Test bank herman aguinis – performance management ch19

Chapter 19—Editing and Coding: Transforming Raw Data into Information
TRUE/FALSE
1. Raw data are the facts that are in a form suitable for a decision.
ANS: F
Raw data are the unedited response from a respondent exactly as indicated by that respondent and may
not be in a form that lends itself well to data analysis.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 462

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

2. Mistakes that are made by the respondent in a phone survey are called nonrespondent errors.
ANS: F
Nonrespondent error is a mistake made by an interviewer or by a person responsible for creating an
electronic data file representing the responses.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 462

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

3. An important part of the editing, coding,and filing stages of data analysis is checking for errors.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 462

4. Editing is the same thing as coding.
ANS: F

Editing is the process of checking the completeness, consistency, and legibility of data and making the
data ready for coding and transfer for storage.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 463

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

5. The purpose of editing is to ensure that the data are complete, consistent, and readable.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 463

6. A data editor may have to reconstruct data.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 463

7. A field supervisor checks for technical omissions such as blank pages on an interviewer form.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 464

8. In-house editing rigorously investigates the results of data collection.

ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 464

© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


9. Technology has reduced errors by checking for inconsistencies automatically.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
REF: p. 466
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
10. Missing value is the technical term for items left blank.
ANS: F
The term is item nonresponse.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 466

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

11. One way to deal with missing values is to randomly select an answer.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 466

12. With respect to deletions for missing data, list-wise deletion means the data that the respondent did
provide can still be used in statistical analyses.
ANS: F
This is pair-wise deletion.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 467

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

13. A questionnaire with 5% or more of the responses is suspect and should be deleted from further
analyses.
ANS: F
A questionnaire with a quarter of the responses or more missing is suspect.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 467

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

14. Coding is the process of assigning a numerical score or other character symbol to previously edited
data.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 468

15. In qualitative research, numbers are usually used for codes.

ANS: F
In qualitative research, numbers are seldom used for codes.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 468

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

16. Dummy coding can be used for dichotomous responses like “yes “or “no.”
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 469

17. A string file is a collection of characters that represent a single type of data.
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


ANS: F
This is a field.
PTS: 1
REF: p. 470
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
18. A record is a collection of related fields in a data file.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
REF: p. 470
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology

19. The idea that the coding categories used should allow for all possible responses to the question is
another way of saying that the data should be mutually exclusive.
ANS: F
This means the coding categories should be exhaustive. Mutually exclusive means that there should be
no overlap among the categories and that a subject or response can be placed in only one category.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 472

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

20. When a survey is highly unstructured, it is possible to precode the response categories before the data
are collected.
ANS: F
Questionnaires need to be highly structured for precoding before the data are collected to be possible.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 472

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

21. The purpose of coding open-ended questions is to reduce the large number of individual responses to a
few general categories of answers that can be assigned numerical codes.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 475

22. Precoding is the tallying of a small sample of the total number of replies to a particular question,

ANS: F
This is called test tabulation.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 475

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

23. When a coding method produces more categories than are deemed important during a later stage of the
research, the categories can be reduced to a smaller number of categories by combining categories.
ANS: T
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 476

24. A data sheet documents the location of each variable in a data matrix.
ANS: F
This is called a code book.
PTS: 1

REF: p. 477

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. The unedited responses from a respondent exactly as indicated by that respondent are referred to as:
a. codes
b. files
c. raw data
d. strings
ANS: C
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 462

2. Kelsea is an interviewer and incorrectly entered respondents’ choices on ten surveys. This type of
error is called:
a. nonrespondent error
b. respondent error
c. random error
d. editing error
ANS: A
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 462

3. Which of the following refers to the notion that the data file actually contains the information that the
researcher is trying to obtain to adequately address research questions?
a. data reliability
b. data verification
c. data completeness
d. data integrity
ANS: D

PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 463

4. When a field interviewer records an impossible answer (e.g. birthdate: 1861), this means that the data
need to be:
a. edited
b. transformed using a plug value
c. coded
d. deleted
ANS: A
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 463

5. Which of the following need to be corrected as part of the editing process?
a. omissions
b. legibility
c. consistency
d. all of the above
ANS: D
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 463

6. When Arbitron has its own staff verify the accuracy of radio-station call letters (e.g. KMOX) to ensure
that they are possible radio call letters in the geographical area of the respondent, this is an example of:

a. external editing
b. in-house editing
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


c. in-house coding
d. external coding
ANS: B
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 464

7. _____ is the technical term for items left blank.
a. Imputation
b. Item plug
c. Item nonresponse
d. Item inconsistency
ANS: C
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 466

8. A researcher has decided to insert a response for items not answered by respondents. This answer the
editor inserts is referred to as a(n):
a. proxy value
b. simulated value
c. imputation

d. plug value
ANS: D
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 466

9. All of the following are choices available when dealing with missing data EXCEPT:
a. leave the response blank
b. randomly select an answer
c. insert the mean value of a variable for the missing response
d. tabulate the data
ANS: D
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 466

10. Many researchers use a statistical process to provide an educated guess for missing responses in data
based on the respondent’s choices to other questions. Which method of dealing with missing data does
this represent?
a. impute a missing value
b. plug in a neutral response
c. plug in alternative choices for missing data
d. randomly select an answer
ANS: A
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 466

11. A method of handling missing data in which only the actual variables for a respondent that do not
contain information are eliminated from use in statistical analyses is called:
a. list-wise deletion
b. pair-wise deletion
c. selective deletion
d. partial deletion
ANS: B
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 467

12. The assignment of numbers to edited data is known as:
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


a.
b.
c.
d.

editing
adjusting with a plug value
coding
all of the above

ANS: C
PTS: 1

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 468

13. Assigning males the value of zero and females the value of one in a database to record the gender of
the respondents is an example of:
a. coding
b. test tabulation
c. editing
d. verification
ANS: A
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 468

14. Codes are rules for _____ data.
a. interpreting
b. classifying
c. recording
d. all of the above
ANS: D
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 468

15. Assigning a “1” or “0” code where each number represents an alternate response such as “yes” or
“no,” is an example of:
a. editing

b. dummy coding
c. reverse coding
d. plugging
ANS: B
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 469

16. A survey question asked respondent how much of the Super Bowl they watched by asking them to
check one of the four following choices: “all of it,” “most of it,” “some of it,” or “none of it.” How
many dummy variables would a researcher need to dummy code this question?
a. one
b. two
c. three
d. four
ANS: C
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: pp. 469-470

17. A collection of characters that represents a single type of data, usually a variable, is called a:
a. field
b. data file
c. value label
d. string file
ANS: A
PTS: 1
REF: p. 470

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


18. A collection of related fields that represents the responses from one sampling unit is known as a:
a. file
b. record
c. code
d. label
ANS: B
PTS: 1
REF: p. 470
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
19. A collection of related records is known as a:
a. data file
b. code
c. record
d. field
ANS: A
PTS: 1
REF: p. 470
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
20.

Which term represents a computer terminology for a series of alphabetic characters (non-numeric
characters) that may form a word and is used to represent text variables?
a. value label
b. string character
c. data matrix

d. word matrix
ANS: B
PTS: 1
REF: p. 470
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology

21. A researcher has assigned “1” to represent freshman, “2” for sophomore, “3” for junior, “4” for senior,
and “5” for graduate student. These labels (i.e., freshman, sophomore, etc.) assigned to the numeric
code are called:
a. value labels
b. coding labels
c. cues
d. strings
ANS: A
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 471

22. The idea that the coding categories applied to a given question should allow all possible answers to the
question to receive a code is another way of saying that the coding categories should be:
a. mutually exclusive
b. precoded
c. exhaustive
d. all of the above
ANS: C
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 472

23. Which of the following means that coding categories have no overlap so that a subject or response can
be placed in only one category?
a. exhaustive
b. mutually exclusive
c. unique
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


d. precoded
ANS: B
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 472

24. Which of the rules for coding has been violated by the following responses to a question about annual
salary?
Under $20,000
$20,000 - $40,000
$40,000 - $60,000
Above $60,000
a.
b.
c.
d.

Coding categories should be exhaustive.
Coding categories should be mutually exclusive.

Coding categories should be test tabulated.
Coding categories should be alphabetic only.

ANS: B
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 472

25. Which of the following can be used if the researcher knows what answer categories exist before data
collection occurs?
a. test tabulation
b. sheet coding
c. precoding
d. field editing
ANS: C
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 472

26. In test tabulation, what is the typical percentage of responses from completed questionnaires that a
researcher will use to create coding categories?
a. 10 percent
b. 20 percent
c. 30 percent
d. 50 percent
ANS: B
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 475

27. In creating coding categories for open-ended questions, the tallying of the replies to a small number of
completed questionnaires for a question in order to create coding categories for that question is known
as:
a. recoding the data
b. test tabulation
c. data entry
d. creating a plug value
ANS: B
PTS: 1
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

REF: p. 475

28. Valarie’s job at a research firm is to transfer data from survey questionnaires to a computer file. Her
job is:
a. data entry
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


b. data coding
c. data editing
d. data scanning
ANS: A
PTS: 1
REF: p. 477
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology

29. A data processing input device that reads material directly from mark-sensed questionnaires is called
a(n):
a. direct-entry mode
b. verified entry system
c. tabulation scanning system
d. optical scanning system
ANS: D
PTS: 1
REF: p. 477
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
COMPLETION
1. The process of checking and adjusting data for omissions, legibility, and consistency is known as
____________________.
ANS: editing
PTS: 1

REF: p. 463

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

2. When a field supervisor checks data at the end of each day that it is collected to catch technical
omissions (e.g. missing responses to questions), this is an example of ____________________.
ANS: field editing
PTS: 1

REF: p. 464

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

3. When a research organization does the editing of its data using its own staff, this is known as

____________________ editing.
ANS: in-house
PTS: 1

REF: p. 464

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

4. A question on a survey that has not been answered by the respondent is called a(n)
____________________.
ANS: item nonresponse
PTS: 1

REF: p. 466

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

5. When an editor replaces a missing answer to a question with a random response from among the fixedalternative responses for that question or inserts a neutral response, the number inserted is called a(n)
____________________.
ANS: plug value
PTS: 1

REF: p. 466

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.

6. A method of handling missing data in which only the actual variables for a respondent that do not
contain information are eliminated from use in statistical analyses is called ____________________.
ANS: pair-wise deletion
PTS: 1
REF: p. 467
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
7. Assigning numbers to edited data is known as ____________________.
ANS: coding
PTS: 1

REF: p. 468

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

8. A collection of related records that make up a data set is called a(n) ____________________.
ANS: data file
PTS: 1
REF: p. 470
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
9. When a word or a short phrase can be associated with a numeric code, this code is called a(n)
____________________.
ANS: value label
PTS: 1
REF: p. 471
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
10. A coding scheme that has a code for all possible responses is said to be ____________________.
ANS: exhaustive
PTS: 1

REF: p. 472

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

11. Constructing coding categories by tallying a small number of responses to a particular question is
known as ____________________.
ANS: test tabulation
PTS: 1

REF: p. 475

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

12. A(n) ____________________ documents the location of each variable in a data matrix.
ANS: code book
PTS: 1

REF: p. 477

NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking

13. The activity of transferring data from a research project to computers is called
____________________.
ANS: data entry
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


PTS: 1
REF: p. 477
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology

14. A data processing device that reads data from mark-sensed surveys into the computer is called a(n)
____________________ system.
ANS: optical scanning
PTS: 1
REF: p. 477
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Technology
ESSAY
1. Define field editing and list the three things a field supervisor is looking for when conducting field
editing.
ANS:
Field editing is preliminary editing by a field supervisor on the same day as the interview to catch
technological omissions, check legibility of handwriting, and clarify response that are logically or
conceptually inconsistent.
PTS: 1
REF: p. 464
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication
2. Explain how researchers handle missing data.
ANS:
In many situations, the decision rule is to do nothing with the missing data and simply leave the item
blank. However, when the relationship between two questions is important, the editor may be tempted
to insert a plug value. If so, several choices are available:
(1) Leave the response blank.
(2) Plug in alternate choices for missing data.
(3) Randomly select an answer.
(4) Impute a missing value based on the respondent’s choices to other questions.
PTS: 1
REF: p. 466
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication
3. Compare and contrast list-wise deletion and pair-wise deletion methods for handling missing data and
discuss which one is used most today.

ANS:
List-wise deletion is a method in which the entire record for a respondent that has left a response
missing is excluded from use in statistical analyses. Pair-wise deletion is a method in which only the
actual variables for a respondent that do not contain information are eliminated from use in statistical
analyses and is used more today than is list-wise deletion. The issue of missing data used to be a
bigger deal years ago when some statistical software programs required complete data for statistical
computations analysis to take place. Using pair-wise deletion will only show nonresponse on the
particular variable a respondent left blank. As a result, this method produces a larger effective sample
size than list-wise deletion.
PTS: 1
REF: p. 467
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication| AACSB: Technology
© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.


4. Discuss the elements of data files, such as field, string characters, record, data file, and value label.
ANS:
Researchers organize coded data into fields, records, and files. A field is a collection of characters (a
character is a single number, letter, or special symbol such as a question mark) that represents a single
piece of data, usually a variable. Text variables are represented by string characters, which is
computer terminology for a series of alphabetic characters (non-numeric characters) that may form a
word. A record is a collection of related fields. Researchers may use this term to refer to one
respondent’s data. A data file is a collection of related records that make up a data set. Finally, value
labels allow a word or short phrase to be associated with a numeric value.
PTS: 1
REF: pp. 470-471
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication| AACSB: Technology
5. Discuss the two basic rules for code construction.
ANS:

First, coding categories should be exhaustive, meaning that a coding category should exist for all
possible responses. If there is a large number of possibilities, an “other” category is used to ensure that
the categories are all-inclusive. Second, the coding categories should be mutually exclusive and
independent, which means that there should be no overlap among the categories to ensure that a
subject or response can be placed in only one category.
PTS: 1
REF: p. 472
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication

© 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in
whole or in part.