Concepts are the vague and inchoate ideas that comprise theories in various fields of study. They are crucial to survey design because they are the primary ideas that researchers aim to measure and to study.

To translate vague and inchoate concepts into precise statistics through survey questions.

So as to know precisely what is needed to be measured in a survey making the data collected from the survey valid and reliable. Having a clear concept will inform the statistics and estimates derived from the survey.

Review the various literatures on the concept, consider the purpose and context of the various studies that entail the concept, discern various dimensions of the concept, adopt or derive a conceptual definition of the concept of interest.

This situation is reflective of the competing and overlapping purposes and contexts of survey research. Different fields or perspectives may have different approaches to definition through theory. Research may be interested in the same concept but have very different ways of precisely defining it leading to different statistics and estimates.

Government or public policy, industry, and academic research. They are important because they can have different aims and needs associated with research on the same concept that lead to wide ranging differences between estimates and statistics.

The clarification and definition of the concept ‘false memory’. Much higher increases in the estimates of those considered to experience false memories from the majority of established research.