Autobiographical memory: asking and answering questions about past behavior

1. Autobiographical memory: asking and answering questions about past behavior Shirley Cheng & Hongyan Shi February 7, 2006

2. Outline • Response alternatives effects • Effects of High/Low frequency alternatives • Effects on Subsequent questions • Telescoping

3. Response Alternative Effects • Focus of discussion: Relating the materials this week to what we’ve learned previously. 1. Effects of High/Low frequency alternatives 2. Effects of a question on subsequent ones

4. Effects of High/Low frequency alternatives Example: Responsiveness to change in the weather Results: % of patients reported “more than twice a month” 21% 75% Schwarz (1999) p.98

5. Effects of High/Low frequency alternatives • Why does it happen? • What type of info. recalled? • Moderators?

6. Menon et al. (1995) • It addresses the boundary conditions of response alternative effects. • When the rate of behavior can be recalled easily and seems sufficient to make estimation. • Regularity of behavior • Similarity of others to oneself

7. Questions • This model only holds when memory-based information is accessible. When will the memory-based information not be accessible? • Motivation as a moderator? • Other variables? • If behaviors are less frequent (other than brushing teeth, p. 216 Table 1), will this affect the model or results?

8. Questions • Self-report vs. Judgment for others • Will it be different if we do not rate oneself first? (p. 221 Figure 1)

9. Effects due to response alternatives • This week: Frequency alternative effect • Mechanism • Information recalled • Moderators Compare to • Last week: Response alternatives order effects (SBS Ch.6)

10. Response alternatives order effect 26.4% vs. 10.1% 6.5% vs. 16.4% Krosnick & ALwin (1987)

11. Questions • Comparing the two types of context effects: • Underlying mechanisms? • Type of info. recalled? • Moderators? Esp. how much we can control?

12. Effects on subsequent questions 1. Effects of scale frequency:

13. Question • “Hence, the same behavioral frequency scale may elicit subsequent reports of higher distress as well as of higher health satisfaction...” (Schwarz, 1999, p.102) • What is the moderator?

14. Effects on subsequent questions Last week: Contrast and assimilation effects • Asking “marriage satisfaction” then “life satisfaction” • Asking “attitude towards one politician” then “attitude towards his/her political party”

15. Questions • Comparing the two effects, do they share similar underlying mechanism? • Effect of scale frequency is another manifestation of contrast/assimilation effect? • Both effects follow the prediction of accessibility-diagnostiscity model?

16. Telescoping Errors

17. What is telescoping? • During last week, how many times did you eat out in a restaurant? • During January, how many times did you work out?

18. Models of telescoping • Uncertainty model (SBS, p.188) • Rounding model (SBS, p.190) • Effects of time unit on telescoping: • In the past six months • In the period from 01/2005 to 07/2005

19. Morwitz (1997) • This paper has found unanswered issues from previous models, but it does not address them.

20. Some observations > > > <

21. Some observations • Proposition 1 and Proposition 5: seem contradictory to each other • What is the potential assumption of Proposition 5?

22. T h a n k s!

23. Question • Questionnaire-induced context effects at each stage of cognitive process • On frequency reports • On attitude (Chapter 4) • Conditions and variables?

24. Questions • What is the difference between cognitive process involved in formulating frequency judgments and that used for formulating attitudes?