Obtaining quantitative survey responses that are both accurate and informative is crucial to a wide range of fields. Traditional and ubiquitous response formats such as Likert and Visual Analogue Scales require condensation of responses into discrete point values - but sometimes a range of options may better represent the correct answer. In this paper, we propose an efficient interval-valued response mode, whereby responses are made by marking an ellipse along a continuous scale. We discuss its potential to capture and quantify valuable information that would be lost using conventional approaches, while preserving a high degree of response-efficiency. The information captured by the response interval may represent a possible response range - i.e., a conjunctive set, such as the real numbers between three and six. Alternatively, it may reflect uncertainty in respect to a distinct response - i.e., a disjunctive set, such as a confidence interval. We then report a validation study, utilizing our recently introduced open-source software (DECSYS) to explore how interval-valued survey responses reflect experimental manipulations of several factors hypothesised to influence interval width, across multiple contexts. Results consistently indicate that respondents used interval widths effectively, and subjective participant feedback was also positive. We present this as initial empirical evidence for the efficacy and value of interval-valued response capture. Interestingly, our results also provide insight into respondents' reasoning about the different aforementioned types of intervals - we replicate a tendency towards overconfidence for those representing epistemic uncertainty (i.e., disjunctive sets), but find intervals representing inherent range (i.e., conjunctive sets) to be well-calibrated.
翻译:获取准确和丰富的定量调查答复对于一系列广泛的领域至关重要。传统和无处不在的响应格式,如 Liverst 和视觉分析缩略图等,要求将回复组合成离散点值,但有时一系列选项可能更好地代表正确的答案。在本文中,我们建议一种高效的间隔值响应模式,通过在连续的尺度上标记椭圆来做出响应,从而通过在连续的尺度上标记一个椭圆来做出响应。我们讨论了其利用常规方法获取和量化将丢失的宝贵信息的潜力,同时保持高程度的响应效率。答复间隔所捕捉的信息可能代表一种响应范围――即组合组合,如三到六之间的真实数字。或者,它可能反映不同反应的不确定性――即一个互不相干的组合,例如信任间隔期间隔。我们然后报告一项验证研究,利用我们最近采用的开放源软件(DESYSYS)来探索间隔值调查答复如何反映若干假设的实验性操纵,以影响跨多个背景的间隔宽度。结果一致地显示,结果始终表明,即调查对象们使用了中间的宽度和主观反馈,我们作为正度的准确度。我们作为正度的估量的估值的估值,我们作为正度的估量的估量的估量的估量。我们提供了这些的估量的估量的估量的估值,我们作为。我们作为正的估的估的估量的估的估的估的估。我们。我们。我们的估的估的估的估的估的估的估。