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The Carryover Effects of Preceding Interviewer–Respondent Interaction on Responses in Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing (ACASI)
Abstract
Audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI) has been widely used to collect sensitive information from respondents in face-to-face interviews. Interviewers ask questions that are not sensitive or only moderately sensitive and then allow respondents to self-administer more sensitive questions, listening to audio recordings of the questions and typically entering their responses directly into the same device that the interviewer has used. According to the conventional thinking, ACASI is taken as independent of the face-to-face interaction that almost always precedes it. Presumably as a result of this presumed independence, the respondents’ prior interaction with the interviewer is rarely considered when assessing the quality of ACASI responses. There is no body of existing research that has experimentally investigated how the preceding interviewer–respondent interaction may create sufficient social presence to affect responses in the subsequent ACASI module. The study reported here, a laboratory experiment with eight professional interviewers and 125 respondents, explores the carryover effects of preceding interactions between interviewer and respondent on responses in the subsequent ACASI. We evaluated the impact of the similarity of the live and recorded interviewer’s voice for each respondent as well as respondents’ rapport with interviewers in the preceding interview. We did not find significant main effects of vocal similarity on disclosure in ACASI. However, we found significant interaction effects between vocal similarity and respondents’ rapport ratings in the preceding interview on disclosure in ACASI. When the ACASI voice was similar to the interviewer’s voice in the preceding interaction, respondent-rated rapport led to more disclosure but, when the ACASI voice is clearly different from the interviewer’s voice, respondent-rated rapport in the prior interaction did not affect disclosure.
In a standardized telephone interview, respondents ideally are able to provide an answer that easily fits the response task. Deviations from this ideal question answering behavior are behavioral manifestations of breakdowns in the cognitive response process and partially reveal mechanisms underlying measurement error, but little is known about what question characteristics or types of respondents are associated with what types of deviations. Evaluations of question problems tend to look at one question characteristic at a time; yet questions are comprised of multiple characteristics, some of which are easier to experimentally manipulate (e.g., presence of a definition) than others (e.g., attitude versus behavior). All of these characteristics can affect how respondents answer questions. Using a landline telephone interview, we use cross-classified random effects logistic regression models to simultaneously evaluate the effects of multiple question and respondent characteristics on six different respondent behaviors. We find that most of the variability in these respondent answering behaviors is associated with the questions rather than the respondents themselves. Question characteristics that affect the comprehension and mapping stages of the cognitive response process are consistently associated with answering behaviors, whereas attitude questions do not consistently differ from behavioral questions. We also find that sensitive questions are more likely to yield adequate answers and fewer problems in reporting or clarification requests than nonsensitive questions. Additionally, older respondents are less likely to answer adequately. Our findings suggest that survey designers should focus on questionnaire features related to comprehension and mapping to minimize interactional and data quality problems in surveys and should train interviewers on how to resolve these reporting problems. Supplementary file (.xls) attached below.
In surveys, individuals tend to misreport behaviors being in contrast to prevalent social norms or regulations. Several design features of the survey procedure have been suggested to counteract this problem; particularly, computerized surveys are supposed to elicit more truthful responding. This assumption was tested in a meta-analysis of survey experiments reporting 460 effect sizes (total N = 125,672). Self-reported prevalence rates of several sensitive behaviors for which motivated misreporting has been frequently observed were compared across self-administered paper-and-pencil versus computerized surveys. The results revealed that computerized surveys led to significantly more reporting of socially undesirable behaviors than comparable surveys administered on paper. This effect was strongest for highly sensitive behaviors and surveys administered individually to respondents. Moderator analyses did not identify interviewer effects or benefits of audio-enhanced computer surveys. The meta-analysis highlighted the advantages of computerized survey modes for the assessment of sensitive topics.
This study compared three methods of collecting survey data about sexual behaviors and other sensitive topics: computer-assisted
personal interviewing (CAPI), computer-assisted self-administered interviewing (CASI), and audio computer-assisted self-administered
interviewing (ACASI). Interviews were conducted with an area probability sample of more than 300 adults in Cook County, Illinois.
The experiment also compared open and closed questions about the number of sex partners and varied the context in which the
sex partner items were embedded. The three mode groups did not differ in response rates, but the mode of data collection did
affect the level of reporting of sensitive behaviors: both forms of self-administration tended to reduce the disparity between
men and women in the number of sex partners reported. Self-admimstration, especially via ACASI, also increased the proportion
of respondents admitting that they had used illicit drugs. In addition, when the closed answer options emphasized the low
end of the distribution, fewer sex partners were reported than when the options emphasized the high end of the distribution;
responses to the open-ended versions of the sex partner items generally fell between responses to the two closed versions.
People behave differently in the presence of other people than they do when they are alone. People also may behave differently when designers introduce more human-like qualities into computer interfaces. In an experimental study we demonstrate that people's responses to a talking-face interface differ from their responses to a text-display interface. They attribute some personality traits to it; they are more aroused by it; they present themselves in a more positive light. We use theories of person perception, social facilitation, and self-presentation to predict and interpret these results. We suggest that as computer interfaces become more "human-like," people who use those interfaces may change their own personas in response to them.
Disclosure of personal information is valuable to individuals, governments, and corporations. This experiment explores the role interface design plays in maximizing disclosure. Participants (N = 100) were asked to disclose personal information to a telephone-based speech user interface (SUI) in a 3 (recorded speech vs. synthesized speech vs. text-based interface) by 2 (gender of participant) by 2 (gender of voice) between-participants experiment (with no voice manipulation in the text conditions). Synthetic speech participants exhibited significantly less disclosure and less comfort with the system than text-based or recorded-speech participants. Females were more sensitive to differences between synthetic and recorded speech. There were significant interactions between modality and gender of speech, while there were no gender identification effects. Implications for the design of speech-based information-gathering systems are outlined.
This study investigated the claim that humans will readily form team relationships with computers. Drawing from the group dynamic literature in human-human interactions, a laboratory experiment (n=56) manipulated identity and interdependence to create team affiliation in a human-computer interaction. The data show that subjects who are told they are interdependent with the computer affiliate with the computer as a team. The data also show that the effects of being in a team with a computer are the same as the effects of being in a team with another human: subjects in the interdependence conditions perceived the computer to be more similar to themselves, saw themselves as more cooperative, were more open to influence from the computer, thought the information from the computer was of higher quality, found the information from the computer friendlier, and conformed more to the computer's information. Subjects in the identity conditions showed neither team affiliation nor the effects of team affiliation.
Although it is well established that self-administered questionnaires tend to yield fewer reports in the socially desirable direction than do interviewer-administered questionnaires, less is known about whether different modes of self-administration vary in their effects on socially desirable responding. In addition, most mode comparison studies lack validation data and thus cannot separate the effects of differential nonresponse bias from the effects of differences in measurement error. This paper uses survey and record data to examine mode effects on the reporting of potentially sensitive information by a sample of recent university graduates. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three modes of data collection—conventional computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), interactive voice recognition (IVR), and the Web—and were asked about both desirable and undesirable attributes of their academic experiences. University records were used to evaluate the accuracy of the answers and to examine differences in nonresponse bias by mode. Web administration increased the level of reporting of sensitive information and reporting accuracy relative to conventional CATI, with IVR intermediate between the other two modes. Both mode of data collection and the actual status of the respondent influenced whether respondents found an item sensitive.
Psychologists have worried about the distortions introduced into standardized personality measures by social desirability bias. Survey researchers have had similar concerns about the accuracy of survey reports about such topics as illicit drug use, abortion, and sexual behavior. The article reviews the research done by survey methodologists on reporting errors in surveys on sensitive topics, noting parallels and differences from the psychological literature on social desirability. The findings from the survey studies suggest that misreporting about sensitive topics is quite common and that it is largely situational. The extent of misreporting depends on whether the respondent has anything embarrassing to report and on design features of the survey. The survey evidence also indicates that misreporting on sensitive topics is a more or less motivated process in which respondents edit the information they report to avoid embarrassing themselves in the presence of an interviewer or to avoid repercussions from third parties.
Interviewer-respondent rapport is generally considered to be beneficial for the quality of the data collected in survey interviews; however, the relationship between rapport and data quality has rarely been directly investigated. We conducted a laboratory experiment in which eight professional interviewers interviewed 125 respondents to see how the rapport between interviewers and respondents is associated with the quality of data—primarily disclosure of sensitive information—collected in these interviews. It is possible that increased rapport between interviewers and respondents might motivate respondents to be more conscientious, increasing disclosure; alternatively, increased rapport might inhibit disclosure because presenting oneself unfavorably is more aversive if respondents have a positive relationship with the interviewer. More specifically, we examined three issues: (1) what the relationship is between rapport and the disclosure of information of varying levels of sensitivity, (2) how rapport is associated with item nonresponse, and (3) whether rapport can be similarly established in video-mediated and computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPIs). We found that (1) increased respondents’ sense of rapport increased disclosure for questions that are highly sensitive compared with questions about topics of moderate sensitivity; (2) increased respondents’ sense of rapport is not associated with a higher level of item nonresponse; and (3) there was no significant difference in respondents’ rapport ratings between video-mediated and CAPI, suggesting that rapport is just as well established in video-mediated interviews as it is in CAPI.
We evaluate the use of text-to-speech (TTS) technology for audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI). We use a quasi-experimental design, comparing the use of recorded human voice in the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth with the use of TTS in the first year of the 2011–2013 survey, where the essential survey conditions are largely unchanged. We examine substantive distributions of ACASI items, item missing data rates, interviewer observations, and time stamps. We find no negative effect of the transition to TTS. We discuss the advantages of using TTS for ACASI.
Examines the hypothesis that the UK population has not yet fully developed a telemarketing culture and that there is, therefore, a particular need for telemarketers to understand how rapport might be developed on the telephone. Relevant literature from the fields of social psychology, applied psychology and marketing are reviewed and a programme of research was carried out, comprising an Omnibus to measure the extent of telemarketing experience in the UK population and a study among organisations with in-house telemarketing facilities to explore the types of practices that might foster rapport. It concludes that a telemarketing culture still has some way to develop and that, while many organisations used a number of seemingly relevant techniques, in particular NLP mirroring and matching, there are a number of issues still to be resolved regarding measurement of rapport as well as the theory and “measuring instruments” associated with NLP. Other factors affecting the development of rapport in a telemarketing environment are also considered
Respondent—Interviewer Interaction: The Interviewing Style Debate A Tentative Model for the Explanation of Style Effects Methods for Studying Respondentinterviewer Interactions A Field Experiment on Style Effects The Effects of Interviewing Style on Willingness and Response Direction of, and Reactions to, Suggestions of the Interviewers Style Effects Over Time Ignoring and Interpreting Responses Summary and Discussion
This study tested whether computers embedded with the most minimal gender cues will evoke gender-based stereotypic responses. Using an experimental paradigm (N = 40) that involved computers with voice output, the study tested 3 gender-based stereotypes under conditions in which all suggestions of gender were removed, with the sole exception of vocal cues. In all 3 cases, gender-stereotypic responses were obtained. Because the experimental manipulation involved no deception regarding the source of the voices. this study presents evidence that the tendency to gender stereotype is extremely powerful, extending even to stereotyping of machines.
Results are reported from a preliminary study testing a new technology for survey data collection: audio computer-assisted self interviewing. This technology has the theoretical potential of providing privacy (or anonymity) of response equivalent to that of paper self-administered questionnaires (SAQs). In addition, it could offer the advantages common to all computer-assisted methods such as the ability to implement complex questionnaire logic, consistency checking, etc.. In contrast to Video-CASI, Audio-CASI proffers these potential advantages without limiting data collection to the literate segment of the population. In this preliminary study, results obtained using RTI's Audio-CASI system were compared to those for paper SAQs and for Video-CASI. Survey questionnaires asking about drug use, sexual behavior, income, and demographic characteristics were administered to a small sample (N = 40) of subjects of average and below-average reading abilities using each method of data collection. While the small sample size renders many results suggestive rather than definitive, the study did demonstrate that both Audio- and Video-CASI systems work well even with subjects who do not have extensive familiarity with computers. Indeed, respondents preferred the Audio- and Video-CASI to paper SAQs. The computerized systems also eliminated errors in execution of "skip" instructions that occurred when subjects completed paper SAQs. In a number of instances, the computerized systems also appeared to encourage more complete reporting of sensitive behaviors such as use of illicit drugs. Among the two CASI systems, respondents rated Audio-CASI more favorably than Video-CASI in terms of interest, ease of use, and overall preference.
The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relative importance of the speaker's laryngeal fundamental frequency and vocal tract resonance characteristics in speaker sex identification tasks. Six sustained isolated vowels were recorded by 20 speakers, 10 males and 10 females, in a normal and whispered manner. A total of three master tapes (voiced, whispered, and filtered) were constructed from these recordings. The filtered tape involved 255 Hz low pass filtering of the voiced tape. The tapes were played to 15 listeners for speaker sex identification judgments and confidence ratings of their evaluations. Results of their judgments indicte that, of the 1800 identifications made for each tape (20 speakersX6 vowelsX 15 listeners), 96% were correct for the voiced tape, 91% were correct for the filtered tape, and 75% were correct for the whispered tape. Moreover, the listeners were most confident in their judgments on the voiced tape, followed by the filtered tape, and showed the least amount of confidence on the whispered tape. These findings indicate that the laryngeal fundamental frequency appears to be a more important acoustic cue in speaker sex identification tasks than the resonance characteristics of the speaker.
Voice quality variations include a set of voicing sound source modifications ranging from laryngealized to normal to breathy phonation. Analysis of reiterant imitations of two sentences by ten female and six male talkers has shown that the potential acoustic cues to this type of voice quality variation include: (1) increases to the relative amplitude of the fundamental frequency component as open quotient increases; (2) increases to the amount of aspiration noise that replaces higher frequency harmonics as the arytenoids become more separated; (3) increases to lower formant bandwidths; and (4) introduction of extra pole zeros in the vocal-tract transfer function associated with tracheal coupling. Perceptual validation of the relative importance of these cues for signaling a breathy voice quality has been accomplished using a new voicing source model for synthesis of more natural male and female voices. The new formant synthesizer, KLSYN88, is fully documented here. Results of the perception study indicate that, contrary to previous research which emphasizes the importance of increased amplitude of the fundamental component, aspiration noise is perceptually most important. Without its presence, increases to the fundamental component may induce the sensation of nasality in a high-pitched voice. Further results of the acoustic analysis include the observations that: (1) over the course of a sentence, the acoustic manifestations of breathiness vary considerably--tending to increase for unstressed syllables, in utterance-final syllables, and at the margins of voiceless consonants; (2) on average, females are more breathy than males, but there are very large differences between subjects within each gender; (3) many utterances appear to end in a "breathy-laryngealized" type of vibration; and (4) diplophonic irregularities in the timing of glottal periods occur frequently, especially at the end of an utterance. Diplophonia and other deviations from perfect periodicity may be important aspects of naturalness in synthesis.
(2011), “Cross-Classified and Multiple-
- Beretvas
Interviewing Style and Respondent Behavior
- Dijkstra
ACASI Gender-of-Interviewer Voice Effects on Reports to Questions about Sensitive Behaviors among Young Adults
- Dykema
Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Drug Use, and Violence: Increased Reporting with Computer Survey Technology
- Turner