ABSTRACT
The purpose of verbal protocol analysis is to make “valid inferences” from the content of discourse (Weber, 1990). In human factors applications, this discourse is a written transcript gained from individuals thinking aloud as they perform a task. The valid content of this written transcript can be found either within individual words, word senses, phrases, sentences, or themes. The analysis proceeds by extracting this valid content and categorizing it according to a defined categorization scheme. Thus, verbal protocol analysis is a means of data reduction, of keeping the content derived from verbal transcripts manageable in size and theoretically valid. This enables relevant concepts or interrelationships to be analyzed and inferred.
