The impact of administration mode on response effects in survey measurement

Der Arbeitsbericht diskutiert Auswirkungen unterschiedlicher Datenerhebungsmethoden auf die Antwortausprägungen der Befragten. Im Mittelpunkt der Erörterungen stehen die direkte Kommunikation in face-to-face-Situationen, Telefoninterviews und schriftliche Befragungen. Die jeweiligen Effekte werden durchgängig daraufhin reflektiert, inwieweit sie kognitiven und/ oder kommunikativen Prozessen zuzuordnen sind. Hingewiesen wird in diesem Zusammenhang auch darauf, daß ein komplexes Geflecht von Bedingungsfaktoren anzutreffen ist, weil nicht nur die Form der Präsentation von Fragen die Antwortausprägungen bestimmt, sondern gleichzeitig die Organisation der Befragung selbst die Anordnung und Formulierung der Untersuchungsfragen ein Stück weit determiniert, so daß unterschiedliche Antwortausprägungen durch die Anlage der Untersuchung selbst bestimmt sein können. (GF)'The major differences between face-to-face and telephone interviews as well as self-administered questionnaires are reviewed and are related to the cognitive and communicative processes assumed to underlie the process of question answering. Based on these considerations, the impact of administration mode on the emergence of well-known response effects in survey measurement is discussed, and relevant experimental evidence is reported. It is concluded that administration mode affects the emergence of question order and context effects; the emergence of response order effects; the validity of retrospective reports; and the degree of socially desirable responding. The emergence of question wording and question form effects, on the other hand, appears to be relatively independent of administration mode.' (author's abstract

Psychological sources of response effects in self-administered and telephone surveys

The impact of mode of data collection (self-administered questionnaire vs. telephone interview) on the emergence of response effects and the accuracy of recall from memory was explored in a cross-cultural experiment, conducted in the U.S. and the Federal Republic of Germany. As predicted on the basis of psychological considerations, question order effects were obtained under telephone interview conditions but not under self-administered conditions, where question order is eliminated by the opportunity to browse back and forth through the questionnaire. On the other hand, the impact of the content of related questions was more pronounced under self-administered than under telephone interview conditions, independent of the order in which they were presented. This reflects respondents' differential opportunity to elaborate on related questions under both administration modes, as well as the necessity to rely on the content of presumably related questions in determining the meaning of ambiguous questions under self-administered conditions. Finally, respondents' recall of the date of public events was more accurate under self-administered than under telephone interview conditions, reflecting the beneficial effect of having sufficient time to work on the recall task

A comparison of response effects in self-administered and telephone surveys

Die Studie untersucht und vergleicht das Antwortverhalten bei schriftlichen Befragungen und Telefoninterviews, wobei die Autoren die Hypothese aufstellen, daß durch die Möglichkeit des mehrfachen Überdenkens der Fragen im Rahmen einer schriftlichen Befragung im Vergleich zum Telefoninterview leichte Interpretationsvariationen auftreten können, die zu signifikanten Unterschieden bei der Art und Weise der Datensammlung führen. Mit Hilfe eines interkulturellen Experimente, welches die Variationen des Antwortverhaltens bezüglich der Form der Frage, der sprachlichen Formulierung und des inhaltlichen Zusammenhangs in telefonischen Befragungen und selbst auszufüllenden Fragebögen verglich, wurde festgestellt, daß eine Datenbeeinflussung durch die Reihenfolge der Fragen und Antworten beim Fragebogen weniger zu verzeichnen ist als beim Telefoninterview, während die Form der Frage und die sprachliche Formulierung bei beiden Befragungsformen eine Wirkung ausübt. Die Autoren kommen zu dem Schluß, daß die Qualität der Daten somit bei der Datenerhebung über selbstauszufüllende Fragebögen besser sei als bei telefonischen Befragungen. (ML)'The impact of mode of data collection (self-administered questionnaire vs. telephone interview) on the emergence of response effects and the accuracy of recall from memory was explored in a cross-cultural experiment, conducted in the U.S. and the Federal Republic of Germany. As predicted on the Basis of psychological considerations, question order effects were obtained under telephone interview conditions but not under selfadministered conditions, where question order is eliminated by the opportunity to browsw back and forth through the questionnaire. On the other hand, the impact of the content of related questions was more pronounced under self-administered than under telephone interview, conditions, independent of the order in which they were presented. This reflects repondents' differential opportunity to elaborate on related question under both administration modes, as well as the necessity to rely on the content of presumably related questions in determining the meaning of ambiguous questions under self-administered conditions. Finally, respondents' recall of the date of public events was more accurate under self-administered than under telephone interview conditions, reflecting the beneficial effect of having sufficient time to work on the recall task.' (auhor's abstract

Kognitionspsychologie und Umfrageforschung: Themen und Befunde eines interdisziplinären Forschungsgebietes

'In den letzten Jahren entwickelte sich eine enge Kooperation von kognitiven (Sozial-) Psychologen und Umfrageforschern, in deren Mittelpunkt die kognitiven und kommunikativen Prozesse stehen, die Antworten von Befragten zugrunde liegen. Wir stellen dieses interdisziplinäre Forschungsgebiet anhand zweier zentraler Fragestellungen vor. Zunächst gehen wir auf die Validität retrospektiver Berichte und ihre Abhängigkeit vom Forschungsinstrument ein. Dabei erweisen sich Verhaltensberichte und nachfolgende Urteile in wesentlichem Maße als Funktion der vom Forscher vorgegebenen Antwortalternativen. Anschließend behandeln wir das Auftreten von Kontexteffekten bei Meinungsfragen und spezifizieren die Bedingungen, unter denen Assimilations- oder Kontrasteffekte als Funktion vorausgegangener Fragen auftreten.' (Autorenreferat)'During recent years, cognitive (social) psychologists and survey methodologists developed a joint interest in the cognitive and communicative processes that underlie the responses provided by research participants. We introduce this interdisciplinary research area, focussing on two of its key issues. First, we explore the validity of retrospective behavioral reports, paying special attention to the impact of formal features of the questionnaire on respondents' reports. Subsequently, we adress the emergence of context effects in attitude measurement, and delineate the conditions that give rise to assimilation and contrast effects.' (author's abstract

The \u3cem\u3eChlamydomonas\u3c/em\u3e Genome Reveals the Evolution of Key Animal and Plant Functions

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a unicellular green alga whose lineage diverged from land plants over 1 billion years ago. It is a model system for studying chloroplast-based photosynthesis, as well as the structure, assembly, and function of eukaryotic flagella (cilia), which were inherited from the common ancestor of plants and animals, but lost in land plants. We sequenced the ∼120-megabase nuclear genome of Chlamydomonas and performed comparative phylogenomic analyses, identifying genes encoding uncharacterized proteins that are likely associated with the function and biogenesis of chloroplasts or eukaryotic flagella. Analyses of the Chlamydomonas genome advance our understanding of the ancestral eukaryotic cell, reveal previously unknown genes associated with photosynthetic and flagellar functions, and establish links between ciliopathy and the composition and function of flagella

Precise magnesium isotope measurements in core top planktic and benthic foraminifera

This study presents a new methodology to obtain highly precise measurements (±0.1‰) of magnesium isotope ratios in very small samples of foraminiferal carbonate (40–50 μg). Here this technique is used to examine Mg isotopic variation among different species of core top foraminifera over a range of different ambient conditions. Despite the high degree of temperature control on the abundance of elemental Mg incorporated into foraminiferal tests, analyses of surface dwelling Globigerinoides ruber and G. sacculifer from five cores, with associated sea surface temperatures ranging from 20 to 31°C, show no significant temperature-dependent variations in their Mg isotope ratios. Analyses of different size fractions of G. sacculifer show an increase in Mg/Ca with test size but no variation of Mg isotope ratio. In all, nine planktic and benthic species were analyzed; all show identical Mg isotope ratios with a mean of δ26Mg = −4.72‰, apart from small differences in three species, namely O. universa, G. sacculifer (which are both ∼0.4‰ lighter than the average), and P. obliquiloculata (which is ∼0.4‰ heavier). These results highlight the constancy of foraminiferal Mg isotope ratios, despite changing environmental conditions which dominate Mg/Ca variation and arguably affect Ca isotope fractionation. This is an important observation which needs to be included in any model of foraminiferal calcification. The insusceptibility of δ26Mg values to external parameters makes Mg isotopes ideally suited to constraining past variations in the Mg isotope budget of the oceans and the information this carries about the history of oceanic dolomitization, continental weathering, and hydrothermal behavior