Challenge A Survey Instrument For Contamination

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name: challenge-a-survey-instrument-for-contamination
description: Review draft survey questions, options, and order for wording that prevents the intended construct from being measured clearly.
---

# Challenge a survey instrument for contamination

## Use

Use before fielding a survey or when interpreting a draft instrument. Review the supplied text against its stated measurement purpose. Propose revisions for the research owner; do not field or alter the survey.

## Inputs

- Target construct for each question, intended audience, and exact draft question order.
- Response options, skip rules, recall period, and language or accessibility requirements.
- Pilot responses or cognitive-interview notes if available, with their collection scope.

## Procedure

1. Map each question to one construct and the inference the team hopes to make. Flag a question that combines multiple constructs in one answer.
2. Check wording for presupposed facts, praise or blame cues, undefined terms, and a recall period the respondent cannot reasonably use.
3. Check whether options overlap, omit a plausible answer, force an answer when `unknown` or `not applicable` is needed, or change meaning through a skip rule.
4. Review order for earlier wording that may prime a later answer. Distinguish a plausible wording risk from an effect demonstrated by supplied pilot evidence.
5. Return a question-level issue table: construct, exact location, failure mechanism, suggested neutral revision, and a pilot check that could test it.

## Completion check

Each proposed revision asks for one interpretable response to the intended construct. A single agreement answer to a question combining speed and reliability cannot be reported as separate evidence for both.

## Stop

If the construct or audience is unspecified, mark the measurement judgment unresolved. Do not claim a measured bias without supporting data, contact respondents, or change the live instrument.