Protocol analysis as a tool for behavior analysis.
Collect talk-aloud data during task performance and avoid asking participants why they behaved to keep verbal reports reliable.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bromley et al. (1998) wrote a how-to guide for collecting talk-aloud data.
They explained when to ask people to speak their thoughts out loud while they work.
The paper warns you not to ask "why" questions because those prompts twist the data.
What they found
The authors found that timing matters. Ask for words while the task is happening, not after.
They also found that one wrong prompt can push people to guess instead of report.
How this fits with other research
Burney et al. (2023) also want richer data, but they push for open interviews instead of live talk-aloud. Both papers agree: plain numbers miss context.
Neely et al. (2024) give a newer tech twist. They tell you to clean and share big data sets so machines can spot patterns. Bromley et al. (1998) did the same job by hand with spoken words.
Jensen et al. (2013) bring in math from phone engineers. Like J et al., they import an outside tool to measure behavior more finely.
Why it matters
Next time you want to see inside a client’s head, have them talk while they work. Stay quiet, record, and never ask "why." You will get cleaner data and better ideas for intervention.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The study of thinking is made difficult by the fact that many of the relevant stimuli and responses are not apparent. Although the use of verbal reports has a long history in psychology, it is only recently that Ericsson and Simon's (1993) book on verbal reports explicated the conditions under which such reports may be reliable and valid. We review some studies in behavior analysis and cognitive psychology that have used talk-aloud reporting. We review particular methods for collecting reliable and valid verbal reports using the "talk-aloud" method as well as discuss alternatives to the talk-aloud procedure that are effective under different task conditions, such as the use of reports after completion of very rapid task performances. We specifically caution against the practice of asking subjects to reflect on the causes of their own behavior and the less frequently discussed problems associated with providing inappropriate social stimulation to participants during experimental sessions.
The Analysis of verbal behavior, 1998 · doi:10.1007/BF03392922