JP2008021211A - Question generating apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a question generating apparatus capable of acquiring a more reliable answer as compared to a case without the present configuration. <P>SOLUTION: The question generating apparatus 10 terminates a question when reliability is satisfied in answer data obtained for a question of prescribed attribute. Meanwhile, when the reliability is not satisfied, the question generating apparatus 10 further addresses a question of the same attribute. As an index (degree of reliability) related to the reliability, coincidence or the like is used. A degree of reliability calculation section 56 calculates the degree of reliability based on the coincidence level. The coincidence level shows a degree by which values for answers match for a question of same attribute in questions of selection style. When the coincidence is a prescribed value or below, an answer group is determined as one having large variation. A question decision section 46 determines that an answer for the attribute has large variation when the thus computed coincidence is the prescribed value or below, and decides to further address a question with the attribute added. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a question generation device that generates a question to be asked to a respondent of a questionnaire.

  In general, respondents to a questionnaire are affected by their own psychological situation and habits and may not answer the questionnaire correctly. In this case, the answer is different from the original intention of the respondent. Therefore, collected questionnaires may be inaccurate (lack of reliability). These may be due to unclear questions, misunderstandings of respondents, lack of concentration of respondents, or the influence of previous responses.

In Patent Document 1, a questionnaire is automatically created from a group of questions that match the respondent's attribute information, and a questionnaire that can collect detailed answers by transitioning to lower detailed questions according to the answers in each group of questions is created. A technique is disclosed.
Patent Document 2 relates to a display device and a recording medium for displaying a question sentence. The question is recorded as a hierarchical structure in a table, and the next question is determined and displayed by referring to the table according to the answer to the question. Disclosed is a method that eliminates the hassle of checking each question one by one, changes the question, changes the table at the time of addition, and simplifies maintenance, and automatically outputs the summary / evaluation results Yes.

JP 2004-287745 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-272390

  An object of the present invention is to provide a question generation device capable of obtaining a more reliable answer as compared with a case where the present configuration is not provided.

  In order to achieve the above object, a first question generation device according to the present invention includes a question storage unit that stores a plurality of questions to which attributes are assigned, and a plurality of questions stored in the question storage unit. Question determining means for determining a question based on the reliability of answers to questions regarding the same attribute. According to the present invention, a more reliable answer can be obtained as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.

  Further, the second question generation device according to the present invention is a question storage means for storing a plurality of questions to which an attribute is assigned, and a question related to the same attribute among a plurality of questions stored in the question storage unit. Reliability calculation means for calculating the reliability of the answer, and question determination means for determining a question based on the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation means.

  Preferably, the reliability calculation unit calculates the reliability of the answer based on the degree of coincidence of the answers to the question regarding the same attribute. According to the present invention, a highly accurate answer can be efficiently obtained as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.

  Preferably, the question storage means stores a question in a format for selecting one answer from a plurality of stages of answers, and the reliability calculation means is a plurality of stages in the question stored in the question storage means. The reliability of the answer is calculated based on the number of answers selected in the middle. According to the present invention, it is possible to eliminate an answer that the answerer lacks in reliability.

  Preferably, the question storage means stores a question in a format for selecting one answer from a plurality of stages of answers, and the reliability calculation means is a plurality of stages in the question stored in the question storage means. The reliability of the answer is calculated based on the number of answers that are blank or avoiding mentions. According to the present invention, it is possible to eliminate an answer that the answerer lacks in reliability.

  Preferably, the question storage means stores a false answer detection question for detecting a false answer, and the reliability calculation means is based on an answer to the false answer detection question stored in the question storage means. To calculate the reliability.

Preferably, the question determination unit determines that a question regarding the same attribute as the attribute is further performed when the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation unit does not satisfy a predetermined condition.
Preferably, the question storage means further stores a question having a different answer format, and the question determination means has a case where the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation means does not satisfy a predetermined condition. , It is further determined that a question related to the same attribute as the attribute but having a different answer format is to be performed.

  In addition, the program according to the present invention provides an answer to a question related to the same attribute among the plurality of stored questions in a question generating device including a computer and a question storage means for storing a plurality of questions to which attributes are assigned. A reliability calculation step for calculating the reliability and a question determination step for determining a question based on the calculated reliability.

  According to the question generation device of the present invention, a more reliable answer can be obtained as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.

Hereinafter, the question generation device 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a question generation device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, centering on a control device 12.
As shown in FIG. 1, the question generation device 10 includes a control device 12 including a CPU 14 and a memory 16, a communication device 18 that transmits and receives data to and from an external computer via a network, a hard disk drive, and the like. The storage device 22 includes a display device such as a liquid crystal display and a user interface (UI) device 20 including a pointing device such as a keyboard and a mouse.

  The question generation device 10 is, for example, a general-purpose computer in which a question generation program 4 to be described later is installed, stores a plurality of questions with attributes, and relates to the same attribute among the plurality of stored questions. The reliability of the answer to the question is calculated, and the question to be performed next is determined based on the calculated reliability. The question generation device 10 may obtain an answer to the question via the keyboard and mouse of the UI device, or may function as a server to display the question and obtain the answer via the communication device 18. Also good.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of the question generation program 4 executed by the control device 12 of the question generation device 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 2, the question generation program 4 includes a user interface (UI) unit 40, a question registration unit 42, a question DB 44, a question determination unit 46, a question display unit 48, an answer reception unit 50, an answer DB 52, and a condition reception unit. 54 and a reliability calculation unit 56.

  The question generation program 4 is supplied from an external computer connected to a network (not shown) to the control device 12 via the communication device 18, loaded into the memory 16, and operated on the OS (not shown) operating on the control device 12. Thus, it is executed by specifically using hardware. The question generation program 4 may be stored in the recording medium 24 such as FD, CD, or DVD and supplied to the question generation device 10.

  In the question generation program 4, the UI unit 40 accepts an operation of a survey respondent or surveyor for the UI device 20 and outputs the operation to each component of the question generation program 4. Furthermore, the UI unit 40 displays information / data created by each component of the question generation program 4 and the processing content of each component on the display device of the UI device 20. When the question generation device 10 transmits / receives data to / from an external computer via the communication device 18, the UI unit 40 performs a communication process required for communication with these computers.

  The question DB 44 constitutes question storage means for storing a plurality of questions to which attributes are assigned. The question DB 44 is realized by at least one of the memory 16 and the storage device 22. The questions stored in the question DB will be described in detail later.

  The question registration unit 42 receives a question input via the UI device 20 by a survey researcher or an administrator of the question generation device 10 and registers it in the question DB 44. In addition, the question registration unit 42 receives update, deletion, etc. of the question via the UI device 20 and updates, deletes, etc., the question stored in the question DB 44. Note that the question registration unit 42 may accept registration, update, deletion, etc. of questions via the communication device 18.

  The answer DB 52 stores respondents' answers to the questions. The answer DB 52 is realized by the storage device 22 and the like, similarly to the question DB 44. The answer receiving unit 50 receives an answer input by the respondent using the UI device 20 via the UI unit 40 and stores it in the answer DB 52.

  The condition accepting unit 54 accepts the conditions set by the survey investigator and used in the reliability calculation process by the reliability calculation unit 56 described later via the UI unit 40, and sends the conditions to the reliability calculation unit 56. Output. The condition receiving unit 54 may receive a condition via the communication device 18. The conditions received by the condition receiving unit 54 will be described in detail later.

  The reliability calculation unit 56 refers to the answer DB 52, calculates the reliability of the answer to the question regarding the same attribute among a plurality of questions stored in the question DB 44, and outputs the calculated reliability to the question determination unit 46. Here, the reliability calculation unit 56 calculates the reliability of the answer based on the condition received by the condition reception unit 54. The reliability will be described later in detail.

  The question determination unit 46 determines a question based on the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation unit 56. Specifically, the question determination unit 46 refers to the question DB 44, selects a question to be performed next from the questions stored in the question DB 44 based on the calculated reliability, and asks the selected question Output to the display unit 48. The question determination process by the question determination unit 46 will be described in detail later. The question display unit 48 displays the question determined by the question determination unit 46 on the UI device 20.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the questions stored in the question DB 44.
As shown in FIG. 3, an attribute is assigned to each question. Therefore, questions are classified for each attribute. The attributes are set in advance, for example, environmental awareness, depression, pension, declining birthrate, working hours, and the like.

  The question DB 44 is a question in a format (selection format) for selecting one answer from a plurality of stages of answers, and a question in which the answer format is different from the selection format and is answered by inputting a sentence (free format) (Description format) questions are stored. For example, as a question in the selection format, a question that is a combination of a question sentence “Would you like to pick up fallen trash?” And options to answer in five stages from “always pick up” to “not pick up at all” is stored. ing. The respondent selects and answers any one of questions 1 to 5 with respect to such a question in the selection format. In addition, for example, as a free-form question, a question “Do you want to separate garbage?” Is stored. The respondent answers the question in the free description format by inputting a sentence using the keyboard of the UI device 20 or the like.

The question generation device 10 according to the present embodiment ends the question when the reliability is satisfied in the answer data obtained for the question having the predetermined attribute. On the other hand, when the reliability is not satisfied, the question generation device 10 further makes a question having the same attribute. As the reliability index (reliability), a measurement value based on the degree of coincidence, the degree of confirmation, or a false question is used.
Hereinafter, the reliability index calculated by the reliability calculation unit 56 of the question generation program 4 in the question generation apparatus 10 will be described in detail.

  The reliability calculation unit 56 calculates the reliability based on the degree of coincidence. The degree of coincidence is the degree to which the answer values for questions of the same attribute match in the question of the selection format. When the degree of coincidence is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the answer group is determined to have a large variation. For example, the reliability calculation unit 56 calculates a variance based on values answered to a plurality of questions, and calculates a coincidence based on the calculated variance.

  When the degree of coincidence calculated in this way is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the question determination unit 46 determines that the answer to the attribute has a large variation, and determines to further ask a question to which the attribute is assigned. On the other hand, the question determination part 46 complete | finishes the question about this attribute, when a matching degree is more than predetermined value.

  Further, the reliability calculation unit 56 calculates the reliability based on the certainty factor. The certainty factor is the degree (or the number selected) of the median value (the median value in the so-called n-level likert question method) selected by the respondents in the answers to the questions of the same format and the same attribute. . When an answer of “Neither” is set in the selection format, the median may be the degree to which the answer is selected. When the certainty factor is greater than or equal to the predetermined value, the answer group is determined to have low reliability.

  In addition, the reliability calculation unit 56 may calculate the certainty factor based on the number of replies that avoid blanks or mentions. Specifically, when the answer to the question is blank, the reference to the question is avoided. For example, if there are many blanks in the answer, the certainty level is low.

  When the certainty factor calculated in this way is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the question determining unit 46 determines that the answer to the attribute has a low certainty factor, and determines to further perform the question to which the attribute is assigned. . On the other hand, when the certainty factor is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the question determination unit 46 ends the question about the attribute.

  Moreover, the reliability calculation part 56 calculates reliability based on the measured value based on a false question. In this case, the question DB 44 stores in advance a false answer detection question (hereinafter also referred to as a dummy question) for detecting a false answer. The answer to the dummy question is often set to a predetermined value. Alternatively, a predetermined value is often not selected as an answer to the dummy question. For example, if there is an answer to the question “Have you ever spoken about someone else?” With “No” at 1 and “Frequently” at 5, option “1” Are often not selected. In this case, when the respondent selects the option “1”, it is determined that the answer is false. Therefore, the reliability calculation unit 56 calculates the degree when the answer to the dummy question is not within the expected range. If such a degree is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the respondent is determined to be a false respondent.

  When the degree calculated in this way is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the question determination unit 46 determines to further perform a question given the same attribute. If this degree is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the respondent is identified as a false respondent. Therefore, in the questionnaire aggregation, the survey investigator excludes the answer by the respondent from the aggregation target. It is possible to take measures such as reducing the amount of gratitude for the questionnaire.

  The condition receiving unit 54 investigates which of the indexes (the measured value based on the degree of coincidence, the degree of confirmation, or the false question) used for the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation unit 56 is used in the questionnaire. Is received as a condition from the user via the UI device 20 or the like, and is output to the reliability calculation unit 56. Therefore, the reliability calculation unit 56 calculates the reliability under conditions desired by the investigator. Note that, as the reliability-related index, a plurality of indices may be used, or only one of the indices may be used. Further, when a plurality of indexes are used, these indexes may be set in priority order or may be weighted.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an overall operation (S10) by the question generation program 4 of the question generation device 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 4, in step 100 (S100), the question determination unit 46 searches the question DB 44 to determine a question given a predetermined attribute. The condition relating to the reliability is input in advance to the question generation device 10 by the survey researcher, is received by the condition receiving unit 54, and is held by the reliability calculating unit 56.
In step 102 (S102), the question determination unit 46 outputs the searched question to the question display unit 48. The question display unit 48 displays a question screen including the question and options on the UI device 20.

In step 104 (S104), when the respondent inputs an answer, the answer accepting unit 50 accepts the answer input via the UI device 20.
In step 106 (S106), the answer acceptance unit 50 stores the accepted answer in the answer DB 52. In this way, the answers are accumulated in the answer DB 52.

In step 108 (S108), the reliability calculation unit 56 refers to the answer DB 52 and calculates the reliability of the answer to the question regarding the same attribute among the plurality of questions stored in the question DB 44.
In step 110 (S110), the question determination unit 46 determines whether or not a predetermined number of questions have been made for a predetermined attribute. The question determination unit 46 proceeds to the process of S112 when a predetermined number of questions are made, and otherwise determines the next question and returns to the process of S102.

In step 112 (S112), the question determination unit 46 determines whether or not the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation unit 56 for each attribute satisfies a predetermined condition. The question determination unit 46 ends the process when the reliability satisfies the condition, and proceeds to the process of S114 otherwise.
In step 114 (S114), the question determination unit 46 searches the question DB 44 for a question of an attribute that does not satisfy the condition, and returns to the process of S102.

  The question generation device 10 may be realized as a general-purpose personal computer or a server. When the question generation device 10 is realized as a server, the question and the answer to the question are transmitted and received between the question generation device 10 and the client used by the respondent via the network.

Next, the question generation device 10 according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described.
The question generation device 10 according to the present embodiment is that, when the reliability of a predetermined attribute does not satisfy a predetermined condition, the question generation apparatus 10 asks a question regarding the same attribute as the attribute but having a different question format. This is different from the question generation device 10 according to the first embodiment. For example, the question generation device 10 according to the present embodiment further asks questions by changing the question format from a question in a selection format to a question in a free description format.

  More specifically, the question determination unit 46 of the question generation program 4 changes the question format from the selection format to the free description format when the certainty factor is equal to or greater than a predetermined value as the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation unit 56. Then, a question in free description format is selected from the question DB 44.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the overall operation (S20) by the question generation program 4 of the question generation device 10 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Of the processes shown in FIG. 5, substantially the same processes as those shown in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals.
As shown in FIG. 5, a predetermined number of questions are asked for predetermined attributes in the processing of S100 to S110, and it is determined whether or not the reliability satisfies the condition in the processing of S112.

  When the reliability does not satisfy the condition, in step 200 (S200), the question determination unit 46 of the question generation program 4 changes the question format from the selection format to the free description format, and selects the free description format question from the question DB 44. To do. The selected free description format question is displayed on the UI device 20 by the question display unit 48, and an answer to the question is received by the answer receiving unit 50 and stored in the answer DB 52.

It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the question generation apparatus 10 which concerns on embodiment of this invention centering on the control apparatus 12. FIG. It is a figure which shows the function structure of the question production | generation program 4 performed by the control apparatus 12 of the question production | generation apparatus 10 which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the question memorized by question DB44. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation | movement (S10) by the question production | generation program 4 of the question production | generation apparatus 10 which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation | movement (S20) by the question production | generation program 4 of the question production | generation apparatus 10 which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. Is.

Explanation of symbols

4 Question Generation Program 10 Question Generation Device 12 Control Device 14 CPU
16 Memory 18 Communication device 20 UI device 22 Storage device 40 UI unit 42 Question registration unit 44 Question DB
46 Question determining section 48 Question display section 50 Answer receiving section 52 Answer DB
54 Condition Accepting Unit 56 Reliability Calculation Unit

Claims (9)

Question storage means for storing a plurality of questions to which attributes are assigned;
A question generation device comprising: question determination means for determining a question based on a reliability of an answer to a question regarding a same attribute among a plurality of questions stored in the question storage unit. Question storage means for storing a plurality of questions to which attributes are assigned;
Reliability calculation means for calculating the reliability of answers to questions related to the same attribute among the plurality of questions stored in the question storage unit;
A question generation device comprising: question determination means for determining a question based on the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation means. The question generation device according to claim 2, wherein the reliability calculation unit calculates the reliability of an answer based on a degree of coincidence of answers to a question related to the same attribute. The question storage means stores a question in a format for selecting one answer from a plurality of stages of answers,
The said reliability calculation means calculates the reliability of an answer based on the number by which the center thing was selected among the answers of the several step in the question memorize | stored in the said question memory | storage means. Question generator. The question storage means stores a question in a format for selecting one answer from a plurality of stages of answers,
3. The reliability calculation unit calculates the reliability of an answer based on the number of responses that avoid blanks or references among a plurality of stages of answers stored in the question storage unit. Or the question generation apparatus of 3. The question storage means stores a false answer detection question for detecting a false answer,
The question generation device according to claim 2, wherein the reliability calculation unit calculates the reliability based on an answer to the false answer detection question stored in the question storage unit. The question determination means determines to further ask a question regarding the same attribute as the attribute when the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation means does not satisfy a predetermined condition. The question generating device according to the above. The question storage means further stores questions having different answer formats,
The question determination means, when the reliability calculated by the reliability calculation means does not satisfy a predetermined condition, further performs a question relating to the same attribute as the attribute and having a different answer format The question generating device according to claim 7. In a question generation device including a computer and a question storage means for storing a plurality of questions given attributes,
A reliability calculation step of calculating a reliability of an answer to a question regarding the same attribute among the plurality of stored questions;
A program for causing a computer of the question generating device to execute a question determining step of determining a question based on the calculated reliability.

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