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afterwards, the format of all three tests was slightly altered to produce more accurate responses from children.

“Krosnick’s satisficing theory offers an explanation for differences in reliability of responses between respondents, and for the effects of question wording” (Borgers, Hox, Sikkel 2003). The theory states that there are four cognitive steps that one follows in order to respond to a survey question. In the first step, one must understand and interpret the question. The second step consists of retrieving information from memory. For the third step, the respondent makes a summarized judgment. Finally, the judgment is reported in the form of an answer.

Krosnick’s theory then explains that there are two response processes one may use to respond to a survey question: optimizing and satisficing. Optimizing consists of going through all four cognitive steps, thus giving the most accurate response. Satisficing however, “…means that a respondent gives a more or less superficial response that appears reasonable or acceptable, without going through the steps involved in the question-answering process” (Borgers, Hox, Sikkel 2003). The motivation of the respondent, the difficulty of the task, and the cognitive abilities of the respondent are the three dimensions of the question-answering process related to satisficing. “Low motivation, difficult questions, and low cognitive abilities may lead respondents to providing a satisfactory response instead of an optimal one” (Borgers, Hox, Sikkel 2003).

According to Piaget, throughout life an individual uses two processes in a continually more complex manner in attempt to adapt to their environment: assimilation and accommodation. “Assimilation is the process of using or transforming the

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environment so that it can be placed in preexisting cognitive structures. Accommodation is the process of changing cognitive structures in order to accept something from the environment” (Huitt and Hummel 2003). The processes are both used interchangeably and simultaneously throughout one’s life. “As schemes become increasingly more complex (i.e. – responsible for more complex behaviors) they are termed structures. As one's structures become more complex, they are organized in a hierarchical manner (i.e.

– from general to specific)” (Huitt and Hummel 2003).

Based on the above, Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory consists of four stages that are organized by age group. As the targets of this study fall into the second and third stages, only they will be covered in this paper. The second stage, the preoperational stage, continues from around the age of 2 until 6. Here, children’s memory and imagination are developed, yet they are limited in their language development, and thinking is done in a non-logical, non-reversible manner. This implies strong limitations in comprehension and in verbal memory (Borgers, Hox, Sikkel 2003). The third stage, the concrete operational stage, is claimed to last from the age of 6 to 12. In this stage, operational thinking, language, and reading skills develop. Egocentrism diminishes, yet children still have trouble with ambiguous and vague words, as they interpret them literally. Negations for example, may still cause problems.

After consideration of the theories, it was decided the surveys should be augmented in order to produce the least amount of satisficing possible. Satisficing, as stated above, can be a result of low motivation, difficult questions, and low cognitive abilities. From these three points the alteration of the surveys was considered.

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The problem of low motivation proved to be the most easily preventable. Considering that the topic of the study is children’s television programs that have been running consistently for over 30 years, and that almost 50% of children ages 3 to 6, as well as almost 25% of first to sixth graders watch the shows every week, an interest in the programs could be generally expected. At the least, the programs are something that all young Japanese children are familiar with, if not fans themselves. While the topic in general might peak the interest of some of the children, this would not guarantee a desire to respond to the questions as accurately as possible. It was decided that an award system for proper completion of the surveys would be used. During the introduction of the surveying process to the participants, it was explained that for each page of the survey that they completed properly and to their best ability, they would receive a piece of candy, snack, or small toy. Upon completion of the whole survey they would receive a bonus fifth award. It was hoped that even for the children who were not very interested in the programs or the survey process in general, that they would still attempt to perform the question-answer process as completely as possible in order to receive said awards.

The other two possible sources of problems in the question-answering process, difficult questions and low cognitive abilities, proved to be more troublesome to deal with. However, as low cognitive abilities are the source of the inability to handle difficult questions, both weak spots could be strengthened together.

According to Borgers, Hox, and Sikkel (2004), all characteristics of stages two, three, and four of Piaget’s theory appear to be important for the question-answering

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process. Missing any of the characteristics could lead to satisficing. “Verbal comprehension and verbal memory are very important in the first two steps of the question-answering process: understanding the question and retrieval of the relevant information from memory” (Borgers, Hox, and Sikkel 2004). They then summarize that the longer the question, the more the reliability of the answer declines. As all of the questions for the survey consist of one sentence or less, the length did not appear to be an issue.

However, slight changes to the wording of some of the questions to make them easier for children to comprehend were made. This was not an intense process, as the questions in general are not very cognitively demanding.39 One of the few examples is in the Connectedness Scale. The sentence, “Watching (program name) is an escape for me,” was modified to “Watching (program name) helps me to relax.” This was in consideration of the children being too literal in their interpretation of words. Yet, because the surveys were to be translated into Japanese anyway, it was more of a translation note.

Even more so than the question section, the response section of a survey offers the most chances for a young child to become motivated to satisfice. In a study on children and juveniles as respondents, Marek Fuchs (2002) states, “…we expect younger respondents to rely more heavily on the response options provided when answering the questions”. “Respondents with less developed cognitive skills more often use the response categories as a hint…” (Fuchs 2002). Thus, maximizing the quality of the

39 See #30, 31, and 32 in appendix.

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response sections for children, so they would not rely on the responses and satisfice, was crucial.

As the length of a question can affect the reliability of a response, so too can the number of response options offered. When there are too many response options, children can become confused, disheartened, and all together unmotivated to answer the question. Also, the addition of a neutral midpoint (1=Happy, 2=Neutral, 3=Sad) has been noted to tempt children to satisfice, not optimize (Borgers, Hox, Sikkel 2004). When a child is already motivated to satisfice, an easy option that takes little thought to select, such as a neutral midpoint, provides the extra coercion necessary. According to Borgers, Hox, and Sikkel’s (2004) study, as well as corresponding with previous studies, the stability of responses increased with the number of response options offered, up to six options. Their conclusion is that offering four response options is optimal with children.

The General Self-Efficacy Scale was already scored on a range from 1 to 4, but the Connectedness Scale and the Revised Personal Involvement Inventory were not. Therefore, not only to correspond with the results of the study, but also to create a more unified and easy to complete survey process for the participants, the two tests were altered to a range of one to four. Thus, all the tests offer an equal optimizing opportunity in relation to the number of response options.

How to list the response options was also a key factor in modifying the surveys. For the original versions of the three tests, the participants would simply check-off or write down a number between one and seven or one and four to give their answer. For

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example, if one were to believe that a mobile phone is very important, they would give it a score of 7 or 6. However, from the analysis of the data mentioned above, it was clear that this would be too difficult a task for a young child to perform.

Borgers, Hox, and Sikkel (2003) state that response options that are less informative have a negative impact on a child’s assessment of his/her answer. They claim that offering the clearest type of response options produces the best quality in questionnaire format. Fuchs’ (2002) conclusions emphasize the importance of making the response options accessible for children; stating that young children rely more on the response scale, thus “…are more likely to make use of the response values when formatting their response.” In short, they are guided not only by the questions, but also by the response options in their attempt to answer the questions (Fuchs 2002).

As both the Connectedness Scale and the General Self-Efficacy Scale contain only Yes/No format questions, each question was clearly labeled with four response options: Yes, A Little, Not Really, No. However, the Revised Personal Involvement Inventory asks the participant to score their opinion of different words, such as “important,” based on the statement, “A mobile phone is:”. Using “important” as an example, the response options were modified to be: Important, A Little Important, Not Really Important, Not Important. This should have allowed for the child participants to have a much easier time deciding on their answer, as this format is much easier for them to comprehend compared to the originals. In order to make the response options even more understandable and fun for young children, large ovals with the response options placed inside were used as checkboxes for the answers. Thereby, children can use

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crayons to fill-in their selected response.

Another possible problem to consider was item non-response. This is a phenomenon in which a survey participant does not select a response option and continues to the next question. Borgers and Hox (2001) believe this to be caused by the same difficulties children have with answering survey questions listed above. They list three courses of action to prevent item non-response occurrence: avoiding ambiguous response scales, using at least four response options, and offering an introductory text to the surveys of at least 100 words. Creating non-ambiguous response scales and using four response options had already been considered and implemented, as stated above. Therefore, an introductory text describing the surveys and how to complete them properly, as well as a reward system, were implemented.

Today we will be asking you questions about how you feel about mobile phones, personal computers, and super hero TV shows (Masked Rider, Pretty Cure, etc.). There are 6 pages with questions on them. You will get 1 page at a time.

There are just a few easy steps to follow in order to answer the questions:

1.Please only answer the questions when thinking about the assigned TV show.

2.Read the question CAREFULLY.

3.Pick only ONE answer you feel is the best.

4.Color-in the circle that has YOUR ANSWER.

5.Do the SAME for ALL the questions.

6.Please raise your hand after you have answered ALL the questions.

It was also planned that the surveyors would not only read the introductory text aloud, but to read the questions aloud one-by-one with the children as a whole. Only after making sure everyone had selected an answer for the current question, would the

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surveyor move on to the next question with the group. In effect, all item non-response would be completely prevented.

As a final note, personal computer related versions of the involvement and selfefficacy surveys were created and added to the survey process. This was done in order to add noise to the survey, so to not single out and thus promote mobile phones; something the parents and the elementary schools were worried about. With this, it also helped to further randomize the order of surveys used in each survey group, adding to the reliability of the results. It also allowed for comparison of the mobile phone results with another high-tech product that is growing more prominent in young children’s lives; helping to emphasize the connection between mobile phones and Japanese super hero television programs.

(4.4.3) The Translation Process

The final step of creating the surveys was the process of translating them into Japanese and then back into English to confirm accuracy. After the original English version of the surveys was completed, they were given to an independent English-fluent native Japanese translator for a Japanese translation. The fully translated Japanese version was then given to a Japanese-fluent native English speaker for translation back into English. The original and second English versions were then compared for any inaccuracies or errors that may have occurred in the translation process into Japanese. No problems were found and the surveys were deemed complete.40 41 42

40See #33 in appendix.

41See #34 in appendix.

42See #35 in appendix.

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(4.4) The Survey Process

Unfortunately, the survey process could not be completed due to some unfortunate setbacks and time constraints. The surveys were planned to be run at several elementary schools, across grades 1 through 6. The school principals and teachers were enthusiastic with the idea, as they were concerned with many of the problems detailed above. The schools had been interested in developing mobile phone awareness and ethics training classes for their students, and the data gleaned from such a survey would be a perfect starting point.

After the specifics of the survey process were worked out with the faculty, a letter of introduction was distributed to the parents in order to inform them of the process and gain their approval. However, possibly due to the scientific nature of the letter and survey, or due to the parents’ lack of knowledge about the subject, a large percentage of the parents responded with strong concerns. Many of the parents were not promoters of child mobile phone use or the super hero television programs. This led them to question if the survey process would end up peaking their children’s interest in mobile phones and the shows; something they did not want to happen. They were also concerned that the university and the authors of the paper were trying to financially benefit from the use of their children.

While the authors of the paper, as well as the school faculty knew that the surveys had been specifically designed not to influence the children, and that the research was in order to help children, the initial reaction from the parents was too strong. The faculty believed that the survey process should be put on hiatus in order to

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teach the parents about the true nature of the research over time. Due to the intricate nature of Japanese society and school systems, it could take months or years in order to gain the approval needed. The impending deadline of the thesis and graduation of the author gave no time to wait or find new schools to run the surveys. Therefore, the conclusion of the paper had to be completed without survey data. Even so, without knowing if the hypotheses hold true or not, there still remained a great deal of information for which to base suggestions for the future.