Are the Parts Better than the Whole? The Effects of Decompositional Questions on Judgments of Frequent Behaviors

The author investigates whether using a decompositional question (which decomposes an event into subcategories and elicits frequencies at the subcategory level) is effective in increasing the accuracy of frequency judgments elicited in consumer surveys. Results of a study show that the decompositional question makes the process of eliciting frequencies less effortful and enhances the accuracy of the elicited frequencies for frequent, irregular behaviors (i.e., occurring at sporadic intervals), but not for frequent, regular behaviors. Mediational analyses confirm that these effects manifest because the decompositional question triggers an episodic recall strategy, which enhances the efficiency of the judgment formulation process for irregular behaviors but interferes with the normal process for regular behaviors.