Memory Effects in Online Panel Surveys: Investigating Respondents’ Ability to Recall Responses from a Previous Panel Wave
If respondents recognize repeated survey questions and remember their previous responses, this can result in measurement error. Most studies to date that have investigated respondents’ recall of their prior answers have done so in the context of repeated measurements within one cross-sectional surv...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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European Survey Research Association
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Survey Research Methods |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/7991 |
| _version_ | 1797660620523307008 |
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| author | Tobias Rettig Bella Struminskaya |
| author_facet | Tobias Rettig Bella Struminskaya |
| author_sort | Tobias Rettig |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
If respondents recognize repeated survey questions and remember their previous responses, this can result in measurement error. Most studies to date that have investigated respondents’ recall of their prior answers have done so in the context of repeated measurements within one cross-sectional survey. The present study extends this research to a longitudinal panel context by investigating whether respondents remember their previous responses to different types of survey questions (beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors) from a previous wave in a probability-based online panel in Germany. We find evidence that some respondents remember their responses from a previous panel wave even after four months, but at a considerably lower rate than previous studies found within a single cross-sectional survey. Respondents who could not remember their response were most commonly off by only a single scale point. Respondents remembered their responses to different types of questions at different rates and were more likely remember an extreme response. Female respondents were more likely to remember their responses, but we find no link to age, education, perceived response burden, survey enjoyment or online panel experience. As respondents could not remember their previous responses in most cases and we find little evidence for a systematic variation of memory effects across groups of respondents, we conclude that the potential for measurement error due to memory effects across panel waves is low after four or more than four months.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:33:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-03a68747a642496b8073e01492fff41e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1864-3361 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:33:28Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | European Survey Research Association |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Survey Research Methods |
| spelling | doaj.art-03a68747a642496b8073e01492fff41e2023-10-13T07:33:48ZengEuropean Survey Research AssociationSurvey Research Methods1864-33612023-10-0117310.18148/srm/2023.v17i3.7991Memory Effects in Online Panel Surveys: Investigating Respondents’ Ability to Recall Responses from a Previous Panel WaveTobias Rettig0Bella Struminskaya1University of MannheimUtrecht University If respondents recognize repeated survey questions and remember their previous responses, this can result in measurement error. Most studies to date that have investigated respondents’ recall of their prior answers have done so in the context of repeated measurements within one cross-sectional survey. The present study extends this research to a longitudinal panel context by investigating whether respondents remember their previous responses to different types of survey questions (beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors) from a previous wave in a probability-based online panel in Germany. We find evidence that some respondents remember their responses from a previous panel wave even after four months, but at a considerably lower rate than previous studies found within a single cross-sectional survey. Respondents who could not remember their response were most commonly off by only a single scale point. Respondents remembered their responses to different types of questions at different rates and were more likely remember an extreme response. Female respondents were more likely to remember their responses, but we find no link to age, education, perceived response burden, survey enjoyment or online panel experience. As respondents could not remember their previous responses in most cases and we find little evidence for a systematic variation of memory effects across groups of respondents, we conclude that the potential for measurement error due to memory effects across panel waves is low after four or more than four months. https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/7991measurement errormemory effectsrepeated measurementextreme responsesonline panel |
| spellingShingle | Tobias Rettig Bella Struminskaya Memory Effects in Online Panel Surveys: Investigating Respondents’ Ability to Recall Responses from a Previous Panel Wave Survey Research Methods measurement error memory effects repeated measurement extreme responses online panel |
| title | Memory Effects in Online Panel Surveys: Investigating Respondents’ Ability to Recall Responses from a Previous Panel Wave |
| title_full | Memory Effects in Online Panel Surveys: Investigating Respondents’ Ability to Recall Responses from a Previous Panel Wave |
| title_fullStr | Memory Effects in Online Panel Surveys: Investigating Respondents’ Ability to Recall Responses from a Previous Panel Wave |
| title_full_unstemmed | Memory Effects in Online Panel Surveys: Investigating Respondents’ Ability to Recall Responses from a Previous Panel Wave |
| title_short | Memory Effects in Online Panel Surveys: Investigating Respondents’ Ability to Recall Responses from a Previous Panel Wave |
| title_sort | memory effects in online panel surveys investigating respondents ability to recall responses from a previous panel wave |
| topic | measurement error memory effects repeated measurement extreme responses online panel |
| url | https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/7991 |
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