COGNITIVE LABORATORY APPROACH TO INSTRUMENT DESIGN

In a multi-cultural environment with different legal conditions and population structures it is necessary to develop a method which can deliver reliable and comparable data of a high quality to build up a database of European travel behavior as an invaluable tool for policymakers. Recognizing this necessity, the European Union commissioned the project Methods for European Surveys of Travel Behaviour (MEST). MEST aimed to develop a benchmark survey of long-distance travel behavior, which can be applied across Europe with questions understood in all member states of the European Union, the prerequisite to the cost-efficient collection of data. A series of three waves of pilot surveys in various countries is the main tool to achieve this aim. The first wave of pilots included extensive pre-testing of the survey instrument as well as the concepts that lie behind travel diaries in general. For these cognitive laboratory exercises, "think-aloud" interviews, a method to study cognitive processes in respondents, were used. These interviews help detect weaknesses of design, question wording and order, and the respondents' involvement in the survey. The exercises of the first wave took place in the United Kingdom and France. Based on the results of the first wave's cognitive laboratories, the questionnaires were improved and tested in the second wave of pilots. Before the third wave of pilots started the improved instrument was again tested in cognitive laboratories. This time only questionnaire pre-tests were undertaken in Portugal and Sweden. The paper reports the results of the cognitive laboratory exercises. It presents the improvements of the survey instrument based on the knowledge gained about the respondents' difficulties.

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  https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/circulars/ec026/20_youssefzadeh.pdf
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• Authors:
  • Youssefzadeh, M
• Conference:
  • Personal Travel: The Long and Short of It
  • Location: Washington, D.C.
  • Date: 1999-6-28 to 1999-7-1
• Publication Date: 2001-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 431-447
• Monograph Title: PERSONAL TRAVEL: THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT. CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, JUNE 28 - JULY 1, 1999, WASHINGTON, D.C.
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Circular
  • Issue Number: E-C026
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0097-8515

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cognition; Intercity travel; Interviewing; Pilot studies; Questionnaires; Travel behavior; Travel diaries; Travel surveys
• Uncontrolled Terms: Survey pre-testing
• Geographic Terms: Europe
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00812450
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: E-C026
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jun 11 2001 12:00AM