PRC Data Quality & Validation

Question 1

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

Accepted Answer

Straight-lining detection

Answer

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

Question 2

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:

Accepted Answer

Speeder flagging

Answer

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

Question 3

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

Accepted Answer

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

Answer

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.

Question 4

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

Accepted Answer

Ensuring interviewers actually conducted interviews as reported

Answer

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

Question 5

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

Accepted Answer

Out-of-range value

Answer

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).

(PRC) Professional Researcher Certification Practice Test

(PRC) Professional Researcher Certification Practice Test

PRC Data Quality & Validation