When: 14 April, 2021, kl. 13-14
Where: This seminar is given online. E-mail Dan Hedlin if you want to attend.

Abstract

There is a large body of studies estimating the measurement quality of survey questions using multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) experiments. In these experiments, respondents are asked (nearly) the same questions at least twice. Most commonly, this is done within the same survey by, for instance, changing the response scale characteristics. However, it has been frequently argued that the estimates from these experiments might be biased when respondents recall their first answer and base their second answer on the initial one. So far, only little is known about the impact of memory effects on the estimates of measurement quality. In this study, we therefore conducted a MTMM experiment in the probability-based German Internet Panel in order to investigate if measurement quality estimates are really different across groups of respondents who vary in terms of stating recall of the first answer or not and/or correctly reproducing their first answer or not. We report the measurement quality of a survey question on trust in the parliament when asked with three different scales and distinguishing respondents depending on their stated recall and ability to reproduce their previous answer.