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Conducting Cognitive Interviews Over the Phone: Benefits and Challenges
Harmoni Noel
American Institutes for Research
Typically, cognitive interviews are done in-person face-to-face; however, some target populations such as doctors or farmers are very difficult to reach in-person and other interview modes such as telephone interviewing may be more feasible and less costly. Eight cognitive interviewers were interviewed about their experiences conducting phone cognitive interviews. Based on their experience, benefits of phone cognitive interviewing included better access to busy or disadvantaged populations, ability to get more sample variation, and cost and time efficiencies related to less travel and easier scheduling. Challenges included lost nonverbal cues and the need for more probing, more complicated logistics such as incentives, multi-tasking respondents, and more difficulty testing graphics, building rapport, and tracking instrument navigation. Most interviewers felt that in-person interviews were preferable but that if for some reason they could not do them in-person then phone would be better than not doing the interview at all. At the same time, most interviewers felt that the quality of the phone interview data was good enough compared to in-person interview data.