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

ORGANIZING AND DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRES 295
ability to learn more about the research (or similar types of research)
has been well received by Institutional Review Boards.
Computer-Assisted Interviewing
Researchers unfamiliar with computer-assisted interviewing may
wonder why this methodology has gained such rapid and widespread
use. We first discuss the capabilities of computer-assisted systems,
then discuss how computers change the questionnaire design
process. We shall be using the following widely accepted abbreviations
for various kinds of computer-assisted interviewing:
CATI
CAPI
CASI
computer-assisted telephone interviewing
computer-assisted personal interviewing
(face-to-face)
computer-assisted self-administered interviewing
Capabilities of Computer-Assisted Interviewing Methods
Computer-assisted interviewing methods have been growing in popularity
for a number of reasons, including: (1) ease of interviewee
response that doesn’t depend on an interviewer; (2) improved quality
of responses through elimination of skip errors; (3) elimination
of interviewer bias; (4) shorter turn-around times; (5) simple integration
of images, sound, and video; and (6) automatic data entry.
Perhaps the most welcome benefit of computers during interviews
is that they eliminate clerical errors caused by interviewers
during the stress of the interview. Concern for interviewer errors is
a function of the complexity of the interview and the memory effort
required by the interviewers at various points of the interview.
Specifically setting up skip protocols is something the computer can
do very well.
Skip Instructions. As discussed in the previous chapter, many surveys
have significant amounts of branching with a question or series