The research reported in this article provides the first direct experimenta
l comparison between Event History Calendar (EHC; N = 309; 84.4 percent res
ponse rate) and standardized state-of-the-art question list (Q-list; N = 30
7; 84.1 percent response rate) interviewing methodologies. Respondents and
20 interviewers were randomly assigned to EHC and Q-list interviews that we
re conducted via telephone in the spring of 1998. All interviews asked for
retrospective reports on social and economic behaviors that occurred during
the calendar years of 1996 and 1997. Using data from the same respondents
collected 1 year earlier on events reported during 1996 as a standard of co
mparison, the quality of retrospective reports on 1996 events from the 1998
administration of EHC and Q-list interviews was assessed. In comparison to
the Q-list, the EHC condition led to better-quality retrospective reports
on moves, income, weeks unemployed, and weeks missing work resulting from s
elf illness, the illness of another, or missing work for these reasons in c
ombination with other ones. For reports of household members entering the r
esidence, and number of jobs, the EHC led to significantly more overreporti
ng than the Q-list. Contingent on additional research that examines a wider
range of reference periods and different modes of interviewing, the EHC ma
y become a viable and potentially superior method to the Q-list in the coll
ection of self-reported retrospective information.