Verbalization

Verbalization is the process of expressing thoughts, feelings, or mental content in language, typically spoken but also written. In everyday use, it refers to articulating internal experiences so they can be communicated to others. In psychology and education, verbalization often refers to the deliberate externalization of cognitive processes, especially through think-aloud protocols in which participants vocalize their thoughts while performing a task.

Researchers use verbalization to study problem solving, reading comprehension, and metacognition, distinguishing between external verbalization (speech that others hear) and inner verbalization or silent verbalization (inner speech). External verbalization makes reasoning accessible to observers, while inner verbalization operates as a private, cognitive modality.

Applications include teaching and coaching strategies that encourage students to verbalize their reasoning to improve strategy awareness and self-regulation. In reading instruction, verbalizing predictions, questions, and summaries helps monitoring comprehension. In cognitive therapy and psychodynamics, verbalization of feelings or unconscious material is used to facilitate insight and emotional processing.

Verbalization interacts with language production, working memory, and executive control; not all thoughts are easily verbalizable, and asking people to verbalize can alter the cognitive process being studied. Methodological issues include reactivity and the challenge of encoding and interpreting spontaneous speech; researchers use content analysis to categorize verbal data.

Related concepts include think-aloud protocols, self-talk (inner speech), and verbal behavior. Verbalization is thus a cross-disciplinary concept, spanning psychology, education, linguistics, and psychotherapy.