Effects of alternative positioning of open-ended questions in multiple-choice questionnaires

Abstract

Conducted 2 studies with 110 black high school and college students and 156 white college students to study the effect of the placement of open-ended questions, relative to multiple-choice questions, on the responses elicited. Both studies found that positionings at both the beginning and the end of a predominantly multiple-choice questionnaire elicited significantly more responses than did either placement alone. When the 2 positions were used singly, the one at the beginning was found to elicit more discrete ideas and response categories. This was true for black samples and white samples and for different questionnaire topics and lengths. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)