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Chapter 6: Traditional Survey Research
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is the most common way to gather primary data in marketing
research?
a. In-depth interviews
b. Observation studies
c. Surveys
d. Experiments
e. Mall intercept interviews
2. What type of research error results from mistakes in the research design or in the
execution of the research design?
a. Processing error
b. Systematic error
c. Selection error
d. Interviewer error
e. Administrative error
3. Another term for systematic error is:
a. nonsystematic error
b. selection error
c. interviewer error
d. population error
e. nonsampling error
4. If a researcher wants to take a random sample of the counties in Missouri, the list of the
114 counties along with their name and ID number is called the _____________ .
a. sampling frame.
b. measurement instrument.
c. sample design.
d. systematic error.
e. nonresponse bias.
5. What type of systematic error is involved when a door-to-door interviewer decides to
skip a household on the list of households to be interviewed because she does not like the
“looks” of that household?
a. Population error
b. Selection error
c. Surrogate error
d. Measurement instrument bias
e. Nonsystematic error
6. When an interviewer who is being paid for each interview completed decides to “pad” the
results by filling in the answers to the questions using some ‘imaginary interviewees,”
what type of error has occurred?
a. Random sampling error
b. Interviewer error
c. Population error
d. Surrogate error
e. Selection error
7. When people who were selected to participate in a survey do not complete the survey,
and these people differ in important ways from people who did fill out the survey, we say
that the results of the survey have:
a. nonresponse bias.
b. nonsystematic error.
c. interviewer error.
d. random sampling error.
e. interviewer bias.
8. When 120 people are asked to participate in a survey study, but only 30 of them actually
fill out the survey, the refusal rate for this survey is:
a. 120 percent.
b. 75 percent.
c. 25 percent.
d. 15 percent.
e. 30 percent.
9. When an interviewer asks a college business major if he reads The Wall Street Journal
every day and the students says: “Yes,” but, in reality, the student rarely reads this
newspaper, what type of error has occurred?
a. Random sampling error
b. Surrogate error
c. Nonresponse bias
d. Deliberate falsification
e. Selection error
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10. If AT&T conducts an interview with business executives in their offices to determine
which features of their company’s long-distance service are most important to them, this
is an example of a(n):
a. CAI interview.
b. executive interview study.
c. mall intercept study.
d. participant observer study.
e. response bias.
11. When shoppers at the Galleria Shopping Mall in St. Louis are asked by a researcher to
participate in a taste test for a new type of soft drink, what type of research study is this?
a. Phone interview
b. Mail panel
c. CAI interview
d. Call center interview
e. Mall-intercept interview
12. About what percentage of U.S. households can only be reached by either a cell phone or a
smart phone number?
a. 10 percent
b. 20 percent
c. 30 percent
d. 40 percent
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e. 50 percent
13. When an interviewer sits in front of a computer monitor in which the computer dials the
phone number of people listed on a sampling frame so that the interviewer can focus on
asking the respondent survey questions, what type of study is involved?
a. ILI
b. CATI
c. IDI
d. PERT
e. MBO
14. When a researcher is conducting a taste test for a new type of chili and asks the
respondent how the chili tasted and is told: “It tasted pretty good,” what type of response
is the interviewer using when the interviewer than asks: “What do you mean by ‘pretty
good?’”
a. Duplication
b. Measurement bias
c. Probing
d. Surrogate questioning
e. CAI questioning
15. When a client wants to obtain survey results quickly, which survey method is the best
choice?
a. Mail
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b. Phone
c. Mall intercept
d. The Internet
e. FedEx
True/False
16. A published telephone directory for St. Louis is a good place to develop a sampling frame
for St. Louis residents.
17. Part of the U.S. Census for 2010 was done by door-to-door interviews.
18. A telephone survey is a good way to conduct an in-depth interview with a respondent.
19. Ad hoc mail surveys typically have a low rate of nonresponse.
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20. The available budget for a research study has a great impact on the type of survey method
that is used in the study.