有声思维法效度与任务难度的关系：中国学生用无声和有声思维处理任务效果的对比研究

The relation between validity of think-aloud and task difficulty: A comparison between Chinese students’ task performances when they thought silently and thought aloud

为探讨有声思维的效度问题，本研究比较了30 名中国女大学生运用无声思维和有声思维两种方式解决瑞文高级推理能力测试题（以下简称测试题）的效果，同时考察了以上效果是否受题目难度因素的影响。被试分两组以相反的顺序分别使用无声思维和有声思维两种方式解答两套同质测试题。两套测试题均包含数量各半的难、易两种题目。测试前，所有被试完成一份关于语言背景和对测试题熟悉度的问卷。测试后，所有被试对测试指导和有声思维过程作出评价。根据实验结果，本研究没有发现被试运用两种不同思维方式处理共时任务的效果存在显著差异，也没有发现任务难度因素的相关显著影响。本研究结果不支持Kim（2002）所提出的来自亚洲文化背景的被试不适应有声思维的观点，而从一定程度上说明了有声思维作为研究工具运用于中国被试具有一定可行性，所得数据具有一定可靠性。

To explore the validity issue of think-aloud, the present study compared 30 Chinese female university students’ performances in solving Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) under two thinking conditions, either thinking silently or thinking aloud. Besides, it examined whether the performances were affected by a moderator variable—item difficulty. The subjects were separated into two cross-balanced groups and asked to think silently and think aloud respectively when solving two comparable sets of APM items. In each set, half of the items were relatively lower in difficulty level than the other half. Before the tests, all the participants answered a questionnaire mainly about their language background and their familiarity with solving APM or similar items. After the two tests, they finished another questionnaire about their comments on the test instruction and their attitudes towards thinking aloud. Results show that in the case of the present subjects, the two different thinking conditions did not lead to any significant performance difference and the moderator variable did not have any significant effect. The results to a certain extent challenge Kim’s conclusion that thinking aloud was not suitable for subjects from the background of Asian culture (2002). Besides, the results indicate that Chinese subjects could be suitable subjects in the studies applying think-aloud, and the data collected can be valid.