Do children try to answer nonsensical questions?

Abstract

Previous researchers found that young children will try to answer nonsensical questions. In Expt 1, 5-to 8-year-olds were asked sensible and nonsensical questions. Half of each type were 'closed' questions (which required a yes/no response), and half were 'open' questions (which could be answered in several ways). Three weeks later the same children were asked to judge if the questions were sensible or silly. Children answered all the sensible questions appropriately, and only attempted to answer a small proportion of the nonsensical open questions. However, they did try to answer three-quarters of the nonsensical closed questions. Nonetheless, children were nearly always correct in judging which questions were sensible and which were nonsensical. In Expt 1 all the closed nonsensical questions were also ones that required a comparison between two items. In Expt 2 we compared children's responses to nonsensical open and closed questions when half of each type were comparative and half were non-comparative. Children attempted to answer nonsensical closed questions irrespective of whether or not they included a comparison. However, few children attempted to answer nonsensical open questions. We discuss the implications of these results for questioning children and in the context of children's eyewitness testimony.

Asked and Answered: Questioning Children in the Courtroom

“…Older children (> 10 years), however, were more likely than younger children (< 10 years) to seek clarification for complex questions asked by either lawyer. This finding is highly consistent with past research (Hughes & Grieve, 1980;Markman, 1977Markman, , 1979Perry et al, 1995;Pratt, 1990;Waterman et al, 2000). One likely explanation for this finding is that younger children may have insufficient metacognitive skills to judge whether or not they have understood a question.…”

“…Children who have not understood a question rarely seek clarification (Markman, 1977(Markman, , 1979, and are likely to attempt answers to complex, or even nonsensical, questions (Hughes & Grieve, 1980;Markman, 1979;Perry, McAuliffe, Tam, Claycomb, Dostal, & Flanagan, 1995;Pratt, 1990;Waterman, Blades, & Spencer, 2000).…”

“…Waterman et al (2000), for example, found that children's willingness to answer nonsensical questions may depend on whether the question is open (and thus has an unlimited range of responses) or closed (and thus has a restricted range of responses). In the Waterman et al study, 5-to 8-year-old children attempted to answer 75% of nonsensical closed questions (e.g., "Is a box louder than a knee?…”

Crossmodal correspondences between odors and contingent features: odors, musical notes, and geometrical shapes

“…This is what happens with children, who it has been shown are ready to answer apparently arbitrary questions posed by adults-for instance, whether jumpers are angrier than trees, or whether red is heavier than yellow (see, e.g., Hughes & Grieve, 1980;C. Pratt, 1990;Waterman, Blades, & Spencer, 2000, 2001. The closed format of the question encourages the participant to pick one of the two suggested Cohen (1934) von Hornbostel (1931) Gilbert (1994, 1997) Schiller ( Odors seem to be unique in that they are mapped to attributes belonging to all the other modalities.…”

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire: the Effect of Truncated Testimony on Juror Decision‐making

“…One week after listening to the story, half of the children were asked misleading questions and half of the children were asked misleading questions combined with additional interview techniques that were drawn from the McMartin Preschool case, including the interviewer praising the child, using positive reinforcement, and informing the child what other children had said about Manny. Children who were interviewed with a combination of techniques made over three times more false allegations against Manny than did children in the misleading questions only condition (58% vs. 17% (Waterman, Blades, & Spencer, 2000 answered the yes/no questions appropriately when they were asked the sensible questions and the questions that were considered answerable based on the information given. However, when children were asked questions that did not make sense or that they could not possibly answer, they often incorrectly said "yes" in response to closed questions instead of saying that they did not know the answer.…”