Effects of think-aloud on students' multiple-documents comprehension

This study explored the impact of the think-aloud research methodology on multiple-documents comprehension outcomes. The participants in this study were 168 University students. The procedure included three steps. First, students were administered the tests measuring prior topic beliefs, topic interest, and topic knowledge. Then, students were given six documents to read, and were randomly assigned to two conditions, think-aloud versus silent-reading. Finally, students were asked to write an argumentative essay, judge the trustworthiness of the six documents and report to what extent they had used specific justification criteria. No significant differences were found in the argumentative essay, whereas the think-aloud condition partially influenced participants' trustworthiness judgments and use of justification criteria. Implications of the results are discussed.