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，但这一工具的抽样人员参与率正在大幅下降。本项目研究参与横截面随机数字拨号（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面试官。在集中的电话访谈设施中，访谈者往往被分配到类似的混合案件，但得到的答复率却大不相同。所有促使决定参与RDD调查的刺激都必须通过音频通道传递？通过采访者的语言、音调、语调和节奏来表达吗？演讲这些属性不是传统的调查方法学家的研究对象。因此，该项目结合了言语科学，语音学，心理语言学和调查方法的见解。一个中心的概念框架，利用合作的二元通信的剪裁，收敛和相似性的同伴的概念。5,000个RDD电话访谈者介绍的数字音频记录（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，适用于动态和静态的响应倾向统计模型。声学措施的动机，从语音科学的概念提取使用Praat声学软件;评分员作出判断的感知属性的扬声器使用这两个概念的核心，以显着性理论和社会心理学;和单词和不流利率提取的音频文件的transmittance。由此产生的数据集是一个关系与记录的水平，采访者，受访者（情况），接触，和会话轮。使用组合的概念框架建立了层次模型和生存模型，预测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150亿美元商业研究行业的重要工具;这个项目？的成功可以促进这一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.