SELF-MONITORING DURING EXPLORATION OF AN INTERACTIVE DEVICE

We report four experiments in which we manipulated the conditions unde r which subjects explored an unfamiliar interactive device without the benefit of assistance or instruction. Our aim was to increase the amo unt of knowledge subjects acquired about the device and to influence h ow efficient they were at later applying the operational procedures th ey discovered. The interventions were to interrupt subjects' explorati on at regular intervals and ask them to verbally report on what they h ad learned so far (Experiment 1) or to state their future intention (E xperiment 2). Both manipulations yielded significant benefits, when co mpared to subjects who explored the same device without such interrupt ions. In Experiment 3 there were four conditions in which interrupted subjects reported on topics of different levels of relevance to the ta sk. This experiment showed that it is the relevance of the verbalised content as opposed to an ''incubation'' period which affects performan ce in a beneficial manner. Finally we investigated whether it was nece ssary to employ external prompts to obtain these effects (Experiment 4 ). It was found that subjects were in fact able to effectively interru pt their work in order to review their progress. (C) 1996 Academic Pre ss Limited