Memory Gaps in the American Time Use Survey. Investigating the Role of Retrieval Cues and Respondents’ Level of Effort

Unaccounted respondent memory gasp- i.e., those activity gaps that are attributed by interviewers to respondents\u27 memory failure- have serious implications for data quality. We contribute to the existing literature by investigating interviewing dynamics using paradata, distinguishing temporary memory gaps, which can be resolved during the interview, from enduring memory gaps, which cannot be resolved. We investigate factors that are associated with both kinds of memory gaps and how different response strategies are associated with data quality. We investigate two hypotheses that are associated with temporary and enduring memory gaps. The motivated cuing hypothesis posits that respondents who display more behaviors related to the presence and use of retrieval cues throughout the survey will resolve temporary memory gaps more successfully compared to respondents displaying fewer such behaviors. This should result in overall lower levels of enduring memory gaps. The lack of effort hypothesis suggests that respondent who are less eager to participate in the survey will expend less cognitive effort to resolve temporary memory gaps compared to more motivated respondents. This should then result in a positive association with enduring memory gaps and no association with temporary memory gaps. Using survey and paradata from the 2010 ATUS, our analyses indicate that, as hypothesized, behaviors indicating the use of retrieval cues are positively associated with temporary memory gaps and negatively associated with enduring memory gaps. Motivated respondents experiencing memory difficulties overcome what otherwise would result in enduring memory gaps more successfully compared to other respondents. Indicators of lack of effort, such as whether or not the respondent initially refused to participate in the survey, are positively associated with enduring memory gaps suggesting that reluctant respondents do not resolve memory gaps. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for survey research

Assessing the feasibility of a life history calendar to measure HIV risk and health in older South Africans

Life history calendars capture patterns of behavior over time, uncovering transitions and trajectories. Despite the growing numbers of older persons living with HIV in southern Africa, little is known about how HIV testing and risk unfold in this population. Operationalizing a life course approach with the use of an innovative Testing and Risk History Calendar [TRHC], we collected pilot data on older South Africans’ risk and HIV testing. We found older persons were able to provide (1) reference points to facilitate recall over a 10-year period, (2) specifics about HIV tests during that decade, and (3) details that contextualize the testing data, such as living arrangements, relationships, and health status. Interviewer debriefing sessions after each interview captured information on context and links across domains. On a larger scale, the TRHC has potential to reveal pathways between sexual behavior, HIV testing and risk perception, and health at older ages

An Exploratory High-Density EEG Investigation of the Misinformation Effect: Attentional and Recollective Differences between True and False Perceptual Memories

The misinformation effect, a phenomenon in which eyewitness memories are altered via exposure to post-event misinformation, is one of the most important paradigms used to investigate the reconstructive nature of human memory. The aim of this study was to use the misinformation effect paradigm to investigate differences in attentional and recollective processing between true and false event memories. Nineteen participants completed a variant of the misinformation paradigm in which recognition responses to true and misinformation based event details embedded within a narrative context, were investigated using high-density (256-channel) EEG with a 1-day delay between event exposure and test. Source monitoring responses were used to isolate event-related-potentials (ERPs) associated with perceptual (i.e. event) source attributions. Temporal-spatial analyses of these ERPs showed evidence of an elevated P3b and Late-Positive Component, associated with stronger context-matching responses and recollective activity respectively, in true perceptual memories relative to false misinformation based ones. These findings represent the first retrieval focused EEG investigation of the misinformation effect and highlight the interplay between attention and retrieval processes in episodic memory recognition

Autobiographical Misremembering: John Dean Is Not Alone

Survey respondents were asked to provide knowledge responses to public events and names that occurred as long ago as the 1930s and as recently as the 1980s. Respondents made errors that reflect the use of semantic and lexical memory systems, and reconstructive processes based on a semantic theme. Errors, as well as correct responses, are affected by whether the events originally occurred during the transition phase (early teens to mid-twenties). Responses indicate that events that occur during the transition phase are remembered better than events that occur during other life phases (in contradiction to the differential sampling hypothesis), but that events that occur during the transition phase can also promote error-prone reporting by interfering with other events or by promoting inaccurate reconstructions. The evidence suggests that the transition phase is not a monolithic entity, but that young adolescence differs from older transition phase ages by having a greater concentration on determining general properties of the world. Support is strongest for cognitive accounts of transition phase effects such as the first experience hypothesis, and results challenge physiological and evolutionary accounts that are tied to the transition phase promoting better memory. Finally, the more dramatic observed errors (such as inverting the subject and object of an event) point to possible undocumented instances of autobiographical misremembering

THE INFLUENCE OF MISLEADING POSTEVENT INFORMATION ON ITEM RECOGNITION

This investigation has sought to evaluate two disputed issues regarding experimental research on the influence of misleading postevent information on the remembering of originally experienced event information: (1) whether misinformation leads to memory impairment, and (2) whether experimental findings are generalizable to real world eyewitnesses. Subjects were shown four critical event items in a series of slides. Afterward, all subjects were misinformed (misled condition) that for two of the event items, other items had appeared. No misinformation (control condition) was provided for the remaining two event items. Subjects made separate yes/no verbal recognitions on the original appearance of event items and novel items (items neither shown nor presented as misinformation). Assignments were counterbalanced. The yes/no procedure tested the respective roles of two hypothesized processes. The coexistence hypothesis asserts that misleading postevent information leads to an impairment in the ability to access original event information. According to the no effect hypothesis, misleading postevent information only affects the responses of subjects who would ordinarily not remember the event information. Evidence for memory impairment arises if there are significantly more correct responses with the control versus misled conditions. If misinformation influences responses when the event information is not remembered, then, with event items tests, decreases in correct responses for the misled condition in comparison to the control condition will be matched by equivalent increases, with novel items tests, in correct responses for the misled versus control conditions. Results are inconclusive with respect to memory impairment. Although responses were not significantly more often correct with control versus misled conditions, there was some indication that the misinformation led to a poorer ability to discriminate event from novel items. Results were conclusive that the misinformation influenced responses when the event information was not remembered. With event items tests, control performance reliably exceeded misled performance; with novel items tests, misled condition responses were significantly more often correct than control condition responses. Results demonstrate that response accuracy depends on particular conditions. General statements regarding the response accuracy of real world eyewitnesses exposed to misinformation are unwarranted. Statements should be based on knowledge of specific circumstances

Calendar Interviewing and the Use of Landmark Events – Implications for Cross-cultural Surveys

This paper discusses potential methodological issues in the design and implementation of calendar recall aids such as the Life History Calendar for cross-cultural surveys. More specifically, it aims to provide insights into how the use of landmark events in calendar interviewing may be influenced by cross-cultural variability. As an example, we compare the landmark events reported by Dutch and American respondents in two studies in which calendar recall aids were used. The study discusses differences that were found between the two countries in the numbers and types of reported landmark events, as well as in the temporal distribution of those events. The outcomes suggest that it is important for researchers to examine how landmark events in calendar instruments translate in diverse cultural contexts. Des entretiens par calendrier et utilisation d’événements marquants – Implications pour les enquêtes transculturelles : Cette note traite des questions méthodologiques potentielles dans la conception et la mise en oeuvre des aides de rappel par calendrier tels que le Calendrier Histoire de vie pour les enquêtes transculturelles. Plus précisément, elle vise à fournir des indications sur comment l’utilisation des événements marquants dans des entretiens par calendrier peut être influencée par la variabilité interculturelle. À titre d’exemple, nous comparons les événements marquants rapportés par les répondants néerlandais et américains dans deux études dans lesquelles des aides de rappel par calendrier ont été utilisées. L’étude examine les différences qui ont été trouvées entre les deux pays dans le nombre et les types d’événements marquants rapportés, ainsi que dans la distribution temporelle de ces événements. Les résultats suggèrent qu’il est important pour les chercheurs d’examiner comment des événements dans des calendriers se traduisent dans divers contextes culturels

Assessing the feasibility of a life history calendar to measure HIV risk and health in older South Africans

Life history calendars capture patterns of behavior over time, uncovering transitions and trajectories. Despite the growing numbers of older persons living with HIV in southern Africa, little is known about how HIV testing and risk unfold in this population. Operationalizing a life course approach with the use of an innovative Testing and Risk History Calendar [TRHC], we collected pilot data on older South Africans’ risk and HIV testing. We found older persons were able to provide (1) reference points to facilitate recall over a 10-year period, (2) specifics about HIV tests during that decade, and (3) details that contextualize the testing data, such as living arrangements, relationships, and health status. Interviewer debriefing sessions after each interview captured information on context and links across domains. On a larger scale, the TRHC has potential to reveal pathways between sexual behavior, HIV testing and risk perception, and health at older ages