| Think aloud |
Participant talks through their mental processes and memory retrieval as they interpret questions and formulate answers
(Knafl et al., 2007) |
(Willis, 2005) |
High cognitive burden on participant Confusing for many participants, particularly poorer and less educated participants, who are unfamiliar with idea of reflecting and articulating thoughts Can be embarrassing for participants who do not understand the request Does not allow for targeted exploration of areas of researcher’s interest
(Miller, 2003; Zeldenryk et al., 2013) |
| Probing |
Scripted: Researcher uses pre-developed questions to interview participant about their interpretation of the question, such as ‘what does [word] mean to you?’ or ‘why did you say [answer]?’ (Weeks, Swerissen and Belfrage, 2007)
Emergent: Research formulates probes during the cognitive interview to explore emergent issues, such as ‘Earlier you said you had never done [activity] but now you said you had completed [sub-activity]. Why did you say that?’ (Beatty and Willis, 2007; Zeldenryk et al., 2013) |
Lower burden on respondent More comfortable and natural for respondents to answer interview questions than articulate their thought processes Enables researcher to explore inconsistencies and seemingly illogical responses
(Miller, 2003; Zeldenryk et al., 2013) |
May be misinterpreted by respondents as an examination or a test of their knowledge, vocabulary skills, or cognitive abilities, thus leading to respondent withdrawal or nervousness Emergent probing in particular requires that the researcher has complete familiarity with the topic being studied as well as the intent of each survey question and overall flow and content of the entire survey so that they can track meaning and make connections across the survey questions
|
