Palm or Cell? Comparing Personal Digital Assistants and Cell Phones for Experience Sampling Research

Abstract

Personal digital assistants (PDA), particularly Palm Pilots, are popular data collection devices in experience sampling research. The declining availability of such devices, however, has prompted researchers to explore alternative technologies for signaling participants and collecting responses. The present research considers interactive voice response (IVR) methods, which can deliver questions and collect data using common cell phones. Participants completed an experience sampling study using either a PDA (n ¼ 428) or a cell phone under three different conditions (IVR condition n ¼ 98; IVR Callback condition n ¼ 93; IVR Callback Comeback condition n ¼ 94). We found that response rates were higher when people used PDAs (69%) than when they used their cell phones (IVR condition ¼ 51%), but response rates increased when people could call back within a few minutes of missing a signal (IVR Callback condition ¼ 58%) and had a face-to-face meeting with a researcher midweek (IVR Callback Comeback ¼ 64%). The daily life ratings were similar across the conditions. The findings are encouraging for researchers interested in using IVR cell phone methods for ecological momentary assessment, but more work is needed to develop procedures or incentives that increase response rates.Keywords experience sampling, ecological momentary assessment, interactive voice response, personal digital assistants Experience sampling is a within-day self-report technique in which participants are prompted at repeated intervals to complete brief questionnaires (Conner, Tennen, Fleeson, & Barrett, 2009;Hektner, Schmidt, & Csikszentmihalyi, 2007). The method is probably most strongly tied to social and emotion psychology, but it has become popular in a wide range of fields and research areas (e.g.,

SurveySignal

“…In particular, the most important metric, mean response rate, was 77% and thus either higher or no different from response rates reported in other experience sampling studies (e.g., Burgin, Silvia, Eddington, & Kwapil, 2013;Courvoisier, Eid, Lischetzke, & Schreiber, 2010;Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1987;Hormuth, 1986). Of course, response rates may vary as a function of many factors such as the topic under investigation, sample characteristics, the length of the experience sampling phase, incentives, and the use of response reminders.…”

Being with others and feeling happy: Emotional expressivity in everyday life

“…Compared with other options, PDAs yield good compliance rates and data quality (Burgin, Silvia, Eddington, & Kwapil, in press; Green, Rafaeli, Bolger, Shrout, & Reis, 2006). Participants attended an information session in which they were provided with a PDA and informed about the procedures of the study.…”

Music to the inner ears: Exploring individual differences in musical imagery

“…To administer surveys, we used an interactive voice response (IVR) system-an experience sampling method that allows participants to respond to automated surveys on their cell phones (Burgin, Silvia, Eddington, & Kwapil, 2013). Survey calls were generated from a dedicated computer using SmartQ IVR software (Telesage., 2009).…”