Protocol Analysis ─ Verbal Reports As Data

Since the publication of Ericsson and Simon's ground-breaking work in the early1980s, verbal data has been used increasingly to study cognitive processes in many areas ofpsychology, and concurrent and retrospective verbal reports are now generally accepted as importantsources of data on subjects' cognitive processes in specific tasks. In this revised edition of thebook that first put protocol analysis on firm theoretical ground, the authors review major advancesin verbal reports over the past decade, including new evidence on how giving verbal reports affectssubjects' cognitive processes, and on the validity and completeness of such reports.In a substantialnew preface Ericsson and Simon summarize the central issues covered in the book and provide anupdated version of their information-processing model, which explains verbalization and verbalreports. They describe new studies on the effects of verbalization, interpreting the results ofthese studies and showing how their theory can be extended to account for them. Next, they addressthe issue of completeness of verbally reported information, reviewing the new evidence in threeparticularly active task domains. They conclude by citing recent contributions to the techniques forencoding protocols, raising general issues, and proposing directions for future research.Allreferences and indexes have been updated.K. Anders Ericsson holds the Dr. Edward Conradi EminentScholar Chair of Psychology at Florida State University. Herbert Simon is Professor of Psychology atCarnegie-Mellon University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 1978.

K. Anders Ericsson holds the Dr. Edward Conradi Eminent Scholar Chair of Psychology at Florida State University.