Cognitive Issues in the Design of Web Surveys

收集调查数据的新方法的发展，包括网络调查，可能会为自我管理的调查带来一个黄金时代。 新的数据收集方法似乎提供了计算机化的力量和复杂性，并结合了自我管理的隐私。 与此同时，由于它们不需要采访者，它们可以减少其他类型的调查错误，并可以大大降低进行调查的成本。 尽管如此，有越来越多的证据表明，不同的自我管理方法可以产生不同的结果，这些差异跨越自我管理的方法似乎反映了受访者和电子问卷之间的接口的明显偶然的功能。 这项与Tourangeau（SES-9907395）的合作研究测试了一种解释界面这些效应的理论。 该理论的核心概念是社会存在。 在某种程度上，数据收集的方法，它的设置，或界面给受访者一种与另一个人互动的感觉，它会引发类似于面试官引发的动机。 这些动机包括避免让自己难堪或冒犯他人的愿望，以及完成面试的增强动机。 网络提供了丰富的资源来吸引受访者的兴趣（颜色，动画图像），但即使是表面上无害的界面特征可以创建一个社会存在感，产生社会的可取性和相关的响应effects.This实验将试图识别的功能，创建一个虚拟的社会存在的网络调查的接口。 将通过电话征集答卷人样本，以完成网上调查。 无论电子提问者是否被命名，实验都会有所不同（“嗨！我是约翰”），以及它是否提供了明确的提醒以前的答案。 如果预算允许，第一次实验的结果可能会建议进行后续实验。 在后续研究中要检验的主要假设是，界面越能创造出一种社会存在感，受访者就越会表现得好像他们在与另一个人互动。 这项研究得到了方法、测量和统计计划以及联邦统计机构联盟的支持，该联盟隶属于调查方法资助机会研究。

The development of new methods for collecting survey data, including Web surveys, may be ushering in a golden age for self-administered surveys. The new methods of data collection appear to offer the power and complexity of computerization combined with the privacy of self-administration. At the same time, because they do not require an interviewer, they may reduce other types of survey error and could dramatically lower the costs of conducting surveys. Still, there is mounting evidence that different methods of self administration can produce different results; these differences across methods of self administration seem to reflect apparently incidental features of the interface between the respondent and the electronic questionnaire. This collaborative research with Tourangeau (SES-9907395) tests a theory to explain these effects of the interface. The key concept in the theory is that of social presence. To the extent that the method of data collection, its setting, or the interface gives the respondent a sense of interacting with another person, it will trigger motivations similar to those triggered by an interviewer. These motivations include the desire to avoid embarrassing oneself or giving offense to someone else, as well as enhanced motivation to complete the interview. The Web offer ample resources for attracting the interest of the respondent (color, animated images), but even apparently innocuous characteristics of the interface can create a sense of social presence, producing social desirability and related response effects.This experiment will attempt to identify the features of the interface with a Web survey that create a virtual social presence. A sample of respondents will be recruited by telephone to complete a Web survey. The experiment will vary whether or not the electronic questioner is identified by name ("Hi! I'm John") and whether or not it offers explicit reminders of prior answers. The results of this first experiment may suggest follow-up experiments to be carried out if the budget permits. The main hypothesis to be tested in any follow-up studies is that the more the interface creates a sense of social presence, the more respondents will act as if they are interacting with another human being. This research is supported by the Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics Program and a consortium of federal statistical agencies under the Research on Survey Methodology Funding Opportunity.