Improving Surveys by Sharing Knowledge
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Abstract: In an interagency project between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau, the Census Bureau’s Center for Survey Measurement conducted two rounds of cognitive research on questions within various modules of the American Housing Survey instrument. The purpose of this research was to test new or revised questions for the 2015 American Housing Survey instrument. Results from the first round of 42 interviews and the second round of 25 interviews showed that respondents were able to answer most or all of the questions in each module with little to no difficulty. The remaining problematic questions (1) used words that respondents either were unfamiliar with or interpreted in multiple ways; (2) did not elicit the expected responses from respondents; or (3) had critical details that some respondents did not hear or understand the first the time the interviewer read the question. The results of these cognitive interviews helped inform the American Housing Survey instrument implemented in the field in May 2015.
Terry, R. L., Fobia, A. C., Martinez, M., & Luck, L. (2017). Cognitive Pretesting of Select Modules of the 2015 American Housing Survey. U.S. Census Bureau. Suitland, MD. https://wwwn.cdc.gov/QBank/Report.aspx?1187