ABSTRACT
The pace of interviews (or how quickly interviewers and respondents move through a survey) may vary considerably across interviewers. Overall interview completion time is affected by interviewer reading speed (IRS), but it may also be affected by other factors (e.g., interviewer reading errors and respondent questions). This chapter examines the antecedents and consequences of IRS at the question level across a range of questions. Using data from in-person interviews in a laboratory setting, hypotheses about the effects of interviewer experience are tested, and length and sensitivity, and location in the questionnaire on IRS are questioned. The chapter examines the effects of other question characteristics on IRS, including degree of question abstraction and response format. It examines the impact of respondent and interviewer race and ethnicity (interviewers were matched to respondents on race/ethnicity) on IRS. Finally, the chapter suggests that training regarding pace should be part of re-training or continuing training for more experienced interviewers.
