Additional Cognitive Testing Plan -- 2010 Census Race Questions

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). The objective of this research is to conduct cognitive testing of three additional experimental race questions that will be field tested during the 2010 Census as part of the Census Program Evaluations and Experiments (CPEX) program.

Three forms will be cognitively tested. In two of these forms the word “race” has been removed from the question stem. Other changes to be tested include “banners” for Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander categories, and deleting Negro from the Black category. A copy of these forms is attached. They differ as follows:

• Form B4a (X14) in the attachment retains the question stem “What is this person’s race?” but tests the removal of “race” from the instructions under Other Asian and Other Pacific Islander. It also tests alphabetizing Other Asian examples, and including “banners” for Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander;

• Form B4c (X16) in the attachment tests removing “race” from the question stem (“Is this person…”) and from the instructions under Other Asian and Other Pacific Islander (but does not alphabetize the examples of Other Asian);

• Form B4d (X17) in the attachment tests removing “race” from the question stem (“Is this person…”). It also tests the removal of “race” from the instructions under Other Asian and Other Pacific Islander, alphabetizing Other Asian examples, including “banners” for Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and deleting Negro from the Black category.

During February 2009, staff from the Statistical Research Division (SRD) in collaboration with staff from the Population Division (POP) will conduct a maximum of 18 interviews among English-speaking respondents. These respondents will be recruited so as to reflect diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds (White, Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian/Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders). To the extent possible, within these specific criteria we will attempt to interview respondents of varying ages, gender and educational levels.

We will use a multi-pronged strategy to recruit the respondents needed from each racial/ethnic group, such as posting flyers in ethnic stores and community organizations that serve specific racial/ethnic groups, contacting local associations, and from referrals from previous respondents. Respondents will be screened so that the required number from each group is interviewed.

Interviews will be conducted using the retrospective think-aloud method. Each respondent will complete one version of the experimental questions, and will be shown the two other versions for comparison at the end of the interview. All interviews will use paper-and-pencil mockups of the three versions of the experimental race questions, and the order in which the forms will be presented to respondents will vary randomly. A copy of the protocol used for each form is attached.

The interviews will be conducted at the Census Bureau’s cognitive laboratory (Suitland, MD), in the offices of community associations, and in other locations convenient to respondents.

Cognitive interviews will be tape-recorded, with the participants' permission, to facilitate summary of the results. All participants will be informed that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential. Respondents will receive $40 for their participation.

The estimated time for completion of each of the cognitive interviews is an hour. Thus, the estimated burden for this research is 18 hours.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and study design is:

Leticia Fernández

Center for Survey Methods Research

Statistical Research Division

U.S. Census Bureau

Room 5K022C

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-6050

Leticia.Fernandez@census.gov