Peer-reviewed research
Do procedures for verbal reporting of thinking have to be reactive? A meta-analysis and recommendations for best reporting methods
Mark C. Fox et al., Psychological Bulletin, 2011 · DOI 10.1037/a0021663
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- A meta-analysis of 94 studies that compared performance while people talked during a task with a matching silent condition. It tests Ericsson and Simon's model of verbal reports across nearly 3,500 participants.
- How much weight it carries
- Peer-reviewed meta-analysis. The studies cover visual and nonvisual lab tasks, not essay writing, and the results are averages across very different studies. The url is the Europe PMC record for the paper, which carries the abstract.
Facts taken from this source
- Fox, Ericsson and Best's meta-analysis covered 94 studies that compared performance during concurrent verbalization with a silent condition.
“a meta-analysis of 94 studies comparing performance while giving concurrent verbalizations to a matching condition” (Abstract)
- The same meta-analysis found that describing or explaining one's thoughts and actions changes performance: it was higher than in silent control conditions.
“procedures that entail describing or explaining thoughts and actions are significantly reactive, leading to higher performance than silent control conditions” (Abstract)
- In a meta-analysis of 94 studies, procedures that asked people to describe or explain their thoughts and actions changed their performance, unlike plain thinking aloud.
“procedures that entail describing or explaining thoughts and actions are significantly reactive, leading to higher performance than silent control conditions” (Abstract)
- In a 2011 meta-analysis, the effect of think-aloud, saying your thoughts while you do a task, on performance was statistically indistinguishable from zero.
“effect size is indistinguishable from zero (r = -.03)” (Abstract)
- All verbal reporting procedures in the 2011 meta-analysis tended to increase the time needed to complete a task.
“All verbal reporting procedures tend to increase times to complete tasks” (Abstract)