ABSTRACT
One of the most important considerations for any survey data collection is the quality of survey reports, and how these reports depend on the cognitive processes that respondents employ while answering survey questions (Sudman, Bradburn, & Schwarz, 1996). Given the evidence that aging affects language and memory processing (Craik & Jennings, 1992; Kemper & Kemtes, this volume), determining the respective roles of age and cognitive processes upon the quality of survey reports deserves focused attention. This chapter will explore one piece of this domain by examining the associations among age of respondent, the characteristics of the verbal exchanges between interviewers and respondents, and the quality of survey retrospective reports on hospitalizations and physician office visits. Of particular interest is whether there is any evidence that interviewer tailoring affects the quality of retrospective reports differentially for older and younger respondents.
