WASHINGTON (MktNews) - If the stock market keeps falling, consumer confidence might be in trouble, the director of the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center tells Market News International. Richard Curtin is the director of SRC, the largest of three centers of the University's Institute for Social Research which produces measures of consumer sentiment that date to its inception in 1946. The survey involves the collection and analysis of data from scientific sample surveys, and is meant to gauge the importance of individuals' spending and saving decisions for the U.S. economy. The center's preliminary measure of consumer sentiment was reported Friday to be at an index number of 91.8 for March, up from 90.6 in February. Given the fact that the survey was based on only a fraction of the minimum of 500 interviews that are repeated each month, there was speculation about whether the recent stock market gyrations were fully captured in the report. The preliminary report was sound technique, Curtin said. "It is of course true that all of the responses to the stock declines were captured" in the recent data. But it is possible on-going stock price declines will have some further effect on the figure. "If the stock market keeps falling so too will consumer confidence," Curtin added.