Can we really do two things at once?

Like most research companies mine now routinely includes cell phones in our telephone samples. Best practice requires that before we interview someone on a cell phone we determine if it's safe to do the interview. If, for example, the respondent is driving a car we don't do the interview. Yesterday someone asked me if it was ok to do the interview if the respondent is using a hands-free device. The research on this is pretty clear: the problem with cells phones and driving is the distraction, not the dexterity required to hold a phone in one hand and drive with the other.  There is no basis for making an exception for hands-free.

This reminded me that responding to survey questions is not easy; it takes some serious cognitive energy. Most researchers accept the four-step response process described a decade ago by Tourangeau, Rips and Rasinski:

1. Comprehension—understand the question and how to answer it (instructions)
2. Retrieval—search memory to form an answer
3. Judgment—assess completeness and relevance of the answer
4. Respond—map the response onto the right response category

When respondents execute this process faithfully we say they are engaged. When they short-circuit it we talk about lack of engagement. A person talking on a cell phone while driving can either drive or engage with the survey. It's a rare person who can do both well simultaneously.

Which brings us to one of my favorite subjects: respondent engagement and rich media (aka Flash) in Web surveys. What is the rationale for arguing that dressing a Web survey up with more color, pimped-up radio buttons, a slider bar, or a slick drag and drop answering device is going to encourage respondents to execute the four-step response process with greater care than if we just show them the same kind of standard screen they use to enter their credit card details on Amazon? Or are unfamiliar interfaces just a distraction that makes it even less likely? It might get someone to the next question, but is that enough?

Comments

[Reg]

The report on the French study is very interesting and it makes me wonder whether the type of task matters. I would expect that the level of cognitive burden would make a difference. I can walk and chew gum at the same time. Really! But that tap yourself on the top of the head and make a circle on your belly with the other hand is harder for me. I also cannot do a convincing job of simultaneously reading the newspaper and carrying on a conversation with my wife, although when she calls me on it I can usually parrot back her last sentence.

[essay writing]

A group of French researchers have discovered an important aspect about our ability to multitask. They found that we might only be able to do two things by design.
The researchers scanned the 32 test subjects frontal cortex, while asked to perform multi-tasking experiments. When the volunteers completed one task at a time, one side of a certain area of the frontal lobes lighted up. But, when they completed two tasks at the same time, the lobes divided the tasks between them. (Do one task, and your brain will very efficiently use whatever core best suited for the task. Do two tasks, and your brain will divide the task into each core. Do three or more tasks, and your brain is running over 100%, and starts to lag or skip instructions to keep up. You will no longer be thinking straight.)

[cna classes]

Thanks and I concur. You guys are looking for digital strategists now, right? Will you keep the title?

[Fernanda Obregon]

Such a great questioning.

I´ve been working with qualitative web surveys for 3 years and most of my job is writing the questionnaires. One of my biggest challenges is to write surveys that evolve and carry away customers, so they can give us their most sincere and true answers.

Attention is a big issue, but I believe that doing two, three things at once while online is something inherent to our online behavior. Web surveys must allow consumers act in their most natural way. They mustn´t go against the flow.

A good survey must be catchy. It´s not going against the flow, it is delivering something interesting and open to possibilities. So consumers in free will stop what they´re doing to answer because they feel fulfilled answering to it.

Maybe the answer is in delivering surveys so interesting that they decide to stop the car to answer them.

[Element]

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