Data Quality & Validation Flashcards

Which data quality check is specifically designed to detect respondents who provide the same answer to every question in a survey?

Answer: Straight-lining detection

Straight-lining detection identifies respondents who select the same scale point for all items in a grid or series, indicating inattentive or fraudulent responding.

A research firm receives 1,200 completed surveys but 80 are flagged because respondents finished a 15-minute questionnaire in under 3 minutes. This quality check is called:

Answer: Speeder flagging

Speeder flagging identifies respondents who completed the survey far too quickly to have read and considered the questions thoughtfully.

In the context of data validation, an 'attention check' or 'trap question' is best described as:

Answer: An item with a pre-specified correct answer used to verify that respondents are reading carefully

Attention check questions have a known correct or expected response (e.g., 'Please select Strongly Agree for this item') and are used to identify inattentive respondents.

Which of the following is the primary purpose of back-checking (or back-translation verification) in data collection?

Answer: Ensuring interviewers actually conducted interviews as reported

Back-checking involves re-contacting a sample of respondents to verify that interviewers conducted interviews properly and did not fabricate data.

A dataset contains a respondent who reported their age as 250 years. This is an example of which type of data quality issue?

Answer: Out-of-range value

An out-of-range value occurs when a data point falls outside the logically or empirically possible range for that variable (e.g., age cannot be 250).

When a respondent states they are 22 years old but later indicates they have 30 years of work experience, the data file contains a:

Answer: Logical inconsistency

A logical inconsistency exists when two or more responses contradict each other in a way that is impossible or highly implausible (e.g., working more years than the respondent has been alive).

Which data quality metric measures the percentage of survey questions that a respondent left blank?

Answer: Item non-response rate

The item non-response rate calculates how often individual questions were skipped or left unanswered within an otherwise completed survey.