Note to Reviewer - Autobiographical Retrieval Study

OMB Autobiographical Retrieval Study_Revised.pdf

Cognitive and Psychological Research

Note to Reviewer - Autobiographical Retrieval Study

OMB: 1220-0141

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February 21, 2014

NOTE TO THE
REVIEWER OF:

OMB CLEARANCE 1220-0141
“Cognitive and Psychological Research”

FROM:

Erica Yu
Research Psychologist
Office of Survey Methods Research

SUBJECT:

Submission of Materials for the
Autobiographical Retrieval Strategies study

Please accept the enclosed materials for approval under the OMB clearance package
1220-0141 “Cognitive and Psychological Research.” In accordance with our agreement
with OMB, we are submitting a brief description of the study.
The total estimated respondent burden hours for this study is 225 hours.
If there are any questions regarding this project, please contact Erica Yu at
202-691-7924.

1. Introduction and Purpose
This study aims to explore survey response processes that require recall from
memory. The Consumer Expenditure Quarterly Interview Survey (CEQ), along with
several other federal surveys, relies on questions about past behavior that often require
respondents to retrieve information from autobiographical memory -- a combination of
personal experiences (episodic memory) and general knowledge (semantic). An example
would be recalling whether you recently purchased any sweaters and, if so, the price that
you paid. The retrieval of autobiographical information is fundamental to the design of
many survey questions and yet remains poorly understood in the context of the CEQ and
more widely in the research literature.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has completed several projects with the goal of
improving data quality for the CEQ. In support of the upcoming redesign of the
Consumer Expenditure (CE) surveys, this study seeks to identify retrieval strategies that
may be commonly used in the CEQ as well as identify which retrieval strategies lead to
recall output aligned with survey goals. Importantly, this study aims to explore retrieval
from autobiographical memory but does not aim to describe the mechanisms of retrieval.
The findings from this study will add to the general research literature on recall from
memory and may also be used to make recommendations about how the redesigned CE
interviews should be structured to improve data quality.

2. Research Design
Recall from memory is widely believed to be a process that includes the
activation of an item in memory based on the strength of its association with an initial
cue. Once an item is successfully retrieved, it is believed that the newly retrieved item
now serves as the cue for the retrieval of a subsequent item from memory. Typically, the
literature on such models of memory focuses on the processes of retrieval from semantic
memory, where strengths of association have been proposed to be based on similarity,
with the probability of recall proportionate to the strength of the similarity. However, in
the context of targeting memories that include personal information, the basis on which
these associations are evaluated is much less clear. Personal information may provide
associations between memoranda that are objectively unrelated to each other. For
example, the strength of the association between shoes and suitcases is typically low but
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a person who yesterday purchased a pair of shoes and a suitcase from the same store may
strongly associate the two items together. As with other models of memory, this does not
require that the individual explicitly direct retrieval or have awareness of using a strategy.
To explore recall from memory, we have designed an online recall task that asks
participants to recall several recent purchases and then describe the connections between
successive recalls through open-ended questions and a self-categorization task. Although
the participant may not have explicitly used the subsequently named connection at the
time of retrieval, the reported information will be the best data available on how the
successive recalls are associated when the connections are potentially personalized. The
initial recall cue (an ‘anchor’) will be derived from expenditure categories used in the CE
interview (e.g., “Shirts, sweaters, blouses, or tops”). Upon responding to the anchor item
by reporting an expense that comes to mind, participants will be prompted to report the
next purchased item that comes to mind, and so on, until the participant has recalled from
memory a sequence of five items. In the current study, we manipulate the anchor used as
the initial recall cue in order to explore the effect of retrieval strategies on which items
are recalled.

Retrieval strategies
It may be that the strength of the association between two items is not based on
semantic similarity. There are likely many competing relationships that may link any two
items together, of which semantic similarity is only one; the ultimate associative strength
may be driven by one, a combination of several, or all of those relationships. Support for
this proposition comes from the evidence of clustering of items in recall: recalled items
are often highly similar to each other on some dimension, forming a ‘cluster’, until a
point at which the similarity breaks and a different set of highly similar items are recalled
together in another cluster.
To investigate this question, we have selected several initial cues that we
hypothesize will trigger a range of retrieval strategies. We briefly describe those
strategies in the bullets below, identify the initial cues (i.e., CE expenditure category
labels) that we expect will most likely evoke the strategy. For each category, we aim to
collect 180 participants; this sample size is based on previous studies from the literature

and is expected to enable us to conduct exploratory analyses of patterns of recalled items
and retrieval strategies.


Outlet-driven retrieval: the outlet at which the cued item was purchased will
be the salient information that cues the next item to be recalled.
1. “Shirts, sweaters, blouses, or tops” (n=180)



Semantic category-driven retrieval: the semantic meaning of the underlying
category to which the item belongs (approximated by CE expenditure
categories) will be the most salient information that cues the next item to be
recalled. That is, in the current task, the item is more closely related to other
similar items than the item is related to other distinguishable information such
as personal events.
2. “Room-size rugs or other non-permanent floor coverings” (n=180)



Purpose-driven retrieval: the underlying purpose for the expenditure will be
the most salient information that cues the next item to be recalled. It is
expected that the sequence of recalled items will cut across many possible
categorizations, but connected together by a common cause for the
expenditures. A “purpose” is broadly construed to include goals, activities,
and events.
3. “Hospital room or hospital services” (n=180)



Context-driven retrieval: one element of the retrieval cue that may be relevant
for the current task is the breadth of the recall category and the range of items
in memory associated with that category. A broader category cue may activate
a wider but shallower range of items in memory compared to a narrow
category that activates only a few items very strongly, for example. To test
this hypothesis, we will compare the recall patterns of two groups – a global
(broad) category and a sub-global (narrow) category.
4. Global- “Sports” (n=180)
5. Sub-global- “Health clubs, fitness centers, swimming pools, weight
loss centers, or other sports or recreational organizations” (n=180)

Task
The participant’s task will be to report the first expense that comes to mind when
thinking of an ‘anchor’ CE expenditure category cue. Upon reporting the first item that
comes to mind, the participant will be showed their most recent answer and asked what
expense next comes to mind. After reporting five items, the participant will be asked to
describe the relationship between each consecutive pair of items, both with an openended description as well as a choice from a selection of relevant dimensions (e.g.,
purchased at the same outlet, purchased for the same purpose). All participants will
receive the same questions but the questions will be tailored to each participant’s
responses. A complete list of the questions as will be presented to participants is included
in Appendix A.

3. Participants
This research design requires a large sample of 900 participants in order to
conduct exploratory analysis and modeling of retrieval strategies. These participants will
be randomly assigned to the five groups described. The task will be administered on-line
using the Qualtrics survey website. Participants will be recruited using a convenience
sample from Amazon Mechanical Turk; this study is focused on internal validity rather
than representativeness of any population. Mechanical Turk is expected to provide quick
data collection turnaround at a cost of about $2.20 per participant, which will result in a
total of $1,980 in participation fees. This total will be paid directly to Amazon
Mechanical Turk to administer the surveys and recruit participants.

4. Burden Hours
Our goal is to obtain responses from 900 participants recruited from Amazon
Mechanical Turk. Each session is expected to take no more than 15 minutes to complete,
for a total of 225 burden hours (900 participants x 0.25 hours). The survey will be
administered completely online at the time and location of the participant’s choosing.

5. Data Confidentiality
Recruiting of participants will be handled by Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Participants will be informed as to the voluntary nature of the study. Participants will also
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be informed that the study will be used for statistical purposes to understand recall from
memory. No pledge of confidentiality will be given to survey respondents.

Appendix A: Study Instrument

The following task will be administered to participants on-line. The horizontal
lines indicate page breaks, for which the participant must click a button to
continue to the next screen.

Welcome!
Thanks for your interest in our research. You're here because we've asked you to
participate in research on how memory works. We're trying to understand how memories
of your past experiences are related to each other.
We'll be asking you about your memories for recent purchases made...



In the last 3 months
By you or anyone that you currently live with

Unlike some surveys or online tasks you may be familiar with, we ask that you complete
this task all at one time and that you only start once you are in a quiet place where you
won't be disturbed for about 15 minutes. Only share information you're comfortable with
- nothing too personal - but please be honest and follow the instructions.
Please do not use your browser's back button.
This voluntary study is being collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics under OMB No. 1220-0141. We
will use the information you provide for statistical purposes only. Your participation is voluntary, and you
have the right to stop at any time. This survey is being administered by qualtrics.com and resides on a
server outside of the BLS Domain. The BLS cannot guarantee the protection of survey responses and
advises against the inclusion of sensitive personal information in any response. By proceeding, you give
your consent to participate in this study.

Instructions
We will show you the name of a category and ask you to tell us about a recent expense
that comes to mind.
Here's an example of what you'll be doing.

You would type in something like:
Describe the item
Estimate the cost ($)

Carry-on suitcase

63.50

Instructions
From there, we'll ask you to follow your train of thought - tell us what expense your first
answer makes you think of, then what your next answer makes you think of, and so on.

You would type in something like:
Describe the item
Estimate the cost ($)

Shoes
22.99

Instructions
Spend just a few seconds on each question - we want to know the first expense that
comes to mind when you think of the category. We want your gut reaction so please don't
try to use your browser's back button.
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If you can't think of a recent expense for the category we ask about, tell us about another
expense that the category made you think of - any expense from any time. No matter
how unrelated it may seem - write it in! But please report only actual expenses that you
or someone in your household have had.
When you are ready to start, continue on to the next screen.

{EXAMPLE: This section deals with purchases of clothing, watches, and jewelry}
Thinking about the last three months since December 1, 2013,
what expense comes to mind when you think of

{EXAMPLE: Shirts, sweaters, blouses, or tops}
Describe the item
Estimate the cost ($)

What expense comes to mind when you think of your household’s expense for

{Respondent’s first answer}
Describe the item
Estimate the cost ($)

What expense comes to mind when you think of your household’s expense for

{Respondent’s second answer}
Describe the item
Estimate the cost ($)

What expense comes to mind when you think of your household’s expense for

{Respondent’s third answer}
Describe the item
Estimate the cost ($)
9

What expense comes to mind when you think of your household’s expense for

{Respondent’s fourth answer}
Describe the item
Estimate the cost ($)

Instructions
Now we are going to ask you to tell us about how the items you just told us about are
related to each other. There are no wrong answers - no matter how silly the connection
might seem.

Please describe why

{Initial Category}
made you think of

{Respondent’s first answer}

Please describe why

{Respondent’s first answer}
made you think of

{Respondent’s second answer}

Please describe why

{Respondent’s second answer}
made you think of

{Respondent’s third answer}

Please describe why

{Respondent’s third}
made you think of

{Respondent’s fourth answer}

Please describe why

{Respondent’s fourth answer}
made you think of

{Respondent’s fifth answer}

Instructions
You've told us a lot about how your memories relate to each other. Now
we're going to ask you to categorize the connections you told us about.

Please select one category that best matches what you were thinking. We
are interested in your perspective - choose whichever seems most
appropriate to you.

When thinking of why
{Initial category}
made you think of
{Respondent’s first answer}
you wrote

{Respondent’s first reason}
Which of these statements best matches what you were thinking? Select one.