How aging affects self-reports

European Journal of Ageing

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2016, Pages 185-193

  Knäuper, Bärbel ^a   Carrière, Kimberly ^a   Chamandy, Melodie ^b   Xu, Zhen ^a   Schwarz, Norbert ^c   Rosen, Natalie O ^d  

^a MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA   (Canada)

^c UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^d DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

Aging; Questionnaire features; Questionnaires; Self reports; Survey methodology; Surveys

Indexed keywords

AGING; HUMAN; SELF REPORT;

EID: 84962034221     PISSN: 16139372     EISSN: 16139380     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s10433-016-0369-0     Document Type: Review

References (57)

1. Abeele MV, Beullens K, Roe K (2013) Measuring mobile phone use: gender, age and real usage level in relation to the accuracy and validity of self-reported mobile phone use. Mob Med Comm 1:213–236
2. Andrews FM, Herzog AR (1986) The quality of survey data as related to age of respondent. J Am Stat Assoc 81:403–410
3. Baddeley AD (2007) Working memory, thought and action. Oxford University Press, Oxford
4. Belson WA (1981) The design and understanding of survey questions. Gower, London
5. Bodenhausen GV, Wyer RS (1987) Social cognition and social reality: Information acquisition and use in the laboratory and the real world. In: Sudman S (ed) Hippler HJ, Schwarz M. Social information processing and survey methodology. Springer Verlag, New York, pp 6–41
6. Borchelt M, Gilberg R, Horgas AL, Geiselmann B (1999) On the significance of morbidity and disability in old age. In: Baltes PB, Mayer KU (eds) The Berlin aging study: aging from 70 to 100. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 403–429
7. Bradburn NM, Rips LJ, Shevell SK (1987) Answering autobiographical questions: the impact of memory and inference on surveys. Science 236:157–161
8. Clark HH, Schober MF (1992) Asking questions and influencing answers. In: Tanur JM (ed) Questions about questions. Russel Sage, New York, pp 15–48
9. Coiner TF, Schober MF, Conrad FG, Ehlen P (2002) Assessing respondents’ need for clarification in web surveys using age-based user modeling. Proceedings of the American Statistical Association. American Statistical Association, Alexandria
10. Colsher PL, Wallace RB (1989) Data quality and age: health and psychobehavioral correlates of item nonresponse and inconsistent responses. J Geront 44:P45–P52
11. Conrad FG, Schober MF (2000) Clarifying question meaning in a household telephone survey. Public Opin Quart 64:1–28
12. Fox MT, Sidani S, Streiner D (2007) Using standardized survey items with older adults hospitalized for chronic illness. Res Nurs Health 30:468–481
13. Gergen KJ, Beck KW (1966) Communication in the interview and the disengaged respondent. Public Opin Quart 30:385–398
14. Grice P (1975) Logic and conversation. In: Cole P, Morgan JL (eds) Syntax and semantics, vol 3., Speech actsAcademic Press, New York, pp 41–58
15. Hartshorne JK, Germine LT (2015) When does cognitive functioning peak? The asynchronous rise and fall of different cognitive abilities across the life span. Psychol Sci 26:433–443
16. Herzog AR, Dielman L (1985) Age differences in response accuracy for factual survey questions. J Geront 40:350–357
17. Holbrook A, Cho YI, Johnson T (2006) The impact of question and respondent characteristics on comprehension and mapping difficulties. Public Opin Quart 70:565–595
18. Kaldenberg DO, Koenig HF, Becker BW (1994) Mail survey response rate patterns in a population of the elderly: does response deteriorate with age? Public Opin Quart 58:68–76
19. Knäuper B (1999) The impact of age and education on response order effects in attitude measurement. Public Opin Quart 63:347–370
20. Knäuper B, Belli RF, Hill DH, Herzog AR (1997) Question difficulty and respondents’ cognitive ability: the impact on data quality. J Off Stat 13:181–199
21. Knäuper B, Schwarz N, Park DC (2004) Frequency reports across age groups. J Off Stat 20:91–96
22. Knäuper B, Schwarz N, Park D, Fritsch A (2007) The perils of interpreting age differences in attitude reports: question order effects decrease with age. J Off Stat 23:1–14
23. Krestar M, Looman W, Powers S, Dawson N, Judge K (2012) Including individuals with memory impairment in the research process: the importance of scales and response categories used in surveys. J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics 7:70–79
24. Krosnick JA (1991) Response strategies for coping with the cognitive demands of attitude measures in surveys. Appl Cognit Psychol 5:213–236
25. Krosnick JA, Alwin DF (1987) An evaluation of a cognitive theory of response-order effects in survey measurement. Public Opin Quart 51:201–219
26. Krosnick JA, Holbrook AL, Visser PS (2006) Optimizing brief assessments in research on the psychology of aging: a pragmatic approach to self-report measurement. In: Carstensen LL, Hartel CR (eds) When I’m 64. National Academies Press, Washington DC, p 231
27. Linton M (1982) Transformations of memory in everyday life. In: Neisser U (ed) Memory observed: remembering in natural contexts. Freeman, San Francisco, pp 77–91
28. Mathiowetz NA, Duncan GJ (1988) Out of work, out of mind: response errors in retrospective reports of unemployment. J Bus Econ Stat 6:221–229
29. Maxfield M, Kluck B, Greenberg J, Pyszczynski T, Cox CR, Solomon S, Weise D (2007) Age-related differences in responses to thoughts of one’s own death: mortality salience and judgments of moral transgressions. Psychol Aging 22:341–353
30. Menon G, Raghubir P, Schwarz N (1995) Behavioral frequency judgments: an accessibility-diagnosticity framework. J Cons Res 22:212–228
31. Neisser U (1986) Nested structure in autobiographical memory. In: Rubin DC (ed) Autobiogra-phical memory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 71–88
32. Olton DS, Becker JT, Handelmann GE (1980) Hippocampal function: working memory or cognitive mapping? Phys Psychol 8:239–246
33. Reed AE, Mikels JA, Löckenhoff CE (2013) Preferences for choice across adulthood: age trajectories and potential mechanisms. Psychol Aging 28:625–632
34. Rodgers WL, Herzog R, Andrews FM (1988) Interviewing older adults: validity of self-reports of satisfaction. Psychol Aging 3:264–272
35. Roedder John D, Cole CA (1986) Age differences in information processing: understanding deficits in young and elderly consumers. J Cons Res 13:297–315
36. Rossi N, Isaacowitz DM (2006) What is important to me right now? Age differences in domain selectivity depend on the measure. Ageing Int 31:24–43
37. Schmitz MF, Russell DW, Cutrona CE (2002) The validity of self-reports of physician use among the older population. J Appl Geront 21:203–219
38. Schuman H, Presser S (1981) Questions and answers in attitude surveys. Academic Press, New York
39. Schwarz N (1995) What respondents learn from questionnaires: the survey interview and the logic of conversation. Int Stat Rev 63:153–168
40. Schwarz N (1996) Cognition and communication: Judgmental biases, research methods and the logic of conversation. Erlbaum, Hillsdale
41. Schwarz N (1999a) Self-reports: how the questions shape the answers. Am Psychol 54:93–105
42. Schwarz N (1999b) Frequency reports of physical symptoms and health behaviors: How the questionnaire determines the results. In: Park DC, Morrell RW, Shifren K (eds) Processing medical information in aging patients: Cognitive and human factors perspectives. Erlbaum, Mahaw, pp 93–108
43. Schwarz N (2005) Measurement: Aging and the psychology of self-report. In: Carstensen LL, Hartel CR (eds) When I’m 64: Aging frontiers in social psychology, personality, and adult developmental psychology. National Academic Press, Washington DC, pp 219–230
44. Schwarz N, Knäuper B (2000) Cognition, aging, and self-reports. In: Park D, Schwarz N (eds) Cognitive aging: a primer. Psychology Press, Philadelphia, pp 233–252
45. Schwarz N, Oyserman D (2001) Asking questions about behavior: cognition, communication and questionnaire construction. Am J Eval 22:127–160
46. Schwarz N, Sudman S (1994) Autobiographical memory and the validity of retrospective reports. Springer Verlag, New York
47. Schwarz N, Hippler HJ, Deutsch B, Strack F (1985) Response categories: effects on behavioral reports and comparative judgments. Public Opin Quart 49:388–395
48. Schwarz N, Park D, Knäuper B, Sudman S (eds) (1999) Cognition, aging, and self-reports. Psychology Press, Philadelphia
49. Strack F, Martin L (1987) Thinking, judging, and communicating: A process account of context effects in attitude surveys. In: Hippler HJ, Schwarz N, Sudman S (eds) Social information processing and survey methodology. Springer Verlag, New York, pp 123–148s
50. Strube G (1987) Answering survey questions: The role of memory. In: Hippler HJ, Schwarz N, Sudman S (eds) Social information processing and survey methodology. Springer Verlag, New York, pp 86–101
51. Sudman S, Bradburn N, Schwarz N (1996) Thinking about answers: The application of cognitive processes to survey methodology. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
52. Tourangeau R (1984) Cognitive science and survey methods: a cognitive perspective. In: Jabine T, Straf M, Tanur J, Tourangeau R (eds) Cognitive aspects of survey methodology: Building a bridge between disciplines. National Academy Press, Washington DC, pp 73–100
53. Tourangeau R, Rips LJ, Rasinski K (2000) The psychology of survey response. Cambridge University Press, New York
54. Tourangeau R, Singer E, Presser S (2003) Context effects in attitude surveys: effects on remote items and impact on predictive validity. Soc Methods Res 31:486–513
55. van der Zouwen J, Smit JH, van der Horst MHL (2005): Reporting the frequency and duration of household tasks by elderly respondents: The effect of different interview strategies on data quality. In: Proceedings of the 60th AAPOR annual conference, May 12–15, 2005, American Statistical Association, Alexandria, pp 4007–4014
56. Yoon C, Feinberg F, Schwarz N (2010) Why do older consumers tell us they are more satisfied? In: Drolet A, Schwarz N, Yoon C (eds) The aging consumer: Perspectives from psychology and economics. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, New York, pp 209–228
57. Zelinski EM, Burnight KP (1997) Sixteen-year longitudinal and time-lag changes in memory and cognition in older adults. Psychol Aging 12:503–523