Doctoral Dissertation Research: Testing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Recall Aids for Surveys of Personal Networks

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

This study seeks to develop recall aids for the name generator procedure from the General Social Survey and examine empirically whether these aids can improve the recall accuracy of the information about who comprises their personal networks from survey participants. It hypothesizes that researchers can obtain more comprehensive personal network data by encouraging survey respondents to consult the actual records that they keep in the contact directories provided by various ICTs (such as the phone book stored in a mobile phone and the address book functionality of email applications). Thus far, although the past literature has suggested a few techniques to reduce respondents? burden in the survey setting, there is little work addressing the issue of the recall accuracy for personal network data collection. This study employs a survey experiment; a Web survey will be administered to college students to gather information about their personal networks. College students consist of a homogeneous sample appropriate for this study, given the concern of internal validity in the expected findings. Students who agree to participate in the survey will be randomly assigned to three conditions. The control group will take the questionnaire without any recall aid, while the two experimental groups will take the survey with two different forms of prompts and probes respectively. Broader impacts: The study will provide an effective technique to collect personal network information from individuals such as scientists and engineers. The proposed technique can then be used in surveys to collect information to develop new social capital indicators for the science and engineering workforce. As a result, researchers can use these indicators to investigate how various dimensions (e.g. advice, support, etc.) of personal networks may explain the productivity and career outcomes of scientists and engineers. More generally, this project will advance the understanding about individuals' personal networks as well as the data collection technique for personal network research. It will also offer new insights into the understanding of the psychology of survey response.