Lenzner, Timo; Hadler, Patricia; Neuert, Cornelia E. (2024). Cognitive Pretesting. Mannheim, GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS – Survey Guidelines). DOI: 10.15465/gesis-sg_en_049
Cognitive pretests are used in the development of new or modification of existing survey instruments to ensure that the questions and items are understandable and interpreted as intended, to evaluate how difficult they are, and whether they pose other cognitive problems for respondents. Cognitive pretests are an important component in ensuring high-quality survey data.
This GESIS Survey Guideline first provides an introduction to questionnaire pretesting and then goes into detail on the practical implementation of two cognitive pretesting methods: cognitive interviewing and web probing.