Evaluating the Effect of Daily Diary Instructional Phrases on Respondents’ Recall Time Frames: Survey Experiment

BACKGROUND: Daily diaries are extensively used for examining participants’ daily experience in behavioral and medical science. However, little attention is paid to whether participants recall their experiences within the time frames prescribed by the task. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe survey respondents’ self-reported recall time frames and to evaluate the impact of different daily diary items on respondents’ reported affective states. METHODS: In this study, 577 participants completed a mood survey with one of the following 4 time frame instructions: (1) today, (2) since waking up today, (3) during the last 24 hours, or (4) in the last day. They were also asked to indicate the periods they considered when answering these items and to recall the instructional phrases associated with the items. RESULTS: Almost all participants in the today (141/146, 96.6%) and since waking up today (136/145, 93.8%) conditions reported using periods consistent with our expectations, whereas a lower proportion was observed in the during the last 24 hours (100/145, 69.0%) condition. A diverse range of responses was observed in the in the last day condition. Furthermore, the instructions influenced the levels of some self-reported affects, although exploratory analyses were not able to identify the mechanism underlying this finding. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these results indicate that today and since waking up today are the most effective instructional phrases for inquiring about daily experience and that investigators should use caution when using the other 2 instructional phrases.