Modifying the Questioning Strategies of Young Children and Elderly Adults with Strategy-Modeling Techniques

Abstract

We investigated the effect of various strategy-modeling techniques on the performance of both young children and elderly adults on the 20 Questions Task. In experiment I, 6-year-old children and elderly adults received training in either how to classify the stimuli, how to ask constraint-seeking questions, or how to use the information gained from the answers to their questions. Only training in how to ask constraint-seeking questions significantly facilitated performance. In experiment II, 4- to 6-year-old children and elderly adults were given training that was successful in experiment I: providing an example of a constraint-seeking question and providing the rule for generating a constraint-seeking question. Both types of training facilitated the performance of both young children and elderly adults.

Why Nouns Trump Verbs in Word Learning: New Evidence from Children and Adults in the Human Simulation Paradigm

“…Children tended to adopt a 'local' view, basing their word guesses primarily on the information available within a given scene, which is consistent with evidence regarding children's approaches to resolving uncertainty in other problem-solving tasks (e.g., Denney & Connors, 1974;Denney, Jones, & Krigel, 1979;Courage, 1989). Adults, in contrast, took a more 'global' approach, collecting information across multiple scenes to converge on the correct answer.…”

“…There is strong evidence that the strategies that children invoke to resolve the uncertainty in the game of 20-questions change dramatically through the elementary school years (Denney & Connors, 1974;Denney, Jones, & Krigel, 1979). Courage (1989) found that children ages four through seven performed poorly in a game in which they were required to identify a target item from among a set of eight items by asking the experimenter as few yes-no questions as possible.…”

Aging, Training, and the Brain: A Review and Future Directions

“…Beneficial effects of training have also been found for the game “Twenty Questions”, which requires individuals to search a space of possible answers via strategic questions. Older adults are less likely to use optimal search strategies, but Denney et al (1979) demonstrated that their performance improved after watching a model use more strategic, constraining questions (that is, questions that divide the search space in about half).…”

Children's Inquiry Strategies in Referential Communication and in the Game of Twenty Questions

“…Specifically, research on the acquisition of inquiry strategies in the game of Twenty Questions indicates that while children gradually shift their questions from the single-item type to the categorical type between the ages of 6 and 11 years, they will readily make this shift at an earlier age following training (Denney & Connors, 1974;Denney, Jones, & Krigel, 1979;Mosher & Hornsby, 1966). Specifically, research on the acquisition of inquiry strategies in the game of Twenty Questions indicates that while children gradually shift their questions from the single-item type to the categorical type between the ages of 6 and 11 years, they will readily make this shift at an earlier age following training (Denney & Connors, 1974;Denney, Jones, & Krigel, 1979;Mosher & Hornsby, 1966).…”