Anusha Garg

Presentation Title

Does Think Aloud Change The Phenomenology of Thought Compared to Silent Mind Wandering

Abstract

The think-aloud procedure, widely used for assessing thought processes during concurrent tasks, has been the subject of previous debates. Previous research suggests that the think-aloud protocol is non-reactive, but introspection on thoughts has been found to improve task performance accuracy. However, little research has been conducted to determine if the think-aloud protocol remains non-reactive during the spontaneous stream of thoughts (SST). The current exploratory study aims to compare the quality of thoughts obtained using the think-aloud procedure (verbalizing thoughts during the task) versus the silent mind wandering procedure (silently thinking thoughts). Participants engaged in both protocols separately, without a concurrent task. Our hypotheses focused on several aspects. Firstly, within the think-aloud procedure, we expected participants to exhibit a lower rate of topic switches, resulting in a narrower range of covered topics and more repetitive thinking compared to the silent mind wandering protocol. Secondly, we hypothesized that participants would have better memory of their thoughts and display more productive, creative, and goal-directed thinking. Finally, we anticipated that the negative effects typically associated with mind wandering during tasks would be reduced during think aloud, as participants would be less bored. However, our findings revealed no significant differences in the aforementioned variables between silent thinking and think aloud, except for a lower occurrence of repetitive thoughts in the think-aloud protocol. This exploratory study contributes valuable insights into the reactivity of the think-aloud protocol.