ABSTRACT
Concurrent verbal protocols are an important tool for investigating the comprehension strategies that support deep comprehension. In this methodology, participants talk or write about their understanding during reading. The protocols produced reveal the strategies that readers are using to understand what they read (e.g., inferences that support mental model construction, metacognitive learning strategies). In this chapter, we review research using different types of concurrent verbal protocols (e.g., think-aloud, self-explanation, and question-answer protocols) to investigate the processes that support deep comprehension. We also discuss approaches for the computer-based analyses of these verbal protocols and the viability of these approaches and their application in technology-based tools to assess and teach strategies that lead to deep comprehension.
