Experimental Psychology Seminar - Stephen Dewitt

Abstract: ‘Please explain your response’: A guide to uncovering cognitive processes from open-text box data within experimental psychology

This talk covers advice for gathering, analyzing, and reporting a particular type of qualitative data, obtained from including an open-text box following the key quantitative question in survey-style studies with the request to ‘Please explain your response’. While many studies currently collect such data, they often either fail to report or analyze it, or they conduct unstructured analyses with limited detail, often mistakenly referring to it as ‘thematic analysis’. Content analysis provides a well-established framework for analyzing such data, and the simplicity of the data form allows for a highly pragmatic and flexible approach.  The talk will briefly discuss the value and validity of this data, before offering advice on maximizing that validity, and addressing the common concern of confabulation. It then provides advice on developing a coding scheme, recruiting and collaborating with a second coder, and writing your report, considering the potential role of large language models at these various stages.

Dewitt SH, Liefgreen A, Adler N, Strittmatter LE. ‘Please explain your response’: A guide to uncovering cognitive processes from open-text box data using pragmatic and reflexive content analysis. Judgment and Decision Making. 2025;20:e39. doi:10.1017/jdm.2025.10010