초록 ▼

A survey data structure is described that specifies how to administer a survey to each of a group of people. The data structure contains an entry that specifies text that poses a fabrication gauge question for which a percentage of the population who can accurately answer the fabrication gauge quest

A survey data structure is described that specifies how to administer a survey to each of a group of people. The data structure contains an entry that specifies text that poses a fabrication gauge question for which a percentage of the population who can accurately answer the fabrication gauge question affirmatively is known. The data structure further contains a plurality of entries that each specify text posing an unlikely question for which the percentage of the population who can accurately answer the unlikely question affirmatively is small. The data structure specifies how to conduct a survey that serves as a basis for determining which people to whom the survey is administered are responding truthfully to the survey.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A method in a computing system, having a processor and memory, comprising: causing by the computing system to be presented via a network connection device to each of a plurality of people: a plurality of unlikely questions, each of whose affirmative answer is accurate for only a small percentage

1. A method in a computing system, having a processor and memory, comprising: causing by the computing system to be presented via a network connection device to each of a plurality of people: a plurality of unlikely questions, each of whose affirmative answer is accurate for only a small percentage of the population,a fabrication gauge question whose affirmative answer is accurate for a known percentage of the population regardless of whether it is answered accurately by people to whom it is posed, andat least one substantive question;accessing, via the memory, a statistical expectation attributed to an affirmative answer to the fabrication gauge question;for each of the plurality of people: receiving, by the computing system, responses to the posed questions provided by the person;storing, in the memory, an identifier for the person among a set of person identifiers, the identifier associated with the responses;calculating, by the processor, a first percentage of the plurality of people who answered the fabrication gauge question in the affirmative;determining by the processor that the calculated first percentage exceeds the statistical expectation;determining, with the processor, for each person identifier, a number of unlikely questions to which the identified person answered affirmatively;with the processor, discarding person identifiers from the set of person identifiers by: (a) identifying, among the set of person identifiers, a proper subset associated with the largest number of unlikely questions answered affirmatively;(b) storing, in the memory, an indication to discard one or more of the person identifiers in the proper subset;(c) calculating a second percentage of people associated with undiscarded person identifiers who answered the fabrication gauge question in the affirmative; and(d) iteratively repeating (a)-(c) until the second percentage is within a predetermined range of the known percentage; andreporting answers to the at least one substantive question for only people among the plurality of people whose person identifiers are undiscarded. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the unlikely questions and fabrication gauge questions are caused to be posed in the same survey with substantive questions to which the people's responses are sought. 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the unlikely questions and fabrication gauge questions are caused to be posed in same survey with routing questions for routing people to further surveys for which they are expected to qualify. 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the unlikely questions and fabrication gauge questions are caused to be posed in a separate survey from substantive questions to which the people's responses are sought. 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing to be posed to each of the plurality of people, together with the unlikely questions, at least one likely question, each of whose affirmative answer has a relatively high likelihood of being accurate. 6. A computer-readable storage device having contents adapted to cause a computing system having a processor to perform a method for analyzing survey responses, the computer-readable storage device not constituting a propagating signal per se, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of completed survey responses, each survey response being generated by a person and specifying an answer to each of a plurality of questions, the plurality of questions comprising a question of a first type and a plurality of questions of a second type, the question of the first type having a selected answer that is accurate for a known percentage of people, each of the questions of the second type having a typical answer and an atypical answer; andwith the processor, of the survey responses completed, selecting a proper subset of the survey responses to discount such that (a) the number of undiscounted survey responses containing the selected answer to the first question divided by the total number of undiscounted survey responses bears a predetermined relationship to the known percentage, and (b) no survey response not selected specifies more atypical answers to questions of the second type than any selected survey response. 7. The computer-readable storage device of claim 6 wherein the plurality of questions further comprise a question of a third type having at least two answers, the method further comprising, for each of the answers to the question of the third type, counting the number of survey responses not selected that specified the answer to the question, to the exclusion of selected survey responses that specified the answer to the question. 8. The computer-readable storage device of claim 6 wherein the plurality of questions further comprise a question of a third type having a free-form answer, the method further comprising, for each of the answers to the question of the third type, compiling the free-form answers specified by the survey responses not selected in response to the question, to the exclusion of the free-form answers specified by the selected survey responses. 9. A computer-readable storage device storing a survey data structure specifying how to automatically administer a survey to each of a plurality of people, the computer-readable storage device not constituting a propagating signal per se, the data structure comprising: an entry specifying the display of text posing a fabrication gauge question for which a percentage of the population who can accurately answer the fabrication gauge question affirmatively is known; anda plurality of entries each specifying the display of text posing an unlikely question for which a percentage of the population who can accurately answer the unlikely question affirmatively is small, such that the data structure specifies how to automatically conduct a survey that serves as a basis for determining which people to whom the survey is administered are responding truthfully to the survey. 10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein the entries further comprise at least one entry specifying text posing a substantive question whose answer is sought from the people. 11. A computer-readable storage device storing a survey response data structure specifying how each of a plurality of people have responded to a survey, the computer-readable storage device not constituting a propagating signal per se, the data structure comprising a plurality of entries each corresponding to a person who has responded to the survey, and each comprising: a first component containing data indicating the person's response to a fabrication gauge question for which a percentage of the population who can accurately answer the fabrication gauge question affirmatively is known; anda plurality of second components each indicating the person's response to an unlikely question for which a percentage of the population who can accurately answer the unlikely question affirmatively is small, such that the data structure serves as a basis for automatically determining which of the people responded truthfully to the survey. 12. A computer-readable storage device storing an adjusted survey response data structure indicating results for a survey in which each of a plurality of people has responded to a plurality of questions, the computer-readable storage device not constituting a propagating signal per se, the data structure comprising a plurality of entries each corresponding to a person who has responded to the survey, and each comprising data that, for each of one or more substantive survey questions, indicates an answer given by the person to whom the entry corresponds in response to the substantive survey question, the data structure containing entries corresponding only to people determined, based at least in part on responses to a fabrication gauge question for which a percentage of the population who can accurately answer the fabrication gauge question affirmatively is known, and responses to a plurality of unlikely questions for which a percentage of the population who can accurately answer an unlikely question affirmatively is small, to be likely to have responded to the survey accurately, to the exclusion of people determined to be unlikely to have responded to the survey accurately, such that the contents of the data structure can be used to automatically determine answers given to substantive questions only by people determined to be likely to have responded to the survey accurately, to the exclusion of people determined to be unlikely to have responded to the survey accurately. 13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 6 wherein the predetermined relationship is that the number of undiscounted responses containing the selected answer to the question of the first type divided by the total number of undiscounted responses is equal to the known percentage. 14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 6 wherein the predetermined relationship is that the number of undiscounted responses containing the selected answer to the question of the first type divided by the total number of undiscounted responses is within a predetermined range of the known percentage.