Asking Questions - The Definitive Guide To Questionnaire Design ...

ASKING QUESTIONS THAT MEASURE KNOWLEDGE 209
Clearly, it is necessary to use multiple key informants to obtain
reliable information about a community. At a minimum, we would
suggest that at least three or four key informants be used for each
setting and that additional informants be added if the data are variable.
The less informed the respondents, the larger will be the
number of respondents required to obtain reliable information. If,
instead of informants, residents are used to provide information on
neighborhood ecology, a minimum sample of about ten would probably
be required. Although the limits of key informant data must be
recognized, key informants provide data that cannot be obtained so
accurately and economically by any other procedure.
Using Nonverbal Procedures
As illustrated in Figure 6.11, Questions 12 and 13, not all knowledge
questions and answers must be verbal. The use of nonverbal
stimuli—such as pictures, maps, music, sounds, drawings, and other
real-world objects—should always be considered along with standard
questions in face-to-face interviewing. Both respondents and
interviewers enjoy these questions as a change of pace from standard
questions. Nonverbal procedures can be used as either stimuli
or responses. Thus, in a test of classical music knowledge, respondents
might be asked to listen to the start of Beethoven’s Fifth
Symphony and asked to identify the composer and composition,
or they might be given the name of the composition and asked
to hum a bit of it into a recorder. This latter procedure and other
similar procedures that require recall are more difficult than the
procedures that require respondents simply to recognize the nonverbal
stimulus.
Self-Administered Knowledge Questions
As a rule, knowledge questions are not appropriate for selfadministered
surveys (except under controlled conditions on the
computer, as with standardized tests), whether by mail or especially