Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Impact of Working Memory on Response Order Effects and Question Order Effects in Telephone and Web Surveys

University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln NE

Investigators

Abstract

This research project will investigate whether working memory has an impact on the responses participants provide on survey questionnaires. Working memory is a cognitive system that provides both the limited storage for relevant information and the temporary processing needed to perform ongoing mental tasks. When individuals participate in a survey, for each question presented, the participant must remember the question and response options while formulating a response. This research will extend the current understanding of the impact of working memory on participants' response selections in questions about attitudes. The research will contribute new knowledge about the cognitive aspects of survey methodology. The results may have implications for the design of questionnaires and could be of particular importance to large, nationally representative surveys like the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), where it is essential to measure cognitive functioning. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, support is provided to enable a promising student to establish a strong, independent research career. This project will collect new data through administering a survey to a random sample of Nebraska residents. Three research questions will be addressed with this data: 1) Does working memory impact question order and response order effects? The project will assess whether these effects are consistent across high and low working memory capacity groups for younger and older participants. 2) Is the impact of working memory on question-order effects and response-order effects consistent across two modes of survey administration, telephone and web? To examine this question, the same set of questions will be administered in a telephone survey and web survey. 3) How do participants compare across two different sets of memory measures? A subset of memory measures from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) will be included in the survey to compare with other questions designed to specifically measure working memory capacity. The data will be analyzed using statistical methods such as chi-square tests and logistic regression.