What is it about?
Many new research studies collect data from people in the "real world." Unlike data collected in a laboratory, we don't know how long or how often people will provide data or how consistent that data will be. This paper seeks to answer these questions by looking at both how often and how accurately people report on "real world" behaviors.
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Why is it important?
Our findings focus on a research paradigm that in increasingly popular in the social sciences, intensive longitudinal data collection (repeated data collection from the same individuals over time in the real world to better characterize dynamic processes). It is critical to understand how well this paradigm works to understand whether conclusions drawn from studies are valid or potentially biased. We found that while compliance decreased steadily over the course of the research, even when participants were re-engaged at a new burst of data collection, consistency was stable across the protocol.
Perspectives
I hope this article helps scientists really think through how they design their research and how they test the assumptions that are underlying their research. Especially with new, popular paradigms, it is easy to overlook that the validity of our work and of the inferences that we draw hinge on a large list of frequently untested assumptions. I hope that this paper is thought-provoking and helps to shorten that list.
Alexander Sokolovsky
Brown University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Compliance and response consistency in a lengthy intensive longitudinal data protocol., Psychological Assessment, August 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/pas0001332.
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