Any PD who's worked long enough in a library-based format has a few horror stories connected with an auditorium music test or "AMT."

Maybe it's the group of respondents walking across the hotel parking lot together. They may have been friends who'd referred one another to the field service or they're veterans of so many research studies together that they've become friends.

Maybe it's you pacing frantically from the meeting room to the parking lot … in the hope that enough respondents show up.

Maybe it's a traffic jam or bad weather that caused a light turnout or cancellation.

Maybe it's something more exotic, like:

• Respondents going to a bar during the break and returning half in the bag.
• Or a respondent who brought a 6-pack to the test.
• Or a respondent with a seeing eye dog.
• Or a respondent who can't read or write.
• Or a respondent who went into labor.
• Or a CD or MP3 player that skipped or stuttered or just failed.
• Or breaking news that distracted respondents or caused them to leave.
• Or burned popcorn in the hotel bar causing an evacuation, including the meeting room where the test is being conducted.
• Or a competing station handing out T-shirts and bumper stickers to respondents who are entering a hotel for your test.

All of those things really happened at auditorium music tests. But none of them are the worst things that happen with AMT's. The worst things that happen with AMT's are the things you don't see.

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