AICP Research and Assessment Methods 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A planner needs to estimate future population for a small rural county with limited historical data. Which method is MOST suitable?
- Cohort-component method requiring detailed age/sex data
- Simple linear extrapolation of the last two census counts
- Symptomatic indicators method using housing permits and school enrollment (Correct answer)
- Agent-based modeling
Correct answer: Symptomatic indicators method using housing permits and school enrollment
Symptomatic indicators use readily available proxy data like permits and enrollment to estimate population change when detailed demographic data is scarce.
Question 2: Which of the following BEST defines 'construct validity' in planning research?
- The degree to which a measure accurately reflects the theoretical concept it claims to measure (Correct answer)
- Whether results can be replicated by another researcher
- The extent to which findings apply to other populations or settings
- Whether the study was conducted without researcher bias
Correct answer: The degree to which a measure accurately reflects the theoretical concept it claims to measure
Construct validity assesses whether a measurement instrument truly captures the abstract concept or construct it is designed to measure.
Question 3: A regional planning agency conducts a travel demand survey by intercepting commuters at park-and-ride facilities. The MAIN limitation of this approach is:
- It cannot collect origin-destination data
- It over-represents transit and park-and-ride users and misses other travel modes (Correct answer)
- Survey responses cannot be coded into GIS
- It violates Institutional Review Board requirements
Correct answer: It over-represents transit and park-and-ride users and misses other travel modes
Intercept surveys at specific facilities introduce selection bias by only capturing users of that facility, missing the broader travel population.
Question 4: In benefit-cost analysis for a proposed highway project, which value would MOST appropriately be used to monetize time savings for commuters?
- Federal minimum wage
- Median wage of engineers who designed the project
- Value of travel time savings derived from wage rate studies (Correct answer)
- The cost of gasoline per mile
Correct answer: Value of travel time savings derived from wage rate studies
Travel time savings are monetized using the value of travel time (VOT) derived from revealed or stated preference wage rate studies.
Question 5: A planner wants to understand why residents oppose a proposed wind energy facility. After conducting 15 in-depth interviews with no new themes emerging, the planner should:
- Continue interviewing until reaching 100 participants
- Conclude data collection because theoretical saturation has been reached (Correct answer)
- Switch to a quantitative survey to confirm findings
- Discard qualitative data in favor of GIS analysis
Correct answer: Conclude data collection because theoretical saturation has been reached
Theoretical saturation occurs when additional data collection yields no new themes, indicating sufficient depth has been achieved in qualitative research.
Question 6: Which scenario represents a Type I error in planning research hypothesis testing?
- Concluding a transit program had no effect when it actually did
- Concluding a program was effective when it actually had no effect (Correct answer)
- Selecting too small a sample size
- Failing to control for confounding variables
Correct answer: Concluding a program was effective when it actually had no effect
A Type I error is a false positive—incorrectly rejecting a true null hypothesis and concluding an effect exists when it does not.
Question 7: A planner is using the gravity model for retail trade area analysis. Increasing the friction coefficient in the model would MOST likely result in:
- Larger predicted trade areas for all retail centers
- Smaller predicted trade areas, reflecting greater sensitivity to distance (Correct answer)
- Equal distribution of shoppers across all centers regardless of distance
- Higher predicted sales volumes for large regional malls
Correct answer: Smaller predicted trade areas, reflecting greater sensitivity to distance
A higher friction coefficient makes the gravity model more sensitive to distance, predicting that shoppers will travel shorter distances and trade areas will contract.
AICP Research and Assessment Methods 3
A planner needs to estimate future population for a small rural county with limited historical data.
Which method is MOST suitable?