procedure for
eliciting the intent of each question from question authors,
and (2) a taxonomy of common respondent problems used to code
think aloud protocols. By comparing the intent of the
question and the content of the protocol, the researcher has
relatively objective criteria for identifying where a
respondent's interpretation and response behavior differ from
the question author's intent, thus identifying question
problems. We present a study that tests the reliability of
the approach and compares it to the conventional use of the
technique.
KEY WORDS: Questionnaire Pretesting, Cognitive Interviewing
Last Modified Date: July 19, 2008
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