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

358 GLOSSARY
overreporting, underreporting Respondents may report that they
have bought more or done something more frequently than they actually
have, or they may underreport their activities. Overreporting
tends to occur in responses to questions about socially desirable
activities, and underreporting tends to be in response to questions
about threatening topics.
panel study A data collection procedure in which information is
obtained from the sample units two or more times, either by repeated
interviews or by diaries. Since panels can track individual
changes, they provide more reliable as well as more detailed information
over time than independent samples do, but they are more
difficult to recruit and maintain. (See also diaries.)
PDAs (personal digital assistants) These take the form of a variety
of electronic handheld devices that can be used for a wide range
of tasks, including data entry.
personal interviews (face-to-face and telephone interviews) Personal
interviews are those in which the interviewer both asks the
questions and records the answers. Such interviews may be conducted
face-to-face or by telephone. Group interviews and selfadministered
questionnaires are not considered personal interviews
even if an interviewer is present.
pilot test, pretest A small field test, primarily of the questionnaire
but also of other field procedures, that occurs before the main study
is conducted. Pilot tests usually have small samples (ten to fifty
cases) and are intended to alert the researcher to unanticipated
respondent difficulties. Some organizations use the terms pilot test
and pretest synonymously. Others consider that a pilot test precedes
a pretest, and still others consider a pretest to precede a pilot test.
precoding See coding.
precolumning The process by which responses to each question or
item of identifying information on a questionnaire are assigned to
column locations in a series of IBM cards. For example, the sex of