Galesic Mirta, Tourangeau Roger, Couper Mick P, Conrad Frederick G
Public Opin Q. 2008;72(5):892-913. doi: 10.1093/poq/nfn059. Epub 2008 Dec 12.
Survey researchers since Cannell have worried that respondents may take various shortcuts to reduce the effort needed to complete a survey. The evidence for such shortcuts is often indirect. For instance, preferences for earlier versus later response options have been interpreted as evidence that respondents do not read beyond the first few options. This is really only a hypothesis, however, that is not supported by direct evidence regarding the allocation of respondent attention. In the current study, we used a new method to more directly observe what respondents do and do not look at by recording their eye movements while they answered questions in a Web survey. The eye-tracking data indicate that respondents do in fact spend more time looking at the first few options in a list of response options than those at the end of the list; this helps explain their tendency to select the options presented first regardless of their content. In addition, the eye-tracking data reveal that respondents are reluctant to invest effort in reading definitions of survey concepts that are only a mouse click away or paying attention to initially hidden response options. It is clear from the eye-tracking data that some respondents are more prone to these and other cognitive shortcuts than others, providing relatively direct evidence for what had been suspected based on more conventional measures.
自坎内尔以来，调查研究人员一直担心受访者可能会采取各种捷径来减少完成调查所需的精力。此类捷径的证据往往是间接的。例如，对较早与较晚回答选项的偏好被解释为受访者不会阅读前几个选项之外内容的证据。然而，这实际上只是一个假设，并没有关于受访者注意力分配的直接证据支持。在当前的研究中，我们使用了一种新方法，通过记录受访者在网络调查中回答问题时的眼球运动，更直接地观察他们看了什么和没看什么。眼球追踪数据表明，受访者实际上在回答选项列表中前几个选项上花费的时间比列表末尾的选项更多；这有助于解释他们无论内容如何都倾向于选择首先呈现的选项的倾向。此外，眼球追踪数据显示，受访者不愿花费精力阅读只需点击一下鼠标就能看到的调查概念定义，也不愿关注最初隐藏的回答选项。从眼球追踪数据可以清楚地看出，一些受访者比其他受访者更容易出现这些以及其他认知捷径，为基于更传统方法所怀疑的情况提供了相对直接的证据。
