What does „Usual‟ Usually Mean?

AAPOR 2009 

Jennifer Edgar, Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Abstract

The Consumer Expenditure Quarterly Interview survey asks respondents to report their expenses 

for a three month period. The survey asks about a wide range of expenses, asking specific 

questions about expenses the household has had in the past three months (e.g.,., “Since the first 

of June, how much have you spent on pants?”). These questions require respondents to recall 

specific purchases and report the details of each. 

There are four questions in the interview that are an exception to this pattern of questioning. 

These questions ask respondents about usual expenditure patterns (e.g., “Since the first of June, 

what has been your usual weekly expense for groceries?”) instead of specific purchases. 

Respondents are asked to estimate typical spending over a three month period for four 

expenditures: food at home, food away from home, alcohol at home and alcohol away from 

home. 

Previous research has found respondents use a variety of strategies to answer questions such as 

these, including recalling each specific episode (Bradburn, Rips and Shevall, 1987), recalling 

some events and using that information to generalize (Conrad, Brown and Cashman, 1998), 

using time periods between episodes to estimate (Lessler, Salter and Tourangeau, 1989), or 

retrieving relevant stored information and making some calculations to adjust it. 

This paper explores the strategies 76 participants used when answering questions about usual 

spending patterns. Additionally, participants‟ responses were reviewed for evidence that they 

followed interview instructions, including accounting for the purchases of other household 

members and using the correct reference period. 

Background

Consumer Expenditure Quarterly Interview Survey 

The Consumer Expenditure Quarterly Interview (CEQ) survey asks respondents to report their 

expenses for a three month period. The survey covers all the commodities that people commonly 

spend their money on, asking specific questions (e.g.,., Since the first of [month, three months 

ago] have you had any expenses for clothing; ... for vehicle repairs; ... for home maintenance?). 

These questions require respondents to recall specific purchases and report their details. 
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In contrast to the preceding approach, four questions in the survey ask about „usual‟ expenses. 

These questions ask: Since the first of [month, three months ago], what has been your 

household‟s: 

usual weekly expense for groceries?

usual weekly expense for food and drinks away from home?

usual monthly expense for alcohol to be served at home? 

usual monthly expense for alcohol away from home? 

These questions require a respondent not only to retrieve from memory information about the 

frequency of an event and the range of spending, but also to manipulate the retrieved information 

to produce an estimate of the usual expense (Sudman, Bradburn & Schwarz, 1986). These tasks 

are often complicated and place a heavy burden on respondents. 

Estimation Strategies 

For most respondents, it seems safe to assume that answers to the CEQ „usual‟ questions are not 

already stored in memory. Although respondents may be able to recall specific purchases they 

made (e.g., a refrigerator) they may not know how much they usually spend per week on 

groceries or alcohol. Therefore, respondents must employ an estimation strategy to be able to 

arrive at an answer. Researchers have identified a variety of strategies that respondents can use 

to answer survey questions. The strategies explored in the literature focus on the frequency of an 

event, which we believe is a key element to the CEQ being considered. This study relies on the 

assumption that respondents must estimate how often they perform the spending behavior (e.g., 

going out to dinner) and to be able to estimate how much they spend. Exploration and analysis 

of the responses to the questions studied will focus on the frequency estimation of the process. 

The strategies of interest in this paper are shown in Table 1. 
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One strategy, rate retrieval, is when respondents recall the frequency with which an event occurs 

(e.g., “I always go do my shopping once a week”). This is a general strategy that does not entail 

the recall of any specific events, instead focusing on the frequency of the event and the general 

cost associated with that event. 

Another rate-related strategy is when respondents think of several specific episodes and use 

those to generalize to a general frequency (Conrad et al., 1998). This strategy is called rate and 

adjustment in this paper. An example of this would be if a respondent recalled that he had been 

to happy hour every Thursday and Friday for the past three weeks and generally spends $20 each 

time, but knows that he usually goes less often, so he would adjust his twice per week estimate 

down to once a week. 

A similar strategy, termed single event in this paper, is to recall a single specific episode and use 

that to answer the question, skipping the step of generalizing from that single event to a more 

general frequency or pattern. When asked how much they usually spend on groceries a week, 

respondents using this strategy may say something like “I spent $100 the last time I was at the 

store.” 

Finally, there are three strategies that rely less on recall of previous behavior than the ones 

already described. One, specific to expenditure questions, is retrieving a budget from memory. 

Rather than thinking of actual shopping trips or previous expenditures, respondents instead use 

how much they budget for these expenditure categories (e.g., “I have a weekly eating out budget 

of $50). Another strategy, which respondents may not always be willing to admit using, is 

guessing. Sudman, Bradburn and Schwarz (1996) found that guessing most often occurs when a 

respondent is asked a question that is so general or difficult he or she cannot use any recalled 

information or knowledge to answer it, and instead provides an answer based on a guess. The 

third strategy is when respondents are unable, or unwilling, to recall specific information and 

instead provide an answer by way of some general impression. For example a respondent may 

say “That‟s just generally what our grocery bill is” rather than thinking of specific receipts. The 

frequency with which these three strategies are used may reflect the difficulty of the questions. 
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Table 1. Estimation Strategies

Strategy Definition

Rate retrieval Participants retrieve the typical rate of the event 

Rate and adjustment Participants retrieve the typical rate of the event and adjust the number

Single event Participants use information from a single event 

Budget Participants use their planned budget number as a response

Guess Participants indicate they guessed

General impression Participants retrieve a general impression of the event

It‟s unclear why respondents use one strategy over another. Blair and Burton (1987, 1991) found 

that when respondents were dealing with rare events they tended to think of the individual events 

and count those, but when the events were more frequent, respondents used a more general 

estimation strategy. Based on their findings, the topic of the question may have a direct 

relationship to the strategy used, as well as the respondent‟s behavior patterns or the frequency 

with which the behavior of interest occurs. 

Method

Procedure 

This study examined the methods respondents used to arrive at an answer to the four questions 

about „usual‟ expenses included in the CEQ. Testing occurred in four cities, with about a third 

of the participants coming from Washington, DC (30 percent), a quarter from Richland, 

Washington (25 percent) or Appleton, Wisconsin (25 percent), and the remaining 20 percent 

from Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

As part of a cognitive interviewing study, 76 participants were asked to answer each of the four 

CEQ „usual‟ expense questions. Following their answers to all four questions, they were asked 

to explain how they arrived at their answer. General probes (e.g., “Could you tell me more about 
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that?” and “How did you then use that information?”) were used in an attempt to collect details 

about the estimation strategies used by the participant, asking for as much information as the 

participants were able to provide. 

Analysis 

Each response to the four „usual‟ questions and the answers given to the follow-up probes were 

given a code, using a modified version of the scheme described by Sudman et al. (1996). The 

codes are shown in Table 1. The frequency estimation strategy the respondent used was coded 

when the participant‟s explanation provided enough information to do so. In addition, each 

response was reviewed to see if the respondent used the correct reference period, included the 

expenses of other household members, and arrived at any calculations accurately. 

Estimation strategies were compared across the four questions, using Chi Square tests, to 

determine if there were any differences in strategies based on the content of the question. 

Finally, frequencies were computed for consideration of the reference period, inclusion of other 

household members‟ expenses, and calculation errors. 

Although every participant provided a response for the grocery question, there were some 

questions that participants did not answer: 47 percent for alcohol away, 53 percent for alcohol at 

home and 16 percent for food away. Participants in these cases indicated that they did not 

usually spend any money on the expenditure category being asked about. 

The accuracy of participants‟ answers was not evaluated in this study. Without external data, 

such as receipts, to verify an expenditure report, it was not possible to compare an estimate to the 

true value. The focus instead was on the strategies respondents used to arrive at an answer, and 

identifying any obvious errors (e.g., calculation errors) they made while considering their 

response. 
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Results

Participant Information 

Over half (56.6 percent) of the participants were female. They ranged in age from 21 to 85, with 

an average age of 53.8. Sixty-one percent of the participants were Caucasian, 22.4 percent were 

African American, 14.5 percent were Hispanic, with the remaining 1.3 percent being other races. 

Unfortunately, demographic information (e.g., household size, income) is not available for all 

participants as this was a post-hoc research effort. The original data were collected for other 

purposes, which did not require demographic analysis. Additional demographic variables, which 

may have been useful in analysis, such as education, were not collected from any participants. 

Of the 56.6 percent of participants for whom we had income data, annual household income 

ranged from less than $15,000 to more than $75,000, with the participants relatively evenly 

divided amongst the income groups (15 percent to 24 percent). Household size ranged from one 

to six; with the largest percentage (36.8) having two people (Table 2). 

Table 2. Household Size 

Household Size Percent of Participants

1 15.8

2 36.8

3 or more 24.9

Missing 22.4

Estimation Strategies 

A wide variety of estimation strategies were used across all four questions. Each of the 

strategies identified in the literature was used by at least one participant (Table 3). Rate and 

adjustment was the most commonly used strategy for three of the four questions. It was most 

commonly used in the food away question (53.8 percent), followed by alcohol away (47.5 
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percent) and alcohol at home (41.7 percent). It was the second most commonly used strategy in 

the grocery question (19.7 percent). 

Rate retrieval was also a frequently used strategy, most often used in the grocery question (27.6 

percent) and second most used in the alcohol at home question (22.2 percent) and in the food 

away (21.5 percent) questions. It was also frequently used in the alcohol away question (20.0 

percent). 

When looking at the three strategies least based on actual behaviors, we see that respondents 

were more likely to use the budget strategy (15.8 percent) for the grocery question, with more 

than six percent also using it for the food away question. More than one in ten participants (10.8 

percent) admitted that their strategy was to guess to obtain their answer to alcohol away question, 

with a high percent also guessing to arrive at their responses to the grocery (5.3 percent) and 

alcohol at home (8.3 percent) questions. Finally, the general impression strategy was used more 

often with the grocery question (9.2 percent) than with the other questions; in fact, it was not 

used at all in either the alcohol away or food away questions. 

Table 3. Estimation Strategies 

Primary Estimation 

Strategy

Percent Used for 

Grocery 

Expenses

Percent Used for 

Alcohol Away

Percent Used for 

Alcohol at 

Home

Percent Used for 

Food Away

Across all 

Questions

Rate and Adjustment 19.7 51.4 41.7 60.0 43.2

Rate Retrieval 27.6 13.5 22.2 15.4 19.7

Single Event 6.6 0.0 5.6 0.0 3.0

Budget 15.8 2.7 2.8 6.2 6.9

Guess 5.3 10.8 8.3 1.5 6.5

General Impression 9.2 0.0 2.8 0.0 3.0

Not Enough 

Information 15.8 21.6 16.7 16.9 17.3
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To determine if participants tended to use the same estimation strategy regardless of the subject 

of the question, cross tabulations were run for each of the four questions. Appendix A contains 

cross-tabulations of the estimation strategy used in each question, and shows the consistency, or 

lack thereof, of strategies used across each question. There was no statistical relationship 

between the estimation strategies used on one question and those used on another (p>.05). There 

were, however, a few trends worth noting. 

Across all four questions, the most common strategies used were rate and adjustment and rate 

retrieval, and participants were found to switch between the two strategies, using one for one 

question and another for another question. For example, in the food away question, most (60.0 

percent) participants used rate and adjustment to arrive at their answer, and used either rate and 

adjustment (18.6 percent) or rate retrieval (20.9 percent) to arrive at the answer for the grocery 

question (Table A-1). 

Switching between rate and adjustment and rate retrieval was a pattern also found between the 

grocery and alcohol at home questions (Table A-2), between the grocery and food away 

questions (Table A-3), and between the food away and alcohol at home question (Table A-6). 

Examining the relationship between the two strategies even further, when looking at the 

relationship between the strategies used for the grocery and alcohol at home questions (Table A2), a majority of participants who used rate and adjustment in the alcohol at home question used 

rate retrieval in the grocery question. 

Estimation Strategy by Household Size 

In the CEQ interview, respondents are asked to report expenses for not only themselves, but 

everyone in their household. Therefore, it is interesting to look at the impact of household size 

on estimation strategy. It is possible that people with larger households use different strategies 

as they attempt to consolidate information and generate estimates. However, this was not found 

to be the case (Table 4), as there was not a statistically significant relationship between 
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household size and estimation strategy across any of the questions (p>.05). This may be related 

to the large number of cases (22.4 percent) that were missing household size information. The 

one interesting finding was that single-person households were much less likely to use a budget

strategy and less likely to use rate and adjustment than those from larger households. 

Table 4. Estimation Strategy by Household Size (Grocery) 

1 

Person

2 

People

3+ 

People

Rate and adjustment 66.7 33.3 0.0

Rate retrieval 14.8 55.6 29.6

Budget 0.0 66.7 33.3

Calculation Errors 

While coding the estimation strategies, we identified a percentage (6.5 percent across all 

questions) of responses that included a calculation error (Table 10). For example, one participant 

reported that she generally spends $45 per week on food away from home, and then said the 

following in explanation “it's usually 18 or 20 for the meal and we do it 4 or 5 times a week.” 

Table 10. Calculation Errors 

Question

Percent of participants 

making calculation error

Grocery 7.9

Alcohol Away 2.5

Alcohol at Home 2.8

Food Away 9.4

Total 6.5

Looking at each question individually, the most calculation errors were observed within the food 

away question. In fact, almost ten percent of participants made such an error. This seems 

reasonable, since from Table 3 we see that most participants used a rate and adjustment strategy 

when arriving at their food away answer, which would require more calculation than a budget or 

rate retrieval strategy, which were more common in the grocery question. It‟s not clear though 
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why the same does not apply for the alcohol away question, which did not have a high rate of 

calculation errors. 

Inclusion of Other Household Members 

Another type of error that participants could make is related to the fact that the questions ask 

about typical household expenses, so they must include expenditures of other household 

members in their responses. To explore the extent to which they did this, responses of 

participants with 2 or more people in their household were coded if there was any reference to 

another household member (Table 11). Since it is possible that participants may have been 

considering other household members without explicitly mentioning them in their explanation of 

their response process (particularly when discussing grocery shopping where respondents may 

shop alone but make purchases for the entire household), we recognize that this is an imperfect 

indicator, however we feel it is useful to explore given how thorough most participants were in 

their explanations. 

Overall, we found evidence that a majority of participants did not consider other household 

members when arriving at their answer, as only 27.1 percent of participants referred to anyone 

else in their household while explaining how they got to their answer. Looking at each question 

individually, there was some variance. Participants were most likely to consider other household 

members when answering the food away question, and least likely to do so when answering the 

alcohol at home question. 
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Table 11. Reference to Other Household Members 

Percent referring to other 

household members*

Grocery 21.3

Alcohol Away 29.2

Alcohol at Home 19.2

Food Away 37.2

Total 27.1

*includes only participants with two or more people in their household 

Use of Reference Period 

Finally, participants‟ responses were reviewed to see if they gave any indication that they were 

considering the three month reference period when they thought about their answer (Table 12). 

Throughout the CEQ, respondents are asked to base their answers on a three month reference 

period and were so instructed during these interviews. As with the reference to other household 

members, we acknowledge that participants may have thought of the reference period without 

mentioning it in their explanation; but again we feel it is worth analyzing given the tendency of 

participants to be thorough in their explanation. 

Overall, participants mentioned the three month reference period about half the time (53.9 

percent). There was variation across the questions. More specifically, participants were least 

likely to mention the reference period when explaining their alcohol away answers, and most 

likely to do so for the food away question. 
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Table 12. Reference to 3-month Reference Period 

Percent referring to 

reference period

Grocery 44.7

Alcohol Away 42.5

Alcohol at Home 58.3

Food Away 69.2

Total 53.9

Conclusions

This study revealed some new information about how respondents may answer the four CEQ 

questions about „usual‟ expenses, and identified some possible errors that might affect the 

collected data. These findings have implications for questionnaire design and respondent 

instructions for these, or similar, questions. Overall, we can conclude that respondents don‟t 

usually arrive at answers to these types of „usual‟ the same way. 

Overall, respondents used a wide variety of estimation strategies to answer the questions, though 

rate and adjustment and rate retrieval were the most common. With the exception of moving 

between rate and adjustment and rate retrieval, there was no association between the strategies 

used and question topic. Respondents inconsistently changed strategies between the questions. 

To the extent that some strategies provide more accurate responses than others, the failure to use 

the strategies which produce the most accurate data will affect the quality of the data obtained. 

Since this study found that participants did not use the same strategy for each question, their 

answers to some questions may be more accurate than to others. The answers of some 

participants, those using the „better‟ strategies, may be more accurate than the answers of other 

participants (e.g., one respondent overestimates the number of times he or she went to the 

grocery store when using the rate and adjustment method while another is not able to remember 

all the grocery store visits and underestimates his or her spending using the rate retrieval

method). 
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Additionally, taking advantage of the strategies respondents are likely to use to answer questions 

could reduce respondent burden and/or improve response accuracy. Grouping questions by 

strategy type might make it easier for respondents to transition from one question to another. 

Asking the question in multiple parts (e.g., How often do you go grocery shopping? How much 

do you typically spend?), might also make the questions easier for respondents to answer. 

Although there weren‟t any statistically significant association between household size and 

strategy (p>.05), we did find as household size increased the percentage of participants using the 

budget or rate retrieval strategies decreased. This may suggest that these strategies are not 

sophisticated enough estimate responses to these questions given the more complex situation of a 

multi-person household. 

Calculation errors were most common in the food away question, where most respondents used 

the rate and adjustment strategy. This strategy has respondents considering how often they 

perform an action and then adjusting that recalled information, so it requires more mental 

calculation than other strategies (e.g., rate retrieval where no adjustment is done). Asking the 

question in two parts, having the respondent first provide the typical rate, and then asking for the 

adjusted rate (and associated expense), may also reduce calculation errors by allowing the 

interviewer to aid the respondent in their calculations. 

Not accounting for expenditures of other household members is another problem identified in 

this study. Although the participants were instructed at the beginning of the interview to include 

all household members in their answers, and the question specifically asked about „your 

household,‟ a significant percentage of participants made no reference to anyone other than 

themselves when answering the questions. This suggests that more prompting may be required 

during the actual interview to remind respondents that they are reporting for the entire 

household. 

There was variability in how often participants included other household members‟ expenditures; 

with alcohol and groceries having the lowest percentage of participants mentioning other 
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household members in their responses, and food away having the highest percentage. This 

difference may be related to the nature of the behaviors in question; it seems logical that 

participants shop for groceries and alcohol alone but eat out with other family members. When 

considering how to improve these questions to encourage respondents to more often include 

other household members, we could instead ask the question for each household member 

individually (though that requires proxy reporting, which has its own issues), or rephrase the 

questions and instructions to emphasize the necessity of including everyone in the household in 

their response. 

Finally, the CEQ collects data about the three months preceding the interview, an instruction that 

all participants were given before the interview. This study found that few participants indicated 

they were thinking about the three month reference period when estimating their answers. As 

with the inclusion of other household members‟ expenditures, this varied across the questions, 

participants were most likely to mention the reference period with the food and alcohol away 

from home questions. Again, this seems reasonable due to the nature of these questions, eating 

and drinking out of the house are likely to be more irregular events than grocery shopping, and 

so perhaps participants used the reference period to help them think of the frequency with which 

they engaged in these behaviors. 

It is unclear how much, if any, impact not using the reference period poses. It depends to some 

degree on the regularity of the expenses. If respondents tend to spend the same amount on 

groceries or food away from home regardless of the time of year, then the time period they‟re 

considering when answering the questions doesn‟t matter. If, however, respondents tend to 

spend more on food or alcohol during certain time periods, their estimates will be inaccurate if 

they do not use the specified reference period when arriving at their answers. 

For a variety of reasons, use of the four „usual‟ questions in the Consumer Expenditure Quarterly 

Survey appears problematic. More than five percent (6.5 percent) of respondents admitted that 

they simply guessed when arriving at their answers to these four questions. Of the respondents 

who used more sophisticated strategies, few used the same method to generate their answers in 
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the same way across all the questions, and many made errors in both calculation and inclusion 

(expenditures of other household members and use of reference period) when responding. This 

study found evidence to support a redesign of these questions, in addition to providing more 

insights into the processes respondents use when answering such questions. 

References

Blair, E.A. & Burton, S. (1987). Cognitive processes used by survey respondents to answer 

behavior frequency questions. Journal of Consumer Research, 14, 280-288.

Burton, S. & Blair, E.A. (1991). Task Conditions, response formulation processes, and response 

accuracy for behavior frequency questions in surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55(1), 50-

79. 

Bradburn, N.M., Rips, L.J. & Shevall, S.K. (1987) Answering autobiographical questions: the 

impact of memory and inference on surveys. Science, 236(4798), 157-161. 

Conrad, F. G., Brown, N.R. & Cashman, E.R. (1998). Strategies for estimating behavioral 

frequency in survey interviews. Memory, 6, 339-366. 

Lessler, J.R., Salter, W., & Tourangeau, R. (1989). Questionnaire design in the cognitive 

research laboratory. Vital and Health Statistics, Series 6, No. 1 (DHHS Publication No. PHS 

89-1076). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 

Sudman, S., Bradburn, N., & Schwarz, N. (1996). Thinking about answers: The application of 

cognitive processes to survey methodology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 
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Appendix A: 

Cross-Tabulations of Estimation Strategies by Question1

Table A-1. Estimation Strategies across Grocery and Food Away (n=40) 

Food Away Estimation Strategy

Grocery Estimation 

Strategy

Rate and 

adjustment

Rate 

retrieval

Single 

event Budget Guess

General 

Impression Total

Rate and adjustment 7.0 0.0 0.0 2.3 0.0 2.3 11.6

Rate retrieval 2.3 2.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.6

Single event 4.7 4.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.4

Budget 9.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.3

Guess 18.6 7.0 0.0 4.7 0.0 0.0 30.3

General Impression 20.9 14.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 34.9

Total 62.8 28.0 0.0 7.0 0.0 2.3 100.0

Table A-2. Estimation Strategies across Grocery and Alcohol at Home (n=36) 

Alcohol at Home Estimation Strategy

Grocery Estimation 

Strategy

Rate and 

adjustment

Rate 

retrieval

Single 

event Budget Guess

General 

Impression Total

Rate and adjustment 4.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.2

Rate retrieval 4.2 0.0 8.3 0.0 0.0 8.3 20.8

Single event 25.0 20.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.2 50

Budget 4.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.2

Guess 4.2 8.3 0.0 0.0 4.2 0.0 16.7

General Impression 4.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.2

Total 46.0 29.1 8.3 0.0 4.2 12.5 100.0

 

1

 Row and column totals do not match Table 3 due to missing data. 
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Table A-3. Estimation Strategies across Grocery and Alcohol Away (n=65) 

Alcohol Away Estimation Strategy

Grocery Estimation 

Strategy

Rate and 

adjustment

Rate 

retrieval

Single 

event Budget Guess

General 

Impression Total

Rate and adjustment 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 10.0 3.3 13.3

Rate retrieval 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 6.7 26.7

Single event 3.3 0.0 10.0 0.0 16.7 3.3 33.3

Budget 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 3.3 10

Guess 0.0 0.0 3.3 0.0 6.7 0.0 10

General Impression 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 6.7

Total 3.3 0.0 13.3 0.0 60.1 23.3 100.0

Table A-4. Estimation Strategies across Alcohol at Home and Alcohol Away (n=36) 

Alcohol Away Estimation Strategy

Alcohol at Home 

Estimation Strategy

Rate and 

adjustment

Rate 

retrieval

Single 

event Budget Guess

General 

Impression Total

Rate and adjustment 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0

Rate retrieval 6.3 25.0 18.8 6.3 0.0 6.3 62.7

Single event 6.3 12.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 18.8

Budget 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0

Guess 0.0 0.0 6.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.3

General Impression 0.0 6.3 0.0 6.3 0.0 0.0 12.6

Total 12.6 43.8 25.1 12.6 0.0 6.3 100.0
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Table A-5. Estimation Strategies across Alcohol Away and Food Away (n=65) 

Food Away Estimation Strategy

Alcohol Away 

Estimation Strategy

Rate and 

adjustment

Rate 

retrieval

Single 

event Budget Guess

General 

Impression Total

Rate and adjustment 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0

Rate retrieval 0.0 7.7 0.0 23.1 0.0 38.5 69.3

Single event 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.7 0.0 7.7 15.4

Budget 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0

Guess 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.8 0.0 0.0 3.8

General Impression 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.8 0.0 7.7 11.5

Total 0.0 7.7 0.0 38.4 0.0 53.9 100.0

Table A-6. Estimation Strategies across Food Away and Alcohol at Home (n=65)

Alcohol at Home Estimation Strategy

Food Away Estimation 

Strategy

Rate and 

adjustment

Rate 

retrieval

Single 

event Budget Guess

General 

Impression Total

Rate and adjustment 0.0 0.0 7.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.7

Rate retrieval 15.4 0.0 30.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 46.2

Single event 15.4 0.0 11.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 26.9

Budget 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.8 3.8

Guess 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.8 3.8

General Impression 7.7 0.0 3.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 11.5

Total 38.5 0.0 53.8 0.0 0.0 7.6 100.0