EDUCATED GUESSES: THE PROCESS OF ANSWERING FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS IN SURVEYS |
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| Authors: | NADEAU, RICHARD NIEMI, RICHARD G. |
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| Affiliation: | RICHARD NADEAU is an associate professor in the department of political science at the University of Montreal. RICHARD G NIEMI is a professor in the department of political science at the University of Rochester. The authors would like to thank Kirke Lawton and Claude Blanchette for assistance with the data analysis and Uli Locher of McGill University and the Conseil de la Langue Francaise du Quebec for making the Québec data available to us. Data from ABC/Washington Post surveys and from the National Election Study were provided by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. |
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| Abstract: | Responses to autobiographical questions are known to representmore than simply retrieval of information from memory; inference,cuing, and "availability" all play a role. Using responses toitems in four different surveys, we find that respondent motivationand ability, together with contextual cues, help determine howsurvey respondents answer knowledge questions about the worldaround us. Thus, we extend the domain of factual items for whichthe role of inferential processes is recognized, and we specifymore precisely the kinds of factors that respondents use inanswering such questions. We also find suggestive evidence thatattitudes influence answers to information questions, thus extendingas well the kinds of factors seen as likely to affect reportsabout facts. |
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