Doctoral Dissertation Research: Survey Measurement in Aging Societies

本研究探讨人口老化对调查方法的影响。 对认知功能正常的年龄相关变化的心理学研究已经记录了处理速度和工作记忆功能在整个生命周期中的系统性下降。 这些与年龄相关的下降可能会影响问题回答中涉及的认知和交际过程;事实上，以前的研究强调了认知能力在问题回答过程中的重要作用。 该项目侧重于两个具体方面。 首先，心理学研究表明，老年人在早上而不是晚上进行测试时，在高要求的认知任务中表现更好。 如果是这样的话，访谈时间可能会与受访者的年龄相互作用，以确定数据质量。 对密歇根大学健康与退休研究（HRS）数据的二次分析解决了这个问题。 关键的预测是，年龄较大的受访者提供更高质量的数据时，在上午采访比在晚上，而一天中的时间并不影响数据质量的年轻受访者。 其次，一个随机实验研究了可能与年龄有关的差异，受访者如何回答行为频率的问题，并解决他们的影响问卷设计。 记录检查用于评估受访者回答的准确性。 控制其他变量已知影响的选择的反应策略，关键的预测认为，老年人不太可能采用枚举为基础的反应策略比年轻的成年人，由于高认知需求与枚举。 由于基于枚举的策略通常会导致漏报，而基于估计的策略会导致高估，因此策略选择中与年龄相关的差异也会转化为不同的反应偏差。 具体来说，老年人预计会过度报告行为，而年轻人预计会相对于记录少报行为，从而扭曲了行为频率中与年龄相关的实际差异。老年人是人口中迅速增长的一部分，对社会发展的任何有意义的分析都需要包括老年人的有效数据。 心理学和神经科学的大量研究记录了认知功能中与年龄相关的深刻变化，这些变化对调查研究提出了严峻的挑战：我们如何调整研究策略，以确保从老年人中收集高质量的数据？ 社会科学家只有充分了解研究过程中各个阶段与年龄相关的受访者行为差异，才能调整他们的数据收集程序，以适应不断变化的人口需求。 该项目有助于这一理解，并促进制定程序，促进高质量的数据，从而提供关于社会发展的可靠信息。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

This research addresses the implications of an aging population for survey methodology. Psychological research into normal age-related changes in cognitive functioning has documented systematic declines across the lifespan in processing speed and working memory function. These age-related declines are likely to influence the cognitive and communicative processes involved in question answering; in fact, previous research highlighted the important role of cognitive abilities in the question-answering process. This project focuses on two specific aspects. First, psychological research indicates that older adults perform better on demanding cognitive tasks when tested in the morning rather than in the evening. If so, time of interview may interact with respondents' age in determining data quality. Secondary analyses of data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) address this question. The key prediction is that older respondents provide higher quality data when interviewed in the morning than in the evening, whereas time of day does not affect data quality for younger respondents. Second, a randomized experiment examines likely age-related differences in how respondents answer behavioral frequency questions and addresses their implications for questionnaire design. Record checks are used to asses the accuracy of respondents' answers. Controlling for other variables known to influence the selection of response strategies, the key prediction holds that older adults are less likely to employ enumeration-based response strategies than younger adults, due to the high cognitive demand associated with enumeration. Because enumeration-based strategies usually foster underreporting, whereas estimation-based strategies foster overestimating, age-related differences in strategy selection are also expected to translate into differential response biases. Specifically, older adults are expected to over report behaviors, whereas younger adults are expected to underreport behaviors relative to records, distorting actual age-related differences in behavioral frequency. Older adults are a rapidly growing segment of the population and any meaningful analysis of societal developments will need to include valid data from older adults. A solid body of research in psychology and neuroscience documents profound age-related changes in cognitive functioning and these changes present a formidable challenge for survey research: How do we adapt research strategies to ensure the collection of high quality data from older adults? Social scientists will only be able to adapt their data collection procedures to the needs of a changing population when age-related differences in respondent behavior at all steps of the research process are sufficiently well understood. This project contributes to this understanding and facilitates the development of procedures that foster high data quality, thus providing sound information about societal developments. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.