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The risk of multitasking is high in online surveys. However, knowledge on the effects of multitasking on answer quality is sparse and based on suboptimal approaches. Research reports inconclusive results concerning the consequences of multitasking on task performance. However, studies suggest that especially sequential-multitasking activities are expected to be critical. Therefore, this study focusses on sequential-on-device-multitasking activities (SODM) and its consequences for data quality. Based on probability-based data, this study aims to reveal the prevalence of SODM based on the javascript function OnBlur, to reflect the its determinants and to examine the consequences for data quality. Results show that SODM was detected for 25% of all respondents and that respondent attributes and the device used to answer the survey are related to SODM. Moreover, it becomes apparent that SODM is significantly correlated to data quality measures. Therefore, I propose SODM behavior as a new instrument for researching suboptimal response behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smartphone increase in web surveys, coupled with technological developments, provides novel opportunities for measuring attitudes. For example, smartphones allow the collection of voice instead of text answers by using the built-in microphone. This may facilitate answering questions with open answer formats resulting in richer information and higher data quality. So far, there is only a little body of research investigating voice and text answers to open questions. In this study, we therefore compare the linguistic and content characteristics of voice and text answers to open questions on sensitive topics. For this purpose, we ran an experiment in a smartphone survey (N = 1001) and randomly assigned respondents to an answer format condition (text or voice). The findings indicate that voice answers have a higher number of words and a higher number of topics than their text counterparts. We find no differences regarding sentiments (or extremity of answers). Our study provides new insights into the linguistic and content characteristics of voice and text answers. Furthermore, it helps to evaluate the usefulness and usability of voice answers for future smartphone surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile device usage in online surveys has steadily increased in recent years. As mobile devices differ, for example, in their handling, from computers, device effects within online surveys are found for several data quality indicators. However, results concerning these device effects are neither comprehensive nor conclusive because existing research are often based on nonoptimized designs or do not account for the type of mobile device, for example, smartphone or tablet. This study uses data from the emigrant sample of the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS) a probability-based online survey (n = 4,888)--which made use of a mobile-optimized design--to compare data quality between smartphone, tablet, and computer respondents. Propensity score weighting was employed to account for device choice selectivity effects. The data quality indicators showed mixed results and smaller data quality differences across computers, smartphones, and tablets compared to previous studies. Higher dropout rates on mobile devices and here especially on smartphones remain the major challenge for survey participation, especially on small screens. However, our results render mixed-device data collection via mobileoptimized online surveys as a promising data collection approach, especially for exploiting the large response potentially associated with smartphone and tablet respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of political solidarities and related concepts is an important endeavor in numerous scientific disciplines, such as political and social science research. European surveys, such as the Eurobarometer, frequently measure these concepts for people's home country and Europe raising questions with respect to the order of precedence. Research has shown that the order of asking questions can have a profound impact on answer behavior compromising data quality. In this study, we therefore investigated the occurrence of question order effects in a German-European context using two questions on political solidarities. For this purpose, we conducted an experiment in a German online panel (N = 874) and analyzed response behavior and effort in terms of response times. In contrast to previous research, we found no empirical evidence for question order effects impacting people's responses. Even though there were no response time differences between the question order conditions, the first question always took longer to respond to than the remaining one. Overall, our findings indicate the robustness of questions on political solidarities against question order effects. One potential explanation is that people have comparatively strong (or crystallized) attitudes when it comes to political solidarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polymer Materials Science & Engineering is the property of Sichuan University, Polymer Research Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As-cast ring rolling is a short-process new forming technology for ring parts with obvious technical superiority compared to conventional ring rolling. The microstructure improvement of as-cast ring during rolling process is the most concern for its industrial application, which has important dependence on forming conditions. In this study, an experimentally verified FE model for grain evolution prediction during hot ring rolling (HRR) of as-cast 100Cr6 alloy steel is explored; the response laws of grain size and distribution of rolled ring to rolling ratio, feeding rate, rotational speed, and initial rolling temperature during HRR process are discussed based on FE simulation. The main results show that the advantageous response of grain evolution will generate to improve the grain refinement and grain uniformization with the proper increases of rolling ratio and feeding rate and the appropriate decreases of rotational speed and initial rolling temperature. The remarkable response sensitivity of grain evolution will be beneficial to effectively adjust the grain refinement and grain uniformization with the preferred forming condition of lower initial rolling temperature. Finally, an optimization for forming conditions is performed according to above rules, and its effectiveness for grain improvement is simulatively and experimentally evaluated, which verified the reliability of obtained results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the sustainability of economic, ecological and social development, the safety of infrastructure, including buried pipelines, is extremely important. Undercrossing tunneling can compromise the safety of buried pipelines because of deformations, cracks and dislocations, which can result in wasted resources, environmental pollution and economic losses. Therefore, it is important to assess the pipeline response accurately during tunnel excavation. This paper proposes a generalized Hermite spectral solution to estimate the pipeline response induced by twin tunneling. The proposed solution is formulated by a truncated series of Hermite functions and it is available in an unbounded domain. On the basis of the two-stage analysis method, a general formula for calculating the soil greenfield displacement induced by twin tunneling is first derived using the superposition principle. To obtain the final solution, the soil greenfield displacement and pipeline displacement are expanded using two truncated series of Hermite functions, and the governing differential equation of pipeline displacement is subsequently simplified into a linear algebraic system. After solving this system, a general solution for calculating pipeline displacement is formulated. Then, the convergence of the developed solution is proven, and its validity is verified against existing theoretical solutions and centrifuge test results. The effects of the truncated series number and its scaling factor are investigated. Finally, parametric studies are conducted to discuss pipeline responses induced by twin tunneling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grid questions are frequently employed in web surveys due to their assumed response efficiency. In line with this, many previous studies have found shorter response times for grid questions compared to item-by-item formats. Our contribution to this literature is to investigate how altering the question format affects response behavior and the depth of cognitive processing when answering both grid question and item-by-item formats. To answer these questions, we implemented an experiment with three questions in an eye-tracking study. Each question consisted of a set of ten items which respondents answered either on a single page (large grid), on two pages with five items each (small grid), or on ten separate pages (item-by-item). We did not find substantial differences in cognitive processing overall, while the processing of the question stem and the response scale labels was significantly higher for the item-by-item design than for the large grid in all three questions. We, however, found that when answering an item in a grid question, respondents often refer to surrounding items when making a judgement. We discuss the findings and limitations of our study and provide suggestions for practical design decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trial production of natural gas hydrate reservoirs remains poor. Reasonable reservoir reconstruction, which can improve formation permeability, is an important approach to increasing the efficiency and enhancing production. In this work, water jet slotting is proposed to reconstruct an natural gas hydrate reservoir near a wellbore. The spatial slots formed by water jet slotting not only directly constitute high-permeability channels, but also generate disturbances to the surrounding in-situ sediment. Water jet slotting disturbances to nearby sediment was investigated using a three dimensional flow-structure coupling model to evaluate the proposed reconstruction method. The reservoir at the SH2 site in the Shenhu area of the South China Sea was used as the reference. A horizontal slotting arrangement along the vertical well was adopted. The results demonstrate that water jet slotting can change the primary stress state of the sediment around the wellbore, and generate a dominant stress relaxation zone and small stress concentration zone. Within the stress relaxation zone, the in-situ compressive stress was remarkably reduced or even transformed into tensile stress, accompanied by sediment displacement and volumetric expansion strain. This is conducive to loosening the sediment around the wellbore and improving the permeability characteristics. In addition, the influence of the water jet slotting parameters including slot radius, spacing, and number on disturbances to the nearby sediment was studied. Reservoir responses to water jet slotting under balanced and unbalanced bottom-hole pressures were compared and analyzed. This study provides a reference for natural gas hydrate reservoir reconstruction using water jet slotting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the introduction of the experience sampling method (ESM), there have been concerns that the repeated assessments typically related to this method may alter the behavior, thoughts, or feelings of participants. Previous studies have offered mixed results with some studies reporting reactive changes, while others failed to find such effects. Our aim was to investigate under which circumstances ESM induces reactive effects. Students (N = 151) were randomly assigned to receive a questionnaire containing 30 or 60 items three, six, or nine times per day for 14 days. A random sample of 50 participants took part in qualitative interviews after the end of the data collection. We investigated changes over time in the data, while taking into account the sampling protocol and characteristics of participants, and analyzed qualitative reports of measurement reactivity. Decreases in completion time, within-person variance of ratings and subjective reports of habituation point toward the existence of a habituation period. While participants reported increases in emotional awareness in interviews, ESM measures indicated a decrease in emotional awareness over time. Changes in behavior were rare in quantitative and qualitative reports. Positive affect was decreasing over time in the ESM data, and various changes in affect, emotion regulation, and thoughts were reported in interviews. Individual characteristics and sampling protocol had inconsistent effects on changes over time. The results suggest that ESM induces changes in within-person variability, completion times, affect, or emotional awareness over time. Further research is needed to explore whether observed changes affect the validity of ESM data. Public Significance Statement: Increasingly, researchers use frequently repeated self-report measures to assess individuals' experiences in the context of their daily lives. We find signs of changes in response behavior, affect, and emotional awareness that are triggered by these frequent assessments. The possibility of such reactive changes over time is important to consider when collecting repeated self-report measures in daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collecting life history data is highly demanding and therefore prone to error since respondents must retrieve and provide extensive complex information. Research has shown that response burden is an important factor influencing data quality. We examine whether increases in different measures of response burden in a (mixed-device) online survey lead to adverse effects on the data quality and whether these effects vary by the type of device used (mobile versus non-mobile). We conducted an experimental study in an online mixed-device survey, for which we developed a questionnaire on the educational and occupational trajectories of secondary-school graduates, undergraduates, and university graduates. To address our research question, we randomly assigned different levels of response burden to the participants and compared different measures on the data quality and response. We found mixed evidence for unfavourable effects of response burden on the examined outcomes. While some of our results were expected, they were not consistent across all subgroups. Most interestingly, the effects of response burden on outcomes seemed to differ based on the device used. Hence, we conclude that further research is needed to optimise the collection of complex data from different groups of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) training has become valuable in sports to improve motor behavior and train specific situations under standardized conditions. However, studies comparing conventional training with VR training are rare, especially for advanced athletes. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the performance improvement achieved through VR training can be transferred to the real world (RW). Therefore, we present a study analyzing sports-specific response training using a head-mounted display (HMD) combined with conventional training and its transfer to RW. In ten training sessions over 6 weeks, a VR training group (VRG, n = 15) performed virtual karate training (10 min) combined with a conventional training (80 min), while a conventional training group (CG, n = 12) conducted only conventional training (90 min) at the same time. The VR training consisted of the athlete responding to various karate attacks performed by a virtual opponent in a karate-specific manner. The study design included a pretest, an intermediate test (after 5 training sessions), and a posttest. We analyzed sports-specific response behavior concerning the competitionrelevant karate attacks Gyaku-Zuki jodan (GZj) and Kizami-Zuki (KZ) using the parameters ‘response time’, and the “response quality” when the athletes had to react to attacks of a virtual opponent in VR and a real opponent in RW. For the parameter “response time,” improvements were detected only for the VRG in VR concerning GZj and KZ. For the parameter “response quality” for both groups, no improvements could be found. Furthermore, athletes provided positive feedback regarding the integration of VR training into conventional training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PTFE/Al/W granular composite is a kind of impact-initiated energetic material and may well enhance damage to the impacted targets. To gain insight into response behavior of PTFE/Al/W granular composite under different loadings, the combined approach of experiments and theoretical analyses is used in this paper. More specifically, the combinations of quasi-static compression, dynamic tests, and ballistic impact experiments are conducted. Cylindrical PTFE/Al/W granular composite specimens, with a density of 7.7 g/cm 3 and a diameter of 10 mm, are fabricated by cold press molding, sintering, and cooling. Moreover, a high-speed imaging technique is used to record response process of the specimens in ballistic impact experiments. The experimental and analytical results show that the response behavior of PTFE/Al/W granular composite is significantly influenced by the loading strain rate. When the strain rate is less than 3.6 × 10 3 s - 1 , only mechanical response is observed in the quasi-static compression and dynamic tests. However, when the strain rate is higher than 4 × 10 4 s - 1 , the chemical reaction is found in the ballistic impact experiments. Furthermore, chemical response shows an enhanced trend with increasing of the loading strain rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) training has become valuable in sports to improve motor behavior and train specific situations under standardized conditions. However, studies comparing conventional training with VR training are rare, especially for advanced athletes. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the performance improvement achieved through VR training can be transferred to the real world (RW). Therefore, we present a study analyzing sports-specific response training using a head-mounted display (HMD) combined with conventional training and its transfer to RW. In ten training sessions over 6 weeks, a VR training group (VRG, n = 15) performed virtual karate training (10 min) combined with a conventional training (80 min), while a conventional training group (CG, n = 12) conducted only conventional training (90 min) at the same time. The VR training consisted of the athlete responding to various karate attacks performed by a virtual opponent in a karate-specific manner. The study design included a pretest, an intermediate test (after 5 training sessions), and a posttest. We analyzed sports-specific response behavior concerning the competition-relevant karate attacks Gyaku-Zuki jodan (GZj) and Kizami-Zuki (KZ) using the parameters ‘response time’, and the “response quality” when the athletes had to react to attacks of a virtual opponent in VR and a real opponent in RW. For the parameter “response time,” improvements were detected only for the VRG in VR concerning GZj and KZ. For the parameter “response quality” for both groups, no improvements could be found. Furthermore, athletes provided positive feedback regarding the integration of VR training into conventional training.

Copyright of China Mechanical Engineering is the property of Editorial Board of China Mechanical Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A smart transportation system relies on connected environments and cloud systems for ease of operation and assisted routing. Smart vehicles understand the environment through multi-sensor, network, and pervasive systems for gaining useful information. The problem arises with the absence of useful information in explicit scenarios where heterogeneous information becomes mandatory. This article aims to improve transportation support's effectiveness using a discrete behavior information fusion (DBIF) based on the deep learning technique by considering the contradiction in information availability. This proposed technique observes the vehicles' behavior and response to the scene throughout the route displacement. The deep learning model achieves greater accuracy in target detection and classification. The learning output is the independent fusion of behavior (response output) and information (sensed). This sensed information is useful in categorizing further deviations and stipulations for the progressive displacements. The stipulated information and its deviations are recurrently categorized using support vector machine learning. The information provides accurate positioning and tracking of smart vehicles by reducing approximation errors and complexity. The simulation results illustrate the proposed technique's efficiency by improving the accuracy of 92.078% and fusion rate of 0.9741 and reducing error of 0.0662, complexity of 0.0717, and fusion time of 0.9938 compared to existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that question characteristics, such as the shape of rating scales, can affect how respondents interpret and respond to questions. For example, earlier studies reported different response distributions for questions employing rating scales in the form of a ladder and in the form of a pyramid. The current experiment, implemented in a probability-based online panel (N = 4,377), re-visits and extends this research by examining how the two graphical layouts (ladder vs. pyramid) affect response behavior and data quality of a question on subjective social stratification. In line with the earlier results, we found that respondents rated their social status lower in the pyramid than in the ladder condition. No differences between the two layouts were found regarding response effort, however, the ladder layout was associated with higher criterion validity. Therefore, we recommend employing the ladder layout when measuring subjective social stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactions of southern right whales (SRWs) related to whale‐watching boats have been reported in Patagonia, but there are no quantitative data showing how these whales react to boats not preforming whale‐watching trips. The objective of this study was to investigate the reaction of SRWs to transiting vessels. Data were collected off the coast of Puerto Madryn city, and were analyzed by means of cumulative logit models, using the whales' intensity of behavioral response as an ordinal dependent variable. During the experimental approaches of a research vessel, we found that the response of SRWs differed depending on the number of whales present. The results of this study show that the probability of response to transiting vessels is low, unless there are only a few whales in a group, or it is a mating group. This response is different from that of an approaching whale‐watching vessel. In this study, the lack of reaction of whales to the research vessel suggests that whales would not consider it as a threat. This study represents an important piece of information for the conservation of southern right whales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An optimization method considering truck response behaviors of FCW algorithm was. • Driver response behavior can be divided into three behaviors. • Linear SVM and LSTM were conducted to predict the reaction distance and braking distance. Forward collision warning (FCW) systems have been widely used in trucks to alert drivers of potential road situations so they can reduce the risk of crashes. Research on FCW use shows, however, that there are differences in drivers' responses to FCW alerts under different scenarios. Existing FCW algorithms do not take differences in driver response behavior into account, with the consequence that the algorithms' minimum safe distance assessments that trigger the warnings are not always appropriate for every driver or situation. To reduce false alarms, this study analyzed truck driver behavior in response to FCW warnings, and k-means clustering was adopted to classify driver response behavior into three categories: Response Before Warning (RBW), Response After Warning (RAW), and No Response (NR). Results showed that RBW clusters tend to occur at long following distances (>19 m), and drivers applied braking before the warning. In RAW clusters, deceleration after warning is significantly more forceful than before warning. NR clusters occur at short distances, and deceleration fluctuates only slightly. To optimize the FCW algorithm, the warning distance was divided into reaction distance and braking distance. The linear support vector machine was used to fit the driver reaction distance. The long short-term memory method was used to predict braking distance based on each of the three response scenarios: R2 was 0.896 for RAW scenarios, 0.927 for RBW scenarios, and 0.980 for NR scenarios. Verification results show that the optimized truck FCW algorithm improved safety by 1 % to 5.1 %; accuracy reached 97.92 %, and the false alarm rate was 1.73 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several well-established surveys ask questions in order to measure subjective well-being. In some questionnaires, questions relate to happiness, in others, to individual well-being or satisfaction or to both happiness and satisfaction. In the literature of happiness, several papers have compared responses to these questions using available national and international data. However, employed data sets make it hard to properly disentangle wordings or scale effects from other survey design or survey administration effects. For this reason, we design a single ad hocsurvey in which we ask the same respondents to answer more than one well-being question. In addition, we use standardized scales across questions. We show that wording clearly matters: each subject self-reports her/his own happiness, life satisfaction, and well-being differently. We found that subjects do not perceive themselves as equivalent to one another and their determinants turn out to be different. Moreover, we find that the use of different scales leads to different results. However, the coefficients of the determinants across different notions of welfare and across different scales never reverse the sign.

Abstract The Social Desirability–Gamma Short Scale—the English-language adaptation of the Kurzskala Soziale Erwünschtheit–Gamma (KSE-G)—measures two aspects of the Gamma factor of socially desirable responding (SDR): exaggerating positive qualities (PQ+) and minimizing negative qualities (NQ−). The items of the German-language source version were translated into English using the TRAPD approach. Our empirical validation shows that the reliability and validity coefficients of the English adaptation are comparable to those of the German source instrument. Moreover, the results of measurement invariance testing suggest metric measurement invariance of the scale for the United Kingdom and Germany, thus implying comparability of correlations based on the latent factors across the two countries.

Background: The aim of study was to demonstrate that the first three injections of botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A) appear to be less effective in botulinum toxin naïve patients with idiopathic cervical dystonia (CD) with mild symptoms and low severity scores (TSUI-scores) at onset of BoNT/A-therapy compared to patients with full-blown CD and high initial TSUI-scores. Methods: In 337 patients with CD who started BoNT/A-therapy in the BoNT-outpatient clinic of the university hospital in Düsseldorf during the last 12 years, demographical and treatment-related data as well as outcome measures (TSUI-scores) of the first four visits were extracted from the treatment ACCESS data bank. Results: Distribution of the severity of CD scored using the TSUI-score significantly changed with the first three injections. In patients with a high baseline severity (TSUI-score > 10), mean TSUI-score continuously decreased (p < 0.001), whereas in patients with a low initial severity (TSUI-score < 6), mean TSUI-score increased (p < 0.001) during the first three injection cycles. Individual responses varied between 100% improvement, no response at all, and even worsening. Improvement of CD at the end of an injection cycle was observed in less than 25% in the mildly affected patients, but in more than 80% in the more severely affected patients. Conclusion: Clinical response to the first three BoNT/A-injections in severely affected de novo CD-patients is different from the response to BoNT/A in mildly affected de novo CD-patients. This has implications for further scientific studies and the patient management of mildly affected de novo patients with cervical dystonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To collect high-quality data, survey designers aim to develop questions that each respondent can understand as intended. A critical step to this end is designing questions that minimize the respondents' burden by reducing the cognitive effort required to comprehend and answer them. One promising technique for identifying problematic survey questions is eye tracking. This article investigates the potential of eye movements and pupil dilations as indicators for evaluating survey questions. Respondents were randomly assigned to either a problematic or an improved version of six experimental questions. By analyzing fixation times, fixation counts, and pupil diameters, it was examined whether these parameters could be used to distinguish between the two versions. Identifying the improved version worked best by comparing fixation times, whereas in most cases, it was not possible to differentiate between versions on the basis of pupil data. Limitations and practical implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effect of the position of answer category "neither" of a rating scale (applicable/not applicable) of a self-administered questionnaire on the subjects' response rate, ease of answering, and misunderstanding of answer options in the case of a web survey. An eye tracking experiment was conducted on 56 university students. Fifty responses were analyzed and 6 were excluded due to insufficient data. The results showed that: (1) when "neither" is placed at the far right of the rating scale, the response rate is lower than when at the center; (2) when "neither" is placed at the far right, some participants mistakenly thought it displayed the most negative answer of "not applicable" because they did not observe the right side carefully; and (3) participants who correctly recognized the position of "neither" on the right had a higher fixation counts on the answer options and larger eye movements than those who did not recognize it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web surveys are an established data collection mode that use written language to provide information. The written language is accompanied by visual elements, such as presentation formats and shapes. However, research has shown that visual elements influence response behavior because respondents sometimes use interpretive heuristics to make sense of the visual elements. One such heuristic is the 'left and top means first' (LTMF) heuristic, which suggests that respondents tend to believe that a response scale consistently runs from left to right or from top to bottom. We conducted a web survey experiment to investigate how violations of the LTMF heuristic affect response behavior and data quality. For this purpose, a random half of respondents received response options that followed a consistent order and the other half received response options that followed an inconsistent order. The results reveal significantly different response distributions between the two groups. We also found that inconsistently ordered response options significantly increase response times and decrease data quality in terms of criterion validity. We, therefore, recommend using options that follow the design strategies of the LTMF heuristic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guidelines for interviewers frequently include instructions to read question texts exactly as they are worded. Deviations from these guidelines on standardized interviewing might affect the comparability of survey answers and impair the quality of data. This paper contributes to the literature on interviewer behavior by analyzing how interviewers change their reading behavior during fieldwork and whether this behavioral change influences the response behavior of survey respondents. We use item-level paradata from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to measure interviewers' reading times and focus our analyses on introductory questions that do not require an immediate response by the respondent. In contrast to prior research, this focus enables us to disentangle the reading times of interviewers from the response times of respondents. Based on fixed effects regression, our results show systematic changes in interviewers' reading times of introductory items: First, reading times significantly decrease over the survey's field period, even after controlling for relevant respondent characteristics and specific aspects of the interview situation. Second, a cross-national comparison, including fourteen European countries plus Israel, reveals that the decrease is uniform in almost all countries, suggesting its generalizability across different cultural contexts. Third, the decrease in reading times influences response behavior to varying degrees. Response behavior is affected if introductions contain relevant information for understanding or fulfilling the required task and especially if the response refers to within-survey requests. On the basis of these findings, we discuss the possible consequences for questionnaire design, interviewer training, and fieldwork monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]