ABSTRACT
Interviewers make many judgments and decisions during the process of interacting with respondents that may contribute to total survey error. The survey interviewer’s task in the data collection process is a complex one. How interviewers probe responses is a critical yet understudied aspect of the survey process, and data quality and measurement issues may arise during probing. Distancing themselves from the survey was common as many interviewers reported showing respondents their CAPI screen during in-person interviews. Questions may also be sensitive given the context of the survey interview. Vignettes were administered to get interviewers’ feedback on a variety of scenarios that mimicked real survey interviews. Learning directly from professional survey interviewers about how they do their jobs is a critical step in understanding how to develop realistic data collection models, improve question wording, and improve interviewer training. It is recommended that survey organizations include interviewers in final questionnaire decisions and throughout the questionnaire development process.
