| November 20 to 21 in Chicago, Illinois--"Exploring the Future of Public Opinion Research" Four SRAM students will be presenting their research at the annual meeting of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR) in Chicago, Illinois in November. The papers that have been selected for presentation are: Jamie Marincic, Tarik Abdel-Monem (UNL), Stacia Jorgensen (UNL), and Amanda Richardson (UNL) Does Providing Respondents with Their Preferred Survey Mode Really Increase Participation? Heather Wood, Kristen Olson (UNL) and Jolene D. Smyth (UNL) Cognitive Testing Recruitment for Multiple Studies Clarissa Steele, Laura Branden (WESTAT) and Martha Kudela (WESTAT) The relationship among monetary incentive, representativeness, and panel tenure: Results from an experiment recruiting KnowledgePanel members with an address-based sample Ashley Richards, Mario Callegaro (Knowledge Networks) and Charles DiSogra (Knowledge Networks) |
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| SRAM PhD student Ipek Bilgen has been awarded a grant of $9377 by the Charles Cannell Fund in Survey Methodology of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan in support of a section of her dissertation. Her study is titled as “An Examination of the Impact of Interpersonal Communication and Interviewer Experience on Item Non-response across Different Interviewing Techniques.” Item nonresponse is a common phenomenon in surveys that can drastically affect survey inferences. The loss of information in a particular item might lead to systematic differences among respondents who answer that item and those who do not answer, leading to incorrect conclusions regarding survey inferences (De Leeuw, Hox and Huisman, 2003; Tu and Liao, 2007). Moreover, causes of item non-response are consistent with the cognitive response process; with respondent and interviewer characteristics; and with respondent and interviewer rapport (Voogt and Kempen, 2002; Beatty and Herrman, 2002; Krosnik, 2002; Tu & Liau, 2007). Given that interviewers’ role and involvement vary in different interviewing techniques (flexible versus standardized interviewing); yet needs to be investigated in the survey research literature is interviewers’ impact on item nonresponse across different interviewing methods. Therefore, Ipek’s study focuses on the impact of interviewer experience and different interviewer verbal behavior strategies on item nonresponse across different interviewing techniques. |
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| SRAM master’s students Clarissa Steele and Ying Wang received a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Fair Outstanding Student Poster award for their poster, "An Exploratory Analysis of Problems in Interpreted Telephone Survey Interviews" presented on April 15, 2009. The poster explains that many surveys utilize interpreted interviews in order to include respondents who speak an unexpected or unwritten language, when bilingual interviews are not available, or instead of translated surveys to save time and money. However, few studies have produced quality data on interpreted interviews in either face-to-face or telephone surveys. This exploratory study investigates interactions in interpreted telephone surveys in Spanish and Russian. Interpreters came from a commercial interpreting firm, interviewers from Westat, and respondents from Spain and Russia. Control telephone interviews with scripted translations of the questions that were interpreted were conducted by interviewers who were native speakers of Russian and Spanish. This study explores issues of burden, negotiation (interview metatalk), and interpreting challenges found in the data from the interpreted interviews. The research provides insight into the process and products of interpreted standardized interviews, the roles of participants, and the various challenges that arise in interpreted interviews. This information may help researchers to prepare better for conducting interpreted interviews when other options are not available. |
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The workshop hosted by Survey Research Operations, Survey Research Center and Institute for Social Research was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan March 5-7, 2009. Below is information on the participants from SRAM. Further information on the workshop can be found on the CSDI website. Research on Translation Assessment Procedures: Back Translation
and Expert Review Presenter: Clarissa Steele Contributors: Ana Villar, Janet Harkness, Clarissa Steele, Yelena Kruse, Ying Wang Interpreted Telephone Survey Interviews Janet Harkness, Ana Villar, Yelena Kruse, Laura Branden, Brad Edwards, Clarissa Steele, Ying Wang Communication and Comparative Survey Research Presenter: Theresa de McKinney Contributors: Janet Harkness and Theresa de McKinney Session Chairs: Debra Miller (Pretesting) and Yelena Kruse (Culture, Cognition, Communication) |
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| SRAM faculty Jolene Smyth and Kristen Olson have been awarded a
$10,000 University of Nebraska Layman Award to conduct their study
titled, “Using Eye Tracking to Understand the Relationship between
Literacy, Survey Design, and Data Quality.” According to the 2003
National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 40% of literate American
adults score basic or below on prose literacy, 31% score basic or
below on document literacy, and 52% score basic or below on quantitative
literacy (Kutner et al. 2007), all three of which are needed to
answer self-administered questionnaires. Yet literacy and its effects
on questionnaire processing and data quality have not received much
empirical consideration in the survey methodology literature. This
study will begin to examine how literacy is related to the survey
response process and data quality. The Layman Awards provide seed money for projects that will enhance the grantee’s ability to obtain external funding to support prominent scholarly work. |
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| May 14 to 17 in Hollywood, Florida--"Public Choices in Changing Times" Presenting: René Bautista, Allan McCutcheon, Joe Lenski, Clint Stevenson Impact of within-study interviewer experience in different interviewing techniques Ipek Bilgen, Robert F. Belli, Kristen Olson An Examination of the Relationship between Panel Attrition and Measurement Error Chun Feng, Kristen Olson Survey Translation Evaluation: Back Translation versus Expert Review Janet Harkness, Ana Villar, Kathleen Kephart, Alisa Schoua-Glusberg Using Interpreters in Telephone Surveys Janet Harkness, Ana Villar, Yelena Kruse, Clarissa Steele, Ying Wang, Laura Branden, Brad Edwards Questionnaire Experiments in 2008 Georgia Senate Run-off Exit Poll Joe Lenski, Clint Stevenson, Allan McCutcheon, René Bautista First-Time Voters in the 2008 Presidential Election Allan McCutcheon, René Bautista, Joe Lenski, Clint Stevenson Economic Growth and the Human Condition Allan L. McCutcheon, Lee B. Becker, Jenny Marlar, Tudor Vlad Flexibility and Structure in Health Status Measurement via Event History Calendars: 'Long Time, No Status Change' Debra Miller, Clarissa Steele, Ipek Bilgen, Robert Belli Development of a new scale to measure literacy without a reading assessment Jennie E. Pearson, Ying Wang, Kristen Olson, Jolene D. Smyth The Development of Cross-Cultural Survey Guidelines: A Panel Discussion Beth Ellen Pennell, K Alczer, Janet Harkness, Tim Johnson, Peter Mohler, Tom W Smith Unraveling Mode Preference Jolene Smyth, Kristen Olson, Ashley Richards A Spatial Analysis of Exit Poll Interviewers During the 2008 Presidential Election Clint Stevenson, Joe Lenski, Allan McCutcheon, René Bautista A Comparison Study of Methodologies of Exit Polls between Taiwan and the U.S. Ge Tang, Yeh-Diing Wang, René Bautista Out and About: An Evaluation of Data Quality in Cell Phone Surveys Lindsey Witt, Randal ZuWallack, Fredrica Conrey Short Courses: Robert Belli, Mario Callegaro and Polly Phipps taught a course on Calendar and Time Diary Data Collection Methods. Their course covered the common characteristics of calendar and time diary methods as well as the cognitive and communicative rationale for their use, the history of their administration and the data quality that has been observed from their implementation. Topics that were covered included how to train interviewers in the use of these methods, special features associated with face-to-face, telephone, and self-adminstered modes, as well as applications in paper and pencil and computerized formats. Kristen Olson co-taught a course with J. Michael Brick on Practical Tools for Nonreponse Bias Studies. As the link between nonresponse rates and nonresponse error has been shown to be indirect, survey researchers who care about nonresponse error in their estimates increasingly attempt to mount auxiliary studies of this growing problem. This course was designed to help conduct nonresponse bias studies. Practical tools were described and examples used to illustrate methods that can be used to conduct this type of research. The advantages and disadvantages of each method were elaborated, and the value of having multiple approaches emphasized. The course stresses the need to devise strategies for nonresponse and for its analysis in the planning stage, prior to completing the survey. AAPOR Meet the Author Session: Two books for which SRAM faculty member Janet Harkness is Chief Editor were featured in an AAPOR Meet the Author Session. Details are as follows:
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| The newly updated text, Internet, Mail, and Mixed Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, coauthored by Dr. Jolene Smyth (Assistant Professor, Survey Research and Methodology Program and the Department of Sociology, UNL) along with Don A. Dillman (Washington State University) and Leah Melani Christian (Pew Research Center) will be available in October, 2008. This 3rd edition is an almost complete rewrite of Dr. Dillman’s (Washington State University) classic survey design text. It situates many of the challenges survey practitioners are now facing within larger cultural and technological trends over the last 75 years and then goes on to offer detailed theory and research-based guidance for how to address these challenges at each stage of self-administered survey design. The discussion includes an emphasis on the importance of visual design as well as a complete integration of web surveying throughout the book. In addition to this more general guidance, the text tackles specific survey situations faced by many such as mixed-mode surveys, panel surveys, customer satisfaction surveys, and establishment surveys. The table of contents is as follows: 1. Turbulent Times for Survey Research. |
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| Robert Belli, faculty member in SRAM, alongside colleagues Frank Stafford at the University of Michigan and Duane Alwin of Pennsylvania State University, are editors of a new volume that explores calendar and time diary data collection methods for the health, social, and behavioral sciences. The volume, entitled Calendar and Time Diary Methods in Life Course Research, is being published by Sage, and includes papers written by 31 scholars from many disciplines, including survey methodology. The papers in this volume explore how calendar and time diary methods can be designed to collect high quality data on past events, facilitating the drawing of scientific inferences regarding the causes of life course changes in well-being. For more information, please see: http://www.sagepub.com/booksProdTOC.nav?prodId=Book229475&currTree=Courses&level1=Course1007 |
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 A group photo of UNL Survey Research and Methodology students and faculty at the 2008 MAPOR conference in Chicago. Many of the second-year masters and Ph.D. students presented papers and posters at the conference, making good use of this annual opportunity to discuss their research with other survey methodologists working in the Midwest. November 21 & 22 in Chicago, Illinois Presented: Chun Feng and Kristen Olson Relationship between Satisficing and Respondent Resistance in a Survey Context Olena Kaminska Partials in the Nebraska Behavioral Risk Factor Survey An Liu A Comparison of Event History Calendar and Conventional Interviews of Life Course Health Status via Don't Know Responses and Related Probes Debbie Miller, Robert Belli, Ge Tang, Ipek Bilgen Item non-response and measurement error in event history calendars via life course health status Debbie Miller, Robert Belli, Ge Tang, Ipek Bilgen High-Speed Data Entry of Questionnaires via Scanning in an Address-Based Sampling Frame: Speed, Accuracy, and Cost-Effectiveness Jennie E. Pearson, Nicole Bensky, Gretchen Grabowski & Jody Smarr Response options order effect and category number association: An experiment using items on a five point satisfaction scale in a KnowledgePanel survey Ge Tang, Tom Wells, Mario Callegaro and Yelena Kruse An exploration of the causes of response styles with a multilevel modeling approach Ana Villar, Yongwei Yang and Tzu-Yun Chin Out and About: An Evaluation of Data Quality in Cell Phone Surveys Lindsey Witt and Randy ZuWallack |
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 From left to right Olena Kaminska (PhD student) Ipek Bilgen (PhD student) and Kathleen Kephart (MS student) smiling for our camera. Three SRAM students just before the AAPOR dinnner in New Orleans this May! Many of the SRAM program students presented at this year's AAPOR conference on research topics they have been working on with SRAM faculty. |
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Jan. 10th, 2008In January, Dr. Jolene Smyth started as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in SRAM and the Department of Sociology. Jolene received her Ph.D. in Sociology in August, 2007 from Washington State University with specialization in the areas of survey methodology, gender, and family. Her survey work focuses on reducing measurement and nonresponse error through the design and construction of questions, questionnaires, and implementation procedures. Jolene is excited to have the opportunity to teach Questionnaire Design this spring and to bring her own interests and research into the classroom. |
