Novices´ reasoning processes in a psychological modeling task

This study investigates the reasoning activities during a psychological modeling task. Under examination were 16 participants with different experience in the field of psychology. The task was to create a model of the psychological phenomenon called “visual search“. Gathered data were from think-aloud protocols, the created models and a post test. Participants were grouped in “novices“ and “advanced learners“. The only difference in reasoning activities between the groups was found in time spent on experimenting. A correlation analyses revealed a strong indication for the importance of orientation. Also a difference in experimenting behavior was found, which is suggested for further research.