Learning By Asking: How Children Ask Questions To Achieve Efficient Search

Azzurra Ruggeri, Tania Lombrozo

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

One way to learn about the world is by asking questions. We investigate how children (n= 287, 7- to 11-year olds) and young adults (n=160 17- to 18-year olds) ask questions to identify the cause of an event. We find a developmental shift in children's reliance on hypothesis-scanning questions (which test hypotheses directly) versus constraint-seeking questions (which reduce the space of hypotheses), but also that all age groups ask more constraint-seeking questions when hypothesis-scanning questions are unlikely to pay off: when the problem is difficult (Studies 1 and 2) or the solution is one among equally likely alternatives (Study 2). These findings are the first to demonstrate that even young children adapt their strategies for inquiry to increase the efficiency of information search.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014
PublisherThe Cognitive Science Society
Pages1335-1340
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9780991196708
StatePublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes
Event36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014 - Quebec City, Canada
Duration: 23 Jul 201426 Jul 2014

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014

Conference

Conference36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2014
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityQuebec City
Period23/07/1426/07/14

Keywords

  • 20-questions game
  • active learning
  • cognitive development
  • information search

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