Are reporting errors due to encoding limitations or retrieval failure? Surveys of child vaccination as a case study

• Published in: Applied cognitive psychology Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 43 - 63
• Main Authors: Lee, Lisa, Brittingham, Angela, Tourangeau, Roger, Willis, Gordon, Ching, Pamela, Jobe, Jared, Black, Steven
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.02.1999; Wiley
• Subjects: Applied psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Encoding; Errors; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Immunization; Miscellaneous; Parents; Preschool children; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Recall; Role; Single case studies; Surveys; Human; Progeny; Memory retrieval; Recognition memory; Coding; Parent; Memory; Vaccination; Cognition; Recall; Response accuracy
• ISSN: 0888-4080; 1099-0720
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199902)13:1<43::AID-ACP543>3.0.CO;2-A

Surveys of childhood vaccinations are often highly inaccurate, due to parental misreporting. We conducted three experiments to examine the source of the inaccuracies. In Experiment 1, we provided parents with memory aids; these aids did little to improve reporting accuracy. Two further experiments asked whether parents forgot what they knew about their children's vaccinations, or whether they never knew the information. In Experiment 2 we surveyed parents both immediately and ten weeks after their child's medical visit. Accuracy was only slightly better than chance immediately afterwards; ten weeks later performance had not changed significantly. Experiment 3 compared reports in both recall and recognition conditions. Although the recognition condition lowered the response burden on parents it did not produce more accurate reports. We conclude that low levels of accuracy in parental reports on vaccinations appear to reflect poor initial encoding rather than retrieval failure. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.