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

354 GLOSSARY
of an IBM card is a one-column field; hence, more than one column
will be required to store a two-digit number. If year of birth is
recorded in columns 20–23 of deck 10, columns 20–23 of that deck
are the “age field.” (See also deck, precolumning.)
field coding The coding of open questions by interviewers during
the interview. In a field-coded question, the question itself usually
is identical to that of an open-answer format. Instead of a blank
space for the interviewer to record the respondent’s answer verbatim,
a set of codes is printed. Interviewers simply check each topic
that is mentioned. Field coding should be avoided unless the interviewer
records the verbatim response as well, so that the field coding
can be checked when the questionnaire is processed.
filter questions Questions asked to determine which subsequent
questions (if any) will be asked.
forced-choice questions Questions that require the respondent to
choose one alternative among several—even though the respondent
might not “like” any of the alternatives. Respondents are usually
asked to choose the alternative that is closest to their views,
even though no alternative may exactly express their opinion.
form effect A term used to refer to the effect the question’s format
has on the distribution of responses to questions. For example, differences
in response distributions may be caused by use of openended
instead of closed-ended questions.
free-response format A format that asks respondents to answer
questions in their own words, in which interviewers record the
answers verbatim.
funneling procedures and inverted funnels Funneling procedures
refer to the ordering of questions in a questionnaire so that the most
general or unrestricted questions in an area are asked first and are
then followed by successively more restricted questions. The major
purpose of the funneling sequence is to prevent early questions from
providing cues that influence later questions. It is assumed that