The LPDC Survey Lab offers data collection via mail surveys, in-person interviewing, and telephone interviewing. Because they offer the economy of telephone interviewing with greatly improved quality control, CATI systems are a major advance in survey research methodologies. The Survey Lab employs the Ci3 CATI system software. Ci3 CATI is a PC-based system. A local area network connects twelve interviewing stations with a supervisor workstation.
Interviewers wearing hands-free telephone headsets sit at computer terminals.
The computer is programmed to automatically dial telephone numbers. When a respondent is reached, the interviewer asks the questions that appear on the computer monitor and enters the responses. Complex skip patterns are easily programmed so that the interviewer always asks the correct sequence of questions. With Ci3 CATI, one can also program the computer to accept only a limited range of responses to a question. These and other features of Ci3 CATI minimize interviewer error.