Getting something out of nothing: Analyzing patterns of null responses to improve data collection methods in sub-Saharan Africa

•Assessment characteristics differentially impact patterns of responsiveness.•Using written stimuli resulted in more missing values compared to visual stimuli.•Open-ended answer choices generated more missing values than closed answer choices.•Action responses resulted in more missing values than other responses.•Age and socio-economic status accounted for some variation in missing values.

Careful development and adaptation of assessments are imperative for cultural psychological research. However, despite the best efforts, the use of assessments in new contexts can reveal atypical and/or unexpected patterns of performance. We found this to be the case in the testing of assessments to be used for a larger investigation of Specific Reading Disabilities in Zambia. In a sample of 207 children (100 female) from grades 2 to 7, we illustrated that assessment characteristics (i.e., stimulus type, answer choice, and response type) differentially impact patterns of responsiveness. The number of missing values was the highest for assessments that (1) used written stimuli, (2) had an open-ended answer choice, and (3) required an action response. Age and socio-economic status explained some of the variance in responsiveness in selected, but not all assessments. Consideration of the impact of stimulus and response types when adapting assessments cross-linguistically and cross-culturally is essential.