Data Collection & Analysis
Mental ModelingAfter data has been collected through knowledge elicitation methods, one method to manage and make sense of this data is to use mental models. Mental models can make sure expertise from the past is not lost or to compare the knowledge structures of novices and experts. Once information is more appropriately organized using methods such as concept maps, conceptual analysis, and relational analysis it can be used to generate valuable tools such as training programs or decision aids.
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Conceptual Analysis
What is Conceptual Analysis?
Conceptual analysis is a type of content analysis that quantifies the presence of a concept in a text.
Why Use Conceptual Analysis?
The advantage of conceptual analysis is that it reduces the text so that there is a more manageable amount of information to interpret
When Use Conceptual Analysis?
Conceptual analysis is used when working with a large body of text that needs to be analyzed. It is better when used with relational analysis, as interpretation is limited when using only conceptual analysis
How to Use Conceptual Analysis?
- Look for occurrence of explicit and implicit terms in body of text
- Must decide level of implication of occurrences
- Coding implicit terms should use a specialized dictionary or contextual translation rules for reliability and validity.
Methods
Coding is a form of Selective reduction, the text is reduced to categories consisting of a word, set of words or phrases, on which the researcher can focus. Specific words or patterns are indicative of the research question and determine levels of analysis and generalization. Coding places a heavy emphasis on research purpose.
Step 0: Establish Research Question
Carley's (1993) eight category coding steps:
1. Decide the level of analysis (single words vs. phrases)
2. Decide how many concepts to code for (pre-defined vs. interactive)
- pre-defined keeps you focused
- interactive allows flexibility
- should balance the two priorities
3. Decide whether to code for existence vs frequency
- Existence: did word/phrase occur?
- Frequency: how many times did it occur?
4. Decide how to distinguish among concepts
- decide level of generalization: can more than one word/phrase be assigned to a
general category?
- i.e., expensive, cheap, inexpensive, costly could all be coded as "cost"
5. Develop rules for coding your text.
- Translation rules: allow streamlining and organizing codes.
- Improves consistency/reliability
6. Decide what to do with "irrelevant" info.
- Ignore it? Reexamine coding scheme to account for it?
7. Code the texts
- Can use computer programs do much of the work for you if you code properly.
8. Analyze results
- Examine data and draw conclusions.
- Attend to uncoded ("irrelevant") data (i.e., delete it, reiterate coding scheme and rerun coding).
- Limits our analysis to frequencies
- Advocates continuing to relational analysis.
Steps 1-6 all take place before any coding happens. Explicating purpose and rules is highly important.