Deviatko I.F., Bogdanov M.B., Lebedev D.V. Pupil diameter dynamics as an indicator of the respondent’s cognitive load: Methodological experiment comparing CASI and P&PSI. RUDN Journal of Sociology, 2021, 21 (1), 36–49.

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: http://journals.rudn.ru/sociology/article/view/25770 (дата обращения 21.07.2021)

Abstract

In recent years, along with a general increase in interest in the use of various methods of cognitive load measurement and subjectively perceived mental effort associated with solving various problems and interpersonal communication, there has also been an increase in the specific interest of researchers working in various fields of social sciences regarding the possibilities of using multimodal cognitive load assessment of interviewers and the respondents using objective and subjective indicators, including paradata and webcam data, in order to optimize its impact on the quality of survey data. At the same time, the possibilities of relatively new approaches to measuring cognitive load using neurophysiological methods, such as the use of subtle and not disrupting the natural course of respondents and interviewers activity modern wearable devices for oculography (eye tracking and pupillometry), which allow an accurate time linkage of measured parameters’ dynamics (first of all, the size of the pupil) to the specific format of the question, mode and phase of survey completion, the presence of an external influence localized in time, etc. remain underestimated. Existing quantitative studies of the cognitive load arising in the course of survey completion and its possible impact on the quality of survey data focused mainly on computer-assisted (CAPI) or paper-based (PAPI) interviewing, while the specificity of the cognitive load which arises in the process of self-completion by respondents with computerized (CASI) and paper (P&PSI) questionnaires remained understudied. The article presents the results of a methodological experiment in which a modified version of the previously used multimodal approach to the comparative assessment of the cognitive load of interviewers when filling out paper and computerized versions of the questionnaire was used to assess the cognitive load of respondents. We have expanded the range of methods used to assess cognitive load by using a wearable oculographic device (eye tracker) to measure the dynamics of pupil size associated with distinct survey items (questions) completion. Results of the experiment made it possible to confirm the hypothesis about the approximate equivalence of the two modes of survey completion in terms of cognitive load for young respondents with a high level of functional computer literacy, as well as to conduct an initial assessment of the technical and metrological capabilities and limitations associated with the use of pupil dynamics’ indicators measured using a wearable oculographic device to study respondents’ cognitive load.