Prompt design changes what diary participants record
Aliases: prompt reactivity · experience-sampling prompt · measurement reactivity
What it is
The timing, frequency, wording, and trigger of diary requests create prompt reactivity. Prompts determine which moments enter the sample and direct attention toward particular feelings or actions. Random, interval, and event-contingent prompts answer different questions rather than acting as neutral collection channels.
Why it happens
Evening prompts support summaries but require recall; random prompts sample moments but miss rare events; event triggers stay near behavior but depend on participant recognition. Repeated questions about stress or consumption increase self-monitoring and may change behavior. Delivery also varies with schedules, devices, and notification settings.
Studying it
Prespecify the sampling frame, allowed hours, response window, and reminders. Compare prompt regimes on event composition, response, delay, and behavioral trajectories, recording failed delivery, muting, and skips. When prompting may intervene, include a lower-prompt or baseline condition and label measurement reactivity.
Where it stops holding
Reactivity is not always unwanted; self-monitoring can be the intended intervention. Random prompting is not automatically representative because sleep, driving, and disabled-notification periods remain excluded. Broad event definitions overload participants, while narrow definitions miss boundary cases.
Applying it
- Match prompts to the target: moment distribution, event sequence, or daily summary.
- Protect sleep and safety periods and permit delay or skip with reasons.
- Use neutral wording that does not presuppose emotion or evaluation.
- Pilot behavior and response composition before and after prompting and report induced coverage boundaries.