Gallup Survey & Decennial Work Plan

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 on three survey materials:

1. a Notice of Visit that is will be used by census enumerators when they are unable to find a respondent at home in the 2013 Census Test;

2. interactive address fields that may be used as part of the 2013 Census Test Internet instrument; and

3. Gallup questions about administrative data linkage, and privacy & confidentiality concerns that will be used in the Federal Statistical System Public Opinion Survey.

This cognitive testing will attempt to measure respondents’ comprehension of all three items and usability of the URL address in the Notice of Visit and the interactive address fields.

In December 2012 and January 2013, staff from the Census Bureau will conduct a maximum of 20 cognitive interviews with respondents in Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. In order to interview respondents from the general public-- those who are both favorable and not favorable towards the government as well as those with different types of home addresses--we plan to conduct interviews in neutral locations, for example, non-profit service providers, libraries, and churches within driving distance of Census Bureau headquarters. We will recruit a diverse set of respondents, varying on demographics including age, education, and race.

1. The Notice of Visit will be tested for comprehension of the notice and to verify that respondents would know what to do when they receive the notice based on the directions in the notice. This revised notice instructs respondents to self-respond using the internet. A copy of the Notice of Visit is attached in the protocols as Part 1 (identical in all 4 protocols).

2. The address fields in the 2013 Census Test Internet instrument will be tested for comprehension and usability. The default screen shows the address fields for a Street Address, but respondents can also choose to report a Rural Route or a PO Box, which will alter the requested fields. The follow-up questions will depend on their selection for type of address. For these portions of the study, respondents will interact with a laptop computer that the Census Bureau interviewer will bring along. The questions used for this portion of the testing are also attached in the protocols as Part 2 (identical in all 4 protocols).

3. When fielded, the Gallup questions will be embedded into an ongoing omnibus survey fielded by the Gallup organization. The Gallup survey is being fielded in a CATI interview, but for cognitive testing, it will be conducted in person using a paper script. For purposes of this round of cognitive testing, we will only test new questions. The new questions focus on the most successful frames in past testing (cost and social good) and how to further refine those frames (cost in total or cost per case and social good on a national or local level). We also experiment with the type of record we are mentioning (“information,” names and ages, income, contact information) and the agency from which we are collecting it (Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Motor Vehicles, or “a company that provides publicly accessible information”). Finally, we are testing two new questions to explore reasons offered by respondents who report privacy, confidentiality or trust issues for being opposed to the administrative records use. Four different versions of the protocol will be used, each with approximately ¼ of the test respondents, to expose some respondents to each possible set of questions. Though not all possible combinations of questions are tested in these protocols, we feel that these four versions expose respondents to most different pairings of these questions that they will receive in a more truly randomized way when presented in the field.

Four protocols are attached which also show how these questions will be probed.

The 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 one hour. Thus, the estimated burden for this research is 20 hours.

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

Jennifer Hunter Childs

Center for Survey Measurement

U.S. Census Bureau

Room 5K020A

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-4927

jennifer.hunter.childs@census.gov