Relatore: Professor Bruno OSIMO - Bruno Osimo, traduzioni ...

The memory model can explain why. Retrospection means that people
must retrieve information from long-term memory and then verbalize it. The
inconvenience is that the retrieval process may not reproduce all the
information that was actually present in working memory during the problem-
solving activity.
Furthermore, it is also possible that people retrieve information that was
not actually in working memory as if it was. “After solving the problem, the
solution will help to remember the steps that actually led to it” and to
reconstruct them easily. “However, odd and fruitless steps that occurred on
the way are less likely to be retrieved” (Someren, Barnard and Sandberg 1994:
22).
2. 1. 3. QUESTIONS AND PROMPTING
Another verbalizing procedure implies actually interrupting the problem-
solving process: subjects are asked questions during the activity or are
prompted at given intervals to tell what they are thinking or doing. Therefore,
they don’t have the chance to smooth over the answer as in retrospection. The
drawback of this method is that it interrupts the problem-solving process and
subjects may have difficulty in taking up the thread. Moreover, prompts that
require interpretation may affect the problem-solving process (Someren,
Barnard and Sandberg 1994).
2. 1. 4. THINKING ALOUD
The thinking aloud method differs from classical introspection and
retrospection in that it is undirected and concurrent. The verbalizations are
produced simultaneously with the task performance, but the subject is not as a
rule required to verbalize specific information. “Due to memory limitations
concurrent and undirected reporting is likely to capture more of the process
(less is forgotten) more reliably (less is distorted)” (Jääskeläinen 1999: 66).
According to Ericsson & Simon (1993), thinking aloud does not interfere
with the task performance and the thought process. The subject solves a
problem while the talking is executed almost automatically; in fact, almost all
10