Michael Schober, Frederick G. Conrad, and Scott S. Fricker
(1999) "When and How Should Survey Interviewers Clarify Question
Meaning?" Proceedings of the Section on Survey Research Methods,
1999. American Statistical Association. Conversational
interviewing, in which interviewers and respondents work
together to make sure questions are understood as intended, can
help respondents answer more accurately than strictly
standardized interviewing. It takes longer and can be costly.
Here we measured response accuracy and interview length for
three kinds of partially conversational interviewing, which
resemble current practice in some organizations. Census Bureau
interviewers telephoned paid laboratory respondents, who
answered factual questions from ongoing government surveys on
the basis of fictional scenarios. Interviewers either (1) read
scripted definitions of question concepts when respondents
explicitly asked for clarification; (2) used their own words to
present official definitions of question concepts when