SurveyMotion: What Can We Learn from Sensor Data about Respondents’ Completion and Response Behavior in Mobile Web Surveys?

International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Volume 22, 2019 - Issue 4

16 Pages Posted: 16 Oct 2022

See all articles by Jan Karem Höhne

Jan Karem Höhne

University of Duisburg-Essen - Institute of Political Science; Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Stephan Schlosser

University of Göttingen

Date Written: 2019

Abstract

Participation in web surveys via smartphones increased continuously in recent years. The reasons for this increase are a growing proportion of smartphone owners and an increase in mobile Internet access. However, research has shown that smartphone respondents are frequently distracted and/or multitasking, which might affect completion and response behavior in a negative way. We propose “SurveyMotion (SMotion),” a JavaScript-based paradata tool for mobile devices that can gather information about respondents’ motions during web survey completion by using sensor data. Specifically, we collect data about the total acceleration (TA) of smartphones. We conducted a lab experiment and varied the form of survey completion (e.g., standing or walking). Furthermore, we employed questions with different response formats (e.g., radio buttons and sliders) and measured response times. The results reveal that SMotion detects higher TAs of smartphones for respondents with comparatively higher motion levels. In addition, respondents’ motion level affects response times and the quality of responses given. The SMotion tool promotes the exploration of how respondents complete mobile web surveys and could be employed to understand how future mobile web surveys are completed.

Keywords: acceleration, JavaScript, mobile sensors, passive data collection, response quality, smartphones, web survey

Suggested Citation

Höhne, Jan Karem and Schlosser, Stephan, SurveyMotion: What Can We Learn from Sensor Data about Respondents’ Completion and Response Behavior in Mobile Web Surveys? ( 2019). International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Volume 22, 2019 - Issue 4, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4240364

Jan Karem Höhne (Contact Author)

University of Duisburg-Essen - Institute of Political Science ( email )

Lotharstraße 65
Duisburg, 47057
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://jkhoehne.eu/

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Barcelona
Spain

Stephan Schlosser

University of Göttingen

Wilhelmsplatz 1
Göttingen, 37073
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
12
Abstract Views
57
PlumX Metrics