Response Rate to Mail Questionnaires with a Return Deadline
A RECENT review of research on stimulating response to mail questionnaires reported that "none of the studies experimentally tested the effect ... of including a deadline with the mail questionnaires" (Linsky, 1975:96). To date, as indicated by a search of the literature published subsequent to this review, the impact of a deadline has yet to be established experimentally. The present study attempts to fill this hiatus.
On each trial a sample point randomly drawn from one of two normal probability distributions was exhibited to S, who had to guess whether the sample was a “1” or a “2.” He was then given feedback, which was determined by which of the two distributions the sample point derived from. Two continua were employed: dot position on a file card, and groyness of square in. patches. Three levels of d’ were employed. The function giving the probability of a response “1” for different sample values was sharper for the higher d’ conditions, and for the dot position continuum. Cessation of feedback resulted in improved performance for the low d’ condition. Incentive payoff, confidence ratings, and experimenter had virtually no effects on task performance.