The appropriateness of the metaphor of the purity of data is questioned, using a perspective based on L. S. Vygotsky's idea of the zone of proximal development and its emphasis on a genetic method in which development is mediated by cultural tools and signs. (SLD)

To test the effect of less-frequent interviews on data quality in longitudinal surveys, event history data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 regarding welfare and employment were analyzed. Due to the longer recall period, respondents failed to report short spells of welfare, employment, and unemployment. (SK)

Risks of life on the street caused by inclement weather, harassment, and assault threaten the unsheltered homeless population. We address some challenges of enumerating the street homeless population by testing a novel capture-recapture (CR) estimation approach that models individuals' intermittent daytime visibility. We tested walking and…

Questionnaire and interview methods are described as reactive because when these methods are used, the participant's reactions to the research process may influene his or her responses. Nonreactive methodology refers to unobtrusive methods of collecting data in which participant reaction to the process of data collection does not interfere with…

Questionnaires are important research tools despite their unpopularity. They are generally less costly per response than other techniques, may elicit more candid answers, provide more time for respondents to consider their replies, and do not introduce interviewer or observer bias. The rate of return is an indication of the usefulness of a…

Surveyed college sophomores to compare survey administration by scanner and by computer. Response rate for the computer-surveyed group (N=125) was 29 percent; for the scanner-surveyed group (N=124), response rate was 49 percent. Computer respondents gave more varied responses and reacted more favorably to the instrument, suggesting strengths of…

An educational feasibility framework is described which considers constraints to feasibility, sources of data for determining feasibility, and feasibility study methodology. (Author)

This research note examines respondent-nonrespondent bias in a statewide population survey. The findings indicate general support for using master lists in the selection of respondents for participation in a large mail questionnaire survey. Two papers follow which react to this information. (Author/CT)

Uses three specific studies to analyze methods of data collection from children, including participant observation, focus groups, interviews, and structured activities. Points out the effective and ineffective aspects of each method, and deals with methodological issues such as parental consent, access to children, privacy, and confidentiality.…

Assesses the effectiveness of the Team Management Index and raises questions about measurement techniques. Argues that data collection can never provide complete proof of a link between interventions and organizational change. Suggests that evaluators study a team's change process. (SK)

Presents a method for the collection and analysis of collateral data about research subjects (i.e., measurements of events in subjects' lives that may affect outcome measures and/or lead to attrition). A six-step procedure evaluates bias resulting from subject attrition from a study using data from lost and retained subjects. (SLD)

This poem, with stanzas in limerick form, refers humorously to the many threats to validity posed by problems in research design, including problems of sample selection, data collection, and data analysis. (SLD)

Observer's paradox, the basic problem facing any analyst interested in understanding how people talk to each other within naturally occurring contexts, is discussed. In observer's paradox, by recording or observing everyday interaction, one is contaminating interaction by process of observation. An extension to sociolinguistic method is suggested…

Age is often ranked as a significant variable in research studies concerned with the measurement of intellectual and linguistic capacities, including reading. In fact, age is often cited as the cause of a decline in performance on such tasks. However, determining the social, psycho-social, and physiological status of subjects and applying…

One of six summaries of workshop sessions (See TM 000 130), designed to strengthen the evaluation of costly programs and their effects, this handbook presents an analysis of both random and nonrandom sampling errors by application of the Bayesian model. This model attempts to formalize the process and procedures of inference from data through…