Cognitive Assessment: Think-Aloud and Thought-Listing Technique

Woelke J, Pelzer E

Abstract

Analyses of cognitive responses have been central to empirical research in communication since the cognitive turn in psychology as well as the establishment of transactional models of perception and reception at the beginning of the 1980s. Methods developed for analyses of judgment, information processing, and the impact of persuasive communication means that cognitive reactions are accessible in two different ways: the think‐aloud procedure and the thought‐listing technique. Current fields of application of these methods in the context of media and communication include research on the acquisition of social networking media, learning with multimedia, usability and eye‐tracking studies as well as research on the acquisition of media services in a social and interpersonal context. Furthermore, the use of both methods is currently being intensively discussed in qualitative research.