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Building Empirically Plausible MAS 113the kinds of interactions influential in decision (and clear recall of “interesting”interactions), details of number, kind and order of interactions may be lost.Ethnographic Interviews [12]: Ethnographic techniques were developedfor elicitation of world-views: terms and connections between terms constitutinga subjective frame of reference. For example, it may not be realistic toassume an objective set of EPO attributes. The term “convenient” can dependon consumer practices in a very complex manner.Focus Groups [19]: These take advantage of the fact that conversation isa highly effective elicitation technique. In an interview, accurate elicitation ofEPO adoption history relies heavily on the perceptiveness of the interviewer.In a group setting, each respondent may help to prompt the others. Relatively“natural” dialogue may also make respondents less self-conscious about thesetting.Diaries [15]: These attempt to solve recall problems by recording relevantdata at the time it is generated. Diaries can then form the basis for further datacollection, particularly detailed interviews. Long period diaries require highlymotivated respondents and appropriate technology to “remind” people to recorduntil they have got into the habit.Discourse and Conversation Analysis [20, 21]: These are techniques forstudying the organisation and content of different kinds of information exchange.They are relevant for such diverse sources as transcripts of focusgroups, project development meetings, newsgroup discussions and advertisements.Protocol Analysis [17]: Protocol analysis attempts to collect data in morenaturalistic and open-ended settings. Ranyard and Craig present subjects with“adverts” for instalment credit and ask them to talk about the choice. Subjectscan ask for information. The information they ask for and the order of askingilluminate the decision process.Vignettes [10]: Interviewees are given naturalistic descriptions of social situationsto discuss. This allows the exploration of counter-factual conditions:what individuals might do in situations that are not observable. (This is particularlyimportant for new products.) The main problems are that talk and actionmay not match and that the subject may not have the appropriate experience orimagination to engage with the vignette.Experiments [14]: In cases where a theory is well defined, one can designexperiments that are analogous to the social domain. The common problemswith this approach is ecological validity - the more parameters are controlled,the less analogous the experimental setting. As the level of control increases,subjects may get frustrated, flippant and bored.These descriptions don’t provide guidance for practical data collection butthat is not the intention. The purpose of this discussion is threefold. Firstly,to show that data collection methods are diverse: something often obscured by