Poll question readability and 'don't know' replies

Can we assume that responses to poll questions actually reflect respondents ' opinions, attitudes, thoughts, or feelings? Several variables can confoun d actual opinions and our interpretations of them. A great deal of 'noise,' including communication breakdowns from difficult-to-follow questions, may hamper the typical opinion poll. Researchers have explored poll questions regarding question order, response order, context effects of preceding ques tions, even gender of the questioner or respondent. Only a few studies, how ever, have looked at the actual complexity or difficulty of the poll questi ons themselves.