Abstract #300500

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JSM 2003 Abstract #300500
Activity Number: 79
Type: Topic Contributed
Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2003 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics
Abstract - #300500
Title: Not Your Grandparent's Cognitive Testing: Exploring Innovative Methods in Cognitive Evaluation of Questions
Author(s): Carol Cosenza*+
Companies: University of Masschusetts Boston
Address: Center for Survey Research, Boston, MA, 02125,
Keywords: cognitive testing ; question evaluation ; cognitive evaluation
Abstract:

Cognitive testing of questions has become one of the many tools used by survey researchers in presurvey evaluation. What we learn about how the cognitive tasks of answering a question are handled helps us write better questions, helps the interview flow more smoothly, and helps decrease measurement error. Who conducts the interview, how structured the protocol is, when the cognitive probes are asked, and how information is retrieved from cognitive interviews all play a role in what we learn from the experience. The Center for Survey Research (CSR) has been experimenting with altering some of these features of the way testing is done. CSR has experimented with the structure of the cognitive probes--comparing a totally standardized cognitive instrument to a more flexible style, as well as the placement of the probes--comparing prospective and retrospective placements. Our latest endeavor has been to try to standardize the extrapolation of the results of the cognitive interview, comparing how outside observers understand the results of the interview with the results gathered through an interviewer debriefing.

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