Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing: Effects on Interviewers and Respondents

The effects of using a computer assisted telephone interviewing system on response distributions, interviewer behavior, and other nonsampling errors are measured through a survey experiment which randomly assigned cases either to a paper questionnaire or a CATI version. There were few differences in response distributions obtained in the two modes, some evidence of reduced interviewer variance among CATI cases, but little difference in response rates between the methods. Interviewers, who conducted interviews in both methods, tended to have no clear preference between them, but favored the CATI system for ease of following the questionnaire and the paper version for ease of making changes to prior answers.