When an interviewed, examined or questioned person is faced with closed questions, they can only choose one of the options presented by the interviewer. Usually the options are between "true and false" or "yes or no".
It is also possible that there are more than two options, and they would be called in this case multiple choice questions, although in general they would continue to be closed questions.
This type of question is quite useful for carrying out research because the answer variants are perfectly controlled, being these pre-established by the person asking the questions, otherwise than the open questions, in which the person who responds can enter all kinds of variables. response.
There are mainly four types of closed questions according to the way the person is given to respond to it. Next, we will see what the types are and how these types of questions work.
As we mentioned earlier, closed questions are characterized by giving people preset answer options from the test design. In the case of dichotomies, a question is presented with two answer options.
These types of questions include those in which the person must simply answer “Yes” or “No” or the well-known true and false questions that are often used a lot since they provide a very interesting component such as a reading or reading comprehension report..
Dichotomous questions are quite useful when it comes to accounting for large groups or in research papers where they are used large samples. These types of questions limit the variables to be handled as far as the statistical measurement of the responses..
Examples of dichotomous questions
Possible answers: "yes" "no"
Possible answers: "true" "false"
The polytomous questions are those that lead from the design of the test to the possibility of answering in more than two ways, Among these we can find, for example, questions such as: "Yes, no, maybe" or those of the type "Sometimes, almost always, never, almost never, always".
The polytomous questions are presented exclusively in terms of the form of response, that is,, the answer only supports one option This being a condition of the question in question. To better understand this, just look at the following example.
To the question, do you travel to other countries? The answer does not matter, they are all correct as long as they correspond to your reality, and on the other hand, if you answer "Never" this answer necessarily excludes the other options (Sometimes, almost never, always, almost always, etc.).
Examples of polytomous questions:
Possible answers: "yes" "no" "I am not informed"
Possible answers: "yes" "no" ¨ "I don't know how to play tennis"
Multiple-choice questions are undoubtedly the best known on this list, mainly because, among closed questions, multiple-choice questions are the most used in academia and in different teaching settings..
In fact, multiple-choice questions are common even in everyday settings like marketing surveys and the like that can involve any ordinary person..
Closed questions with multiple-choice responses differ from polytomous questions in the sense that while polytomics have necessarily mutually exclusive types of response, in multiple-choice questions this is not a necessary condition..
This means that multiple-choice questions they may or may not have answers that are mutually exclusive, In this sense, there are multiple-choice questions with a single answer, or with multiple answers, or with conditional answers according to a previous instruction in the same questionnaire..
In this sense, it is common to find indications that indicate that more than one option is correct or that indicate some way to group the correct answers.
For example: Check box A if answers A and B are correct, in this case it is understood that this is the indication with which box A is answered and other indications will come to suggest in which cases box B would be marked - C and D respectively.
This sounds a bit complex, but in practice it is not so complex, in fact, this type of flexibility in terms of the configurations of the answers is one of the factors that has led closed questions with multiple-choice answers to occupy a important place among the main tests implemented in classrooms of all kinds.
Examples of multiple choice questions with a single answer
Possible answers: Stephen King, Camilo José Cela, Miguel de Cervantes, Jorge Bucay.
Possible answers: "1 time a day", "2 times a week", "1 time a week", "1 time a month".
Examples of multiple choice questions with several possible answers
Possible answers: "Serpico" "Dog afternoon" "Scarface" "The godfather"
Finally, among the types of possible answers for designing tests with closed questions, we have the value scales or rankings.
Scales of values are types of response mainly used in fields of marketing and surveys of all kinds, including those of an administrative nature.
Among the questions on the scale of values, we can find questions such as: From one to ten, how good was the service? Or the classic How did you think of the call indicating that you can give a rating between 1 and 5 stars.
Value scales are excellent gauges of a product's credibility and acceptance, Most participants in the service industry prefer to use this type of survey to get closer to their users and to be able to account as accurately as possible of the real perception they have of the service itself.
On the other hand, the value scales provide great credibility to a site or company, in fact, for example, the digital applications that you find in the Play Store are rated by users and in most cases these ratings are the ones that influence the purchase decision in other users.
Examples of ranking questions
Possible answers: "fear" "drama" "comedy" "western" "crime.
These are the main types of closed questions, classified according to the type of response that can be given to them. In the same way, these are only theoretical bases and are salvageable through the creativity and rigor of the person who designs the questionnaires or investigations..
The main utility of closed questions will be found in the statistical measurement and in the speed with which you can get to tabulate the data. Think for example if you ask the same question to a thousand people and tabulate between four possible answers, now imagine doing it as an open question and having to tabulate the resulting information between a thousand different answers, it would be a task with one very high demand for time.
With this we are not saying that one or the other is a better type of question to work on, this will always depend on the context of work and resources (especially time) that are had to carry out the research.
It is sometimes confusing to distinguish between the two types of questions. For this reason we are going to establish a series of points so that you can identify the closed questions without problems..
Closed questions usually use the word "what" "when" or "where" to start the sentence. On the contrary, open questions try to find that the reader expands by means of sentences that begin with "Why" or "What do you think would happen if".
Closed questions do not require a length beyond one or two words. On the contrary, in open questions the interlocutor can extend himself as much as he deems necessary. In some evaluative tests, such as an exam, they can mark a word limit (for example 500 or 1000 words) as the maximum length of the answer.
Closed questions look for concrete and objective data. Any outside observer would give the same answer. On the contrary, in the open questions the subjectivity and the inner world of the interviewee are sought. Two people will not give the same answer to the same open question.
The format of the closed questions allows it to be easily measurable and quantifiable, especially when a large volume of people is being surveyed or interviewed. Closed questions can even be cauntified or evaluated by a computer that would give a score in the case of an exam.
On the contrary, open questions require a great deal of time for correction and evaluation..
In closed questions, no more information is obtained than what is implicit in the answer itself. On the contrary, in open questions, the level of detail is immense and depends solely on the subjectivity of the interviewee..
The answers to closed questions only need one or two words and sometimes not even that, since it is enough to mark the corresponding box. For this reason, the time necessary to answer a survey, exam or interview made up of closed questions is very short if we compare it with the time that it is necessary to invest in answering a questionnaire made up of open questions..
It is very easy to correct an exam made up of closed questions. Let's say, for example, that it is an exam of 10 questions with 1 point each. Each question can only have 1 or 0, depending on whether it is answered correctly or not.
On the contrary, when it comes to open assumptions, the answers may not be completely right or completely wrong, they may remain halfway and the evaluator in this case would have to give an intermediate score depending on their subjectivity. For this reason, the time required to analyze the data is less when we talk about closed questions..
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