How do respondents attend to verbal labels in rating scales?

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Authors

MENOLD Natalja KACZMIREK Lars LENZNER Timo NEUSAR Aleš

Year of publication 2013
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Field Methods
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Social Studies

Citation
Web web časopisu
Field Psychology
Keywords Kognitivní proces odpovídání, hodnotící škála, škálování, eye-tracking
Description Two formats of labeling in rating scales are commonly used in questionnaires: verbal labels for the end categories only (END form) and verbal labels for each of the categories (ALL form). We examine attention processes and respondents’ burden in using verbal labels in rating scales. Attention was tracked in a laboratory setting employing eye-tracking technology. The results of two experiments are presented: one applied seven and the other applied five categories in rating scales comparing END and ALL forms (n = 47 in each experiment). The results show that the ALL form provides higher reliability, although the probability that respondents attend to a verbal label seems to decrease as the number of verbally labeled categories increases.
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