Mixed-methods and Repeated Measures in Substance Use Research: Implications for Informant Accuracy

Informant accuracy is a pervasive issue in the social sciences and persists through the ongoing use of self-report measures of behaviors that are subject to recall errors. The current study reports findings from methods we used to measure substance use among adolescents in South India. We used a repeated-measures, mixed-methods design that began with semistructured interviews ( N = 60) to determine the substances used by adolescents. Next, adolescents were recruited to participate in a four-week study that assessed self-reported substance use at three time points and urinary cotinine, a nicotine metabolite, at two time points. Fifty-six participants completed the study protocol. Findings revealed that during the last phase of the study, participants were more willing to admit using substances. Our results add to existing literature that demonstrates the need to move beyond self-reported data of consumption, and to consider using repeated measures, direct observation of behavior, and biometric markers of behavior to ensure more accurate assessments of sensitive topics.

Influence of Knowledge Distribution on Children’s Information Seeking Strategies

Early in development, children rely on others to obtain information about unfamiliar situations or objects. They can exploit sources of information, by asking a familiar informant, or explore new sources by asking an unfamiliar informant. Children’s choices are guided by their previous experience with each informant. Children as young as 4-years-old have been shown to track informant accuracy and direct future questions to the more accurate informant (Fitneva & Dunfield, 2010; Koenig & Harris, 2005). Moreover, the distribution of knowledge may also have an impact on children’s information seeking strategies. In the current study, children were presented with an informant who correctly answered some questions. For the final question of a category, they were asked to make a choice between the familiar and unfamiliar informant. The key manipulation of this study was the knowledge distribution, as children were explicitly told either one informant or all the informants know the names of the objects in question. We expect that, in the narrowly- distributed knowledge condition, children will be more likely to exploit. On the contrary, we expect that they will be more likely to explore in the broadly-distributed knowledge condition.

The selective social learner as an agent of cultural group selection

Developmental research characterizes even the youngest learners as critical and selective, capable of preserving or culling cultural information on the bases of informant accuracy, reasoning, or coherence. We suggest that Richerson et al. adjust their account of social learning in cultural group selection (CGS) by taking into consideration the role of the selective learner in the cultural inheritance system.