Comparing results from different styles of cognitive interviewing: ‘verbal probing’ vs. ‘thinking aloud’

Two styles of cognitive interviewing exist, thinking aloud (TA) and verbal probing (VP), but there have been few studies undertaken which compare the two. This paper reports on such a comparison, which was undertaken in order to understand the merits and drawbacks of each approach. VP finds more problems than TA. TA appears to be better at examining respondents’ understandings of the underlying concepts behind each question; VP is better for exploring specific terms in each question. TA interviews appeared to generate more information about how respondents used information from their past experiences to select codes in closed‐ended questions. However, in terms of the eventual redrafting of the questions respondents were asked about, there was very little difference between the VP and TA interviews.