scholarly journals How Well Do Interviewers Record Responses to Numeric, Interviewer Field-code, and Open-ended Narrative Questions in Telephone Surveys?

Field Methods ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-104
Author(s):  
Jolene D. Smyth ◽  
Kristen Olson
Keyword(s):  
Telephone Survey ◽  
Telephone Surveys ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Random Digit Dial ◽  
Interviewer Training ◽  
Single Response ◽  
Accuracy Rates ◽  
Numeric Response ◽  
Interviewer Behaviors

Telephone survey interviewers need to be able to accurately record answers to questions. While straightforward for closed questions, this task can be complicated for open questions. We examine interviewer recording accuracy rates from a national landline random digit dial telephone survey. We find that accuracy rates are over 90% for numeric response and interviewer-code, single-response items but are astonishingly low (49%) for a multiple-answer, nominal, interviewer-code item. Accuracy rates for narrative open questions were around 90% for themes but only about 70% for themes and elaborations. Interviewer behaviors (e.g., probing, feedback) are generally associated with lower accuracy rates. Implications for questionnaire design, interviewer training, and coding procedures are discussed.

scholarly journals Item Location, the Interviewer–Respondent Interaction, and Responses to Battery Questions in Telephone Surveys

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Olson ◽  
Jolene D. Smyth ◽  
Beth Cochran
Keyword(s):  
Random Effects ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Telephone Survey ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Random Effects Models ◽  
Telephone Surveys ◽  
The Common ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Interviewer Behaviors ◽  
Item Location

Survey researchers often ask a series of attitudinal questions with a common question stem and response options, known as battery questions. Interviewers have substantial latitude in deciding how to administer these items, including whether to reread the common question stem on items after the first one or to probe respondents’ answers. Despite the ubiquity of use of these items, there is virtually no research on whether respondent and interviewer behaviors on battery questions differ over items in a battery or whether interview behaviors are associated with answers to these questions. This article uses a nationally representative telephone survey with audio-recorded interviews and randomized placement of items within four different batteries to examine interviewer and respondent behaviors and respondent answers in battery questions. Using cross-classified random-effects models, the authors find strong evidence that there is more interviewer–respondent interaction on items asked earlier in the battery. In addition, interviewer and respondent behaviors are associated with both substantive and nonsubstantive answers provided to battery items, especially if the interviewer decided to reread or probe with the response options. These results suggest that survey designers should follow recommendations to randomize battery items and consider the importance of standardization of question administration when designing battery questions.

Redirected Inbound Call Sampling (RICS)

2019 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 386-411
Author(s):  
Burton Levine ◽  
Karol Krotki ◽  
Paul J Lavrakas
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Telephone Survey ◽  
Interactive Voice Response ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dual Frame ◽  
Telephone Surveys ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Voice Response

Abstract Redirected Inbound Call Sampling (RICS) is an emerging, nonprobability sampling methodology in which calls to nonworking numbers from callers throughout the United States are redirected to a telephone survey recruitment protocol and data collection system. The use of automated, interactive voice response technologies to recruit, screen, and collect data achieves significant cost savings and greatly reduces the time of fielding a survey compared with traditional dual-frame random-digit dialing (DFRDD) surveys that use interviewers for recruitment and data collection. The implementation of RICS that we fielded resulted in respondents who match some demographics of the population about as well as DFRDD telephone surveys. However, we demonstrate some non-ignorable challenges with measurement error in certain types of questions that arise from primacy effects associated with using an interactive voice response system for data collection. We present the results of a RICS study that was designed to better understand the reliability and validity of the data these surveys generate. The investigation presented in this manuscript is a first step to evaluating if RICS can be a fit-for-purpose solution for some survey needs. Our data suggest there is sufficient promise in the RICS methodology to warrant continued development and refinement.

Parents’ Retrospective Reports of Youth Psychological Responses to the Sniper Attacks in the Washington, DC, Area

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon R. Self-Brown ◽  
Greta M. Massetti ◽  
Jieru Chen ◽  
Jeffrey Schulden
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Telephone Survey ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Stress Symptoms ◽  
Random Digit ◽  
Retrospective Reports ◽  
Random Digit Dial ◽  
History Of

A random-digit-dial telephone survey was conducted in May 2003, with 355 parents of children ages 2–17 years old, living in Washington, DC, or in the two surrounding counties during the October 2002 sniper shootings, to examine parent retrospective reports of child event-related psychological distress. An estimated 32% of parents reported that children experienced at least one psychological distress symptom related to sniper shootings. Older children, females, children with a history of trauma exposure prior to sniper attacks, children whose parents reported routine disruption as the result of attacks, children whose parents perceived them as at great risk for harm from sniper attacks, and those children whose parents reported more traumatic stress symptoms in response to attacks were at greatest risk for reported psychological distress.

scholarly journals The Impact of Presentation Modality on Perceptions of Truthful and Deceptive Confessions

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Bradford ◽  
Jane Goodman-Delahunty ◽  
Kevin R. Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Presentation Modality ◽  
Detection Rates ◽  
Wrongful Convictions ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Indirect Measures ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Accuracy Rates ◽  
Level Performance

This study examined the impact of presentation modality and the effectiveness of direct and indirect measures of deception to distinguish truthful from deceptive confessions. Confession statements were presented in one of three formats: audiovisual, audio-only, or written text. Forty-six observers classified each statement as true or false and provided ratings of confidence, information sufficiency, perceived cognitive load, and suspiciousness. Compared to audio and written confessions, exposure to audiovisual recordings yielded significantly lower accuracy rates for direct veracity judgements, with below chance level performance. There was no evidence that indirect measures assisted observers in discriminating truthful from deceptive confessions. Overall, observers showed a strong bias to believe confessions with poor detection rates for false statements. Reliance on video recordings to assess the veracity of confession evidence is unlikely to reduce wrongful convictions arising from false confessions.

scholarly journals Response Time Inconsistencies in Object and Action Naming in Anomic Aphasia

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1S) ◽  
pp. 477-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth E. Galletta ◽  
Mira Goral
Keyword(s):  
Response Times ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
The People ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Action Naming ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Improved Accuracy ◽  
Accuracy Rates ◽  
Healthy Participants

Purpose The effect of repeated naming on both object and action picture naming in individuals with anomic aphasia is explored. We asked whether repeatedly naming the same items leads to improved accuracy and reduced response latency. Method Ten individuals with anomic aphasia and 6 healthy adults, 3 young and 3 old, named a set of 27 object pictures and a set of 27 action pictures presented 1 at a time on a computer screen. We examined accuracy and response times (RTs) across the 2 blocks of 10 repeated trials. Results Results demonstrated higher accuracy and faster RTs for object than for action naming for all participants, with lower accuracy rates and slower RTs for the people with aphasia (PWA) compared with the healthy individuals, and diverging patterns of change across trials. Unlike the healthy participants, whose RTs decreased across trials, PWA continued to demonstrate variability in response latencies across the trials. Conclusions Our preliminary results suggest that measuring RT may be useful in characterizing retrieval difficulty in anomic aphasia and that the retrieval processes in PWA, even in those who experience mild anomia, may be less efficient or different from those processes in neurologically healthy individuals.

1981 Milk Feeding Patterns in the United States During the First 12 Months of Life

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-170
Author(s):  
Gilbert A. Martinez ◽  
David A. Dodd
Keyword(s):  
Breast Feeding ◽  
Maternal Employment ◽  
Telephone Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Feeding Patterns ◽  
Telephone Surveys ◽  
Life Data ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Milk Feeding

From 1955 to 1981, questionnaires were mailed to a nationally representative sample of mothers to determine the use of various milks for feeding infants during the first 6 months of life. Data from these surveys demonstrated the resurgence of breast-feeding both in incidence and duration, and this increase has occurred across all levels of income and education. Statistical analysis indicated that the trends were significant (P < .01) for all demographic categories surveyed. In 1981, as in 1980, a bimonthly telephone survey of mothers of infants 8, 10, and 12 months of age determined milk use during later infancy. A combination of data from the mail and telephone surveys for 1981 provided information on milk feeding patterns and demographic characteristics for the first 12 months of life. Maternal employment was shown to reduce the incidence and duration of breast-feeding.

Cantonese tone production in pre-school Urdu–Cantonese bilingual minority children

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Yao ◽  
Angel Chan ◽  
Roxana Fung ◽  
Wing Li Wu ◽  
Natalie Leung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Therapy ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
First Language ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Tone Production ◽  
Phonetic Information ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Accuracy Rates

Aim: In this study, we examine the production of Cantonese tones by preschool Urdu–Cantonese children living in Hong Kong. Methodology: 21 first language Urdu second language Cantonese children (ages 4–6) and 20 age-matched first language Cantonese children participated in a picture-naming experiment with 86 words (109 syllables in total). Data and Analysis: Acoustic analysis was carried out for perceptually correct and incorrect tone productions of each tone. Comparisons were also made across speaker groups regarding accuracy rates and error patterns. Findings: Overall, first-language Urdu participants had lower accuracy and greater tone confusion than first language Cantonese participants. The pattern is attributable to influence from Urdu prosody, ongoing Cantonese tone mergers, and general sensitivity to phonetic information. Originality: This is the first empirical study on the acquisition of Cantonese tones by children who are heritage speakers of a non-tone language. Significance: This study extends the literature of early bilingual phonology by furthering our understanding of an under-studied bilingual population, that is, heritage children of a non-tone language acquiring a tone language as the majority language. The findings of this study also produce implications for the practice of language educators and speech therapy professionals working with bilingual children.

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