Think-Aloud Protocol Analysis

Protocol analysis is a rigorous methodology for eliciting verbal reports of thought sequences of data on thinking, reasoning, problem solving, reading, and learning. The study of thinking reemerged with the cognitive revolution and information processing theories of psychological phenomena in the 1950s. In the new research approach to the study of thought processes, participants were asked to think aloud, leading to a new type of verbal reports of thinking that differed from the earlier introspective methods and became the core method of protocol analysis. Traditionally, verbal reports of all types are collected from humans, ranging in expertise, while performing tasks in their domain such as diagnosing a mammogram, solving a physics problem, reading a history text, solving a math problem, writing a computer program, and ...