Use of written responses in the stimulated recall method

To determine whether written responses could be substituted for oral responses in the stimulated recall technique, 53 students from a course in general psychology were given a lecture on intelligence and personality defense mechanisms, and asked to write responses to a subsequent tape recorded presentation of the original lecture. The responses were rated for relevant thought and correlated with an immediate test and with final grades in the general psychology course. Correlations significant at the .01 or .05 level were obtained with both criteria. It was concluded that written responses were sufficiently reliable and valid to use in further investigation of classroom learning.