Collaborative Research: Acoustic Properties, Listener Perceptions, and Outcomes of Interactions between Survey Interviews and Sample Persons

虽然抽样调查是社会科学研究方法的基石之一，但该工具正在经历抽样人员参与的大幅下降。本项目研究参与横断面随机数字拨号（RDD）电话调查。这种下降导致研究费用大幅增加，因此正在认真考虑终止基本调查。RDD合作率变化的一个主要来源是采访者。在集中式电话采访设施中，采访者通常被分配类似的混合案例，但获得的回复率却大相径庭。所有产生参与RDD调查的决定的刺激都必须通过音频通道传递？通过面试官的用词、音调、语调变化和节奏？演讲。这些属性不是调查方法学家的传统研究对象。因此，该项目结合了语言科学、语音学、心理语言学和调查方法论的见解。一个中心概念框架利用了合作二元通信中的裁剪、收敛和相似性等相关概念。5000个RDD电话访谈者介绍的数字录音（来自两个数据收集组织，6个不同的调查，165个不同的访谈者）被转换成一个定量数据集，适合于动态和静态的响应倾向统计模型。使用Praat声学软件提取由语音科学概念激发的声学度量；评价者对说话者的感知属性进行判断时，会同时使用杠杆显著性理论和社会心理学的核心概念；从音频文件的转录中提取单词和不流畅率。所得到的数据集是一个关系型数据集，包含采访者、应答者（案例）、联系人和会话回合等级别的记录。分层和生存模型是使用组合的概念框架来预测一个样本案例的最终参与决策。虽然这项研究强调基础科学，但它具有潜在的实际成果。学术调查研究是美国150亿美元商业研究产业的重要工具；这个项目吗?美国的成功有助于商业部门的健康发展。

While the sample survey is one of the cornerstones of social science research methods, the tool is experiencing large declines in participation of sampled persons. This project studies participation in cross-section Random-Digit Dialed (RDD) telephone surveys. The declines have led to such significant research cost increases that serious consideration of terminating basic surveys is occurring. One large source of variation in RDD cooperation rates is the interviewer. In centralized telephone interviewing facilities interviewers are often assigned similar mixes of cases, yet obtain very different response rates. All the stimuli yielding a decision to participate in an RDD survey must be delivered through audio channel ? through words, pitch, inflection, and pacing of the interviewers? speech. These attributes are not the traditional objects of study of survey methodologists. Hence, the project combines insights from speech science, phonetics, psycholinguistics, and survey methodology. A central conceptual framework utilizes the companion notions of tailoring, convergence, and similarity in cooperative dyadic communication. 5,000 digital audio recordings of RDD telephone interviewer introductions (from two data collection organizations, 6 different surveys, and 165 different interviewers) are transformed into a quantitative data set suitable for dynamic and static statistical models of response propensities. Acoustic measures motivated by concepts from speech science are extracted using Praat acoustic software; raters make judgments of perceived attributes of speakers using both concepts central to leverage-salience theory and the social psychology; and word and disfluency rates are extracted from transcriptions of the audio files. The resulting data set is a relational one with records at the levels of the interviewer, respondent (case), contact, and conversational turn. Hierarchical and survival models are built using the combined conceptual frameworks predicting the final participation decision of a sample case. While the research emphasizes basic science, it has potential practical outcomes. Academic survey research is a crucial tool for a $15 billion commercial research industry in the US; this project?s success can contribute to the health of this commercial sector.