The quality of data in surveys is affected by response burden and questionnaire length. With an increasing number of questions, respondents can become bored, tired, and annoyed and may take shortcuts to reduce the effort needed to complete the survey. In this article, direct evidence is presented on how the position of items within a web questionnaire influences respondents’ focus of attention. In two experiments, part of an eye-tracking study and an online survey, respectively, a variety of indicators show that data quality is lower if the experimental question is positioned at the end rather than at the beginning of a questionnaire. Practical implications are discussed.

调查数据的质量受回复负担和问卷长度的影响。随着问题的增多，受访者可能会变得无聊，疲倦和烦恼，并且可能会采取捷径来减少完成调查所需的精力。在本文中，将提供有关网络问卷中项目位置如何影响受访者关注重点的直接证据。在两个实验中，分别是眼动追踪研究和在线调查的一部分，各种指标表明，如果实验问题放在调查表的末尾而不是调查表的开头，则数据质量会降低。讨论了实际含义。