The National Household Education Survey (NHES) is a data collection system of the National Center for Education Statistics which has as its mission the collection and publication of data on the condition of education in the United States. The NHES provides descriptive data through a random digit dialed telephone survey of the noninstitutionalized civilian population of the United States. Approximately 60,000 households are screened for each administration, and individuals who meet the study criteria are sampled for more detailed or extended interviews. Data quality is a central issue for the NHES. Cognitive laboratory research, one of the many efforts to reduce nonsampling error in surveys, draws on the theories and methods of cognitive psychology. Concurrent and delayed methods are used in cognitive laboratory research procedures that can include individual interviews and focus groups. Cognitive laboratory activities are typically audiotaped or videotaped to provide a record of the research. Several examples of the use of cognitive laboratory research in the conduct of the NHES are given. These examples illustrate how taping and analysis of live interviews measured interviewer and respondent behavior during data collection and contributed to understanding words and items that could cause difficulty. Three appendixes present a moderator's topic guide for parent groups, a similar guide for adolescent groups, and a form for coding interviewer-respondent interactions. (Contains 1 appendix table and 23 references.) (SLD)