New Technology in Survey Research: Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing ( CAPI )

This paper summarizes what is currently known about computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). It gives an overview of research on CAPI within U.S. Government agencies, at a number of European statistical agencies, and at university-based research organizations in the United States. The paper focuses on four areas of concern among CAPI developers that have slowed deployment of this technology on a broader scale: respondent acceptance, interviewer acceptance, impact on data quality, and costs. It argues that experience to date relative to all of these issues has been encouraging, although we are more certain at this stage about acceptance by respondents and interviewers than we are about the precise impact on data quality or the likely costs of CAPI.