‘Thinking Aloud’ as a Tool for Data Collection and Basis for Analysis

Abstract

On the basis of video records of church attendance, in which 'thinking aloud' was used as a method of collecting data, this paper analyses the similarities and differences in the church attendance of Aurelia, Saskia and Anton. They viewed the same church and – this was the explicitly stated task – accompanied their visual perception by verbal comments and descriptions of the church interior. The ultimate goal of the analysis of 'thinking aloud' was the reconstruction of the underlying concepts of the attendance, which are largely based on relevancies that the viewers bring along. After outlining the focus of this paper and placing our approach within the context of relevant research, we identify the similarities of the forms of 'thinking aloud' and their functions exhibited in the three church attendances. We then focus on the differences and particularities of the three attendances and identify three independent, inherently conclusive concepts of attendance. These concepts are each characterized by their independent constitution of the church interior during its attendance. We've shown that the church interior is constituted as a religious functional space (Aurelia), as a place of representations of Christ (Saskia) and as an architectural historical context (Anton). The model-like independency of the concepts became clear exclusively through the use of 'thinking aloud'. This method of verbally addressing topics alongside one's visual perception is therefore an important tool for data collection and a technique to access situated cognition within the context of multimodal cultural practices.

Keywords

• multimodality
• multimodal analysis of interaction
• church attendance
• cultural practice
• interactionist analysis of space
• thinking aloud
• language
• cognition