Standard procedures for conducting household-based surveys require obtaining a list of household residents. These lists, called rosters are used for complete enumeration of the household, for randomized selection of respondents, and for establishing the eligibility of certain household members for particular questions. However, since rosters are one of the first parts of the survey encountered by respondents, they are likely to have a role in creating the over-all context in which the respondent interprets the survey. For example, in self-administered census questionnaires, roster pages often contain titles, explanations, and other cues which respondents can use to form expectations about the task ahead.

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A Literature Review of Person-based vs. Topic-Based Design

August 11, 1995

A literature review of person- versus topic-based questionnaire design.

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Experiences Conducting Cognitive Interviews with Adolescents

1996

The Census Bureau proposed extending one of the panels of the SIPP to ten years in order to examine the impact of welfare reform.

Working Paper

Encouraging Respondents to Use Visual Imagery to Improve Accuracy

1996

This paper describes a research project exploring respondents' use of visual imagery in the AHS to report the rooms in their homes.

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Survey Methods Working Papers

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