ABSTRACT
Much of what we know about age-related differences in individuals' behaviors and opinions is based on self-reports obtained from older and younger respondents. Unfortunately, self-reports are a fallible source of data, and researchers have long been aware that minor changes in question wording, question format, or question order may profoundly influence the answers that research participants provide (for reviews see Schuman & Presser, 1981; Schwarz, 1999a; Sudman, Bradburn, & Schwarz, 1996; Tourangeau & Rasinski, 1988). Complicating things further, recent research has suggested that older and younger respondents may be differentially affected by features of the research instrument (for reviews, see the contributions in Schwarz, Park, Knauper, & Sudman, 1999). Hence, it often is difficult to tell the extent that age-related differences in self-reports reflect (a) age-related differences in respondents' actual attitudes or behaviors or (b) age-related differences in the emergence of context effects. At present, this possibility has received limited attention in the methodological literature, which instead focused on methods that allow us to determine whether any observed age differences reflect developmental changes or cohort effects (d., Baltes, Reese, & Nesselroade, 1977). If older and younger respondents are differentially influenced by the research instrument, however, the self-reports we obtain may result in misleading conclusions about either developmental changes or cohort differences, rendering it important that we understand age-related differences in the response process in the first place. As a first step toward this goal, this chapter introduces readers to the cognitive and communicative processes underlying self-reports and highlights how age-related changes in cognitive and communicative functioning influence these processes.
