Cognitive Interviewing Methodology

KEY CONCEPTS

• Audit Trail: Documentation of the decisions made by the researcher at each stage of the research process. An audit trail allows readers to evaluate the veracity of conclusions drawn in the study.
• Cognitive Aspects of Survey Methodology (CASM): The interdisciplinary science involving the intersection of cognitive psychology and survey methods. CASM research focuses on the mental processing of respondents and how those processes inform the survey response process.
• Cognitive Sociology: A subfield of sociology that theoretically and empirically demonstrates how cognitive processes are shaped by cultural phenomena.
• Constant Comparative Method: Often associated with the seminal work of Glaser and Strauss (1967), this is a method for analyzing data in order to develop a grounded theory. It is an inductive and iterative process in which the analyst continuously moves back and forth from raw data text, themes, and emerging conceptual claims. In cognitive interviewing, the analyst compares data across survey questions, both within a single respondent interview and among all interviews, in order to arrive at a complete understanding of the question-response process and the construct measured by the question.
• Construct Validity: The extent to which a survey question captures what it was intended to measure.
• Credibility: Also called trustworthiness, this refers to the validity of qualitative research, including cognitive interviews. A study is credible to the extent that an ...