Implementation of Response Latency Measures

Abstract

Response latency, which is the amount of time a respondent deliberates before answering a question, can serve as an indicator of the respondent's certainty. This research demonstrates that latency can be measured unobtrusively in telephone interviewing by means of automatic equipment. Latency is found to be a robust measure in that it was not appreciably influenced by the serial position of questions. There is an inverse relationship between latency and probability that a question is answered correctly, as latency sharply differentiates subjects giving correct answers from those giving incorrect answers.