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.
Related projects:	Psychological and social characteristics of children, youth and families, development of the personality in the time of changes of modern society