NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ1480023
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Sep
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0007-1013
EISSN: EISSN-1467-8535
Available Date: 2025-04-22
Cognitive Echo: Enhancing Think-Aloud Protocols with LLM-Based Simulated Students
Longwei Zheng1; Anna He2; Changyong Qi2; Haomin Zhang3; Xiaoqing Gu4
British Journal of Educational Technology, v56 n5 p2019-2042 2025
In the field of education, the think-aloud protocol is commonly used to encourage learners to articulate their thoughts during the learning process, providing observers with valuable insights into learners' cognitive processes beyond the final learning outcomes. However, the implementation of think-aloud protocols faces challenges such as task interference and limitations in completeness and authenticity of verbal reports. This study proposes a method called Cognitive Echo, which leverages large language models (LLMs) trained with simulated student experiences to enhance the completeness and authenticity of think-aloud verbalizations. LLMs have been demonstrated to simulate human-like behaviour more effectively by memorizing experiences. In this work, we introduce specific learner roles and train the LLMs to act as distinct learners. Our method involves integrating transaction data from learners' interactions with a tutoring system and the tutor's content to create interactive experiences between learners and teachers, thereby training the model to become simulated students with learning experiences. To investigate the effectiveness of this approach, we designed a test playground based on the retrospective think-aloud protocol and examined how LLM-trained simulated students improve cognitive process transparency and generalization of learning strategies. The study found that Cognitive Echo not only reveals what simulated students genuinely think about their learning experiences but also enables them to transfer their different cognitive strategies to new tasks. By training simulated students on real learning behaviour data to ensure their cognitive processes reflect authentic learner experiences, this approach will extend think-aloud protocols to more practice-oriented applications.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1School of Education, City University of Macau, Macau, China; 2Shanghai Institute of AI for Education and School of Computer Science and Technology, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; 3Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, City University of Macau, Macau, China; 4Department of Education Information and Technology, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China