Related Experiment Videos
Effects of concurrent verbalization on a time-critical, dynamic decision-making task.
J Dickson1, J McLennan, M M Omodei
1Swinburne at Lilydale, Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria, Australia. jdickson@swin.edu.au
The Journal of General Psychology
|June 8, 2000
Summary
Concurrent verbalization, especially procedural, impaired student performance on dynamic decision-making tasks. Silence led to better outcomes than verbalizing task-related thoughts.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Educational Technology
Background:
- Effective decision-making is crucial in dynamic, time-critical environments.
- Concurrent verbalization, or thinking aloud, is a common strategy explored in cognitive research.
- Its impact on complex task performance, particularly in simulated environments, requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how concurrent verbalization affects performance in a dynamic decision-making task.
- To differentiate the effects of associative versus procedural verbalization.
Main Methods:
- Sixty participants trained on the Fire Chief computer microworld were randomly assigned to silence, associative verbalization, or procedural verbalization conditions.
- Performance was assessed on the time-critical, dynamic decision-making task.
Main Results:
- Procedural verbalization led to significantly worse performance compared to the silence condition.
- Associative verbalization showed a small, non-significant performance decrement, with results falling between the other two conditions.
Conclusions:
- Concurrent procedural verbalization negatively impacts performance on dynamic decision-making tasks.
- Cognitive load associated with verbalizing decision bases may hinder performance.
- Implications for training and task design in complex environments should consider the type of concurrent verbalization.