Getting from neuron to checkmark: Models and methods in cognitive survey research

Since the 1980s much work has been done in the field of Cognitive Survey Research. In an interdisciplinary endeavour, survey methodologists and cognitive psychologists (as well as social psychologists and linguists) have worked to unravel the cognitive processes underlying survey responses: to improve survey measurement, but also to obtain fundamental insight into the process of question answering, the nature of attitudes, the functioning of human memory, etc. Yet, despite the amount of work that has been done, less progress has been made than was deemed possible. This paper suggests ways in which to develop cognitive theories that may help to obtain an integrated understanding of question answering in surveys. One way to build better theories is to focus on model construction. Different types of cognitive models are discussed that can be used to model question answering. Second, a larger variety of methods from the cognitive toolbox can be used to further develop and test these models. An overview is given of the various tools available to researchers of cognitive aspects of survey research, with a special focus on newer methods from cognitive neuroscience. To connect different tools and methods into an integrative theory of question answering, the idea of hierarchical modelling is proposed