Beatty P, Herrmann D, Puskar C, Kerwin J
National Center for Health Statistics, USA.
Memory. 1998 Jul;6(4):407-26. doi: 10.1080/741942605.
Responses to survey questions are assumed to be based on what respondents can actually draw from memory. For example, if respondents report engaging in some behavior a certain number of times, we assume that a substantive answer reflects what they really know. Conversely, when respondents say that they "don't know" (DK) the answer, it is believed that their response reflects a lack of memory relevant to the question. However, survey responding is now understood to be a highly complex process. In this article, we propose a framework to account for the kind of reports made by respondents to a survey. The framework holds that respondent reports are based on three factors: what the respondent actually knows (the person's "cognitive state"); whether the respondent believes that the potential answer meets the requirements of the question (an "adequacy judgement"); and whether the respondent chooses to provide this answer (the person's "communicative intent"). Subsequently, the article examines how relevant findings in the literature support the framework, and then evaluates the assumptions made about cognitive states in light of the results of two experiments. The literature and research presented demonstrate that survey responding can be accounted for by a framework that assumes responding is based on certain key cognitive processes.
对调查问卷问题的回答被假定基于受访者实际能从记忆中提取的信息。例如，如果受访者报告某种行为进行了一定次数，我们假定一个实质性的答案反映了他们真正知道的情况。相反，当受访者表示他们“不知道”（DK）答案时，人们认为他们的回答反映了与该问题相关的记忆缺失。然而，现在人们明白调查回答是一个高度复杂的过程。在本文中，我们提出一个框架来解释受访者对调查所给出的那种报告。该框架认为受访者的报告基于三个因素：受访者实际知道的内容（个人的“认知状态”）；受访者是否认为潜在答案符合问题的要求（“充分性判断”）；以及受访者是否选择提供这个答案（个人的“交流意图”）。随后，本文考察文献中的相关发现如何支持该框架，然后根据两个实验的结果评估关于认知状态的假设。所呈现的文献和研究表明，调查回答可以由一个假定回答基于某些关键认知过程的框架来解释。
