Cognitive Interviewing to Pretest Attitude Questions

The purpose of this paper is to assess the potentials and the limits of the cognitive interview to pretest attitude questions. The paper begins with a preface describing what cognitive interview is and what are its theoretical roots. Then we take part in the debate on the cognitive interview and we discuss the strengths and weakness of its strategies. Lastly, we present the design and the findings of a methodological research on the effectiveness of the two strategies typical of the cognitive interview – the think-aloud and the verbal probing – in order to pretest attitude questions