I'm interested in what current knowledge/experience is with the link between quality of responds and length of interview, from lengthy household surveys implemented face-to-face with either paper or CAPI.
In market research it is known that an interview should last no more than 30-40 minutes, unless some exceptional situations. In the absence on references on household surveys, these benchmarks may help.
Thank you Adrian. Do you have a reference for literature backing up this rule of thumb?
While I generally agree with Adrian, I've seen cases where surveys last much more than 30 minutes (one hour or even more)... I'd say is depending on respondent incentive and, if we're considering also the face-to-face interviews, interviewer characteristics. There is a very good book written by Roger Tourangeau, Lance J. Rips & Kenneth Rasinski: "The Psychology of Survey Response". Also you might want to check the books written by Mick Couper.
Krosnick has done a lot of work on survey data quality. The following article might be a good place to start.
Krosnick, J. A. (1991). Response strategies for coping with the cognitive demands of attitude measures in surveys. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 5, 213-236.
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