Finding the (Most Efficient) Way out of a Maze Is Easier than Asking (Good) Questions

Autor/inn/en	Swaboda, Nora; Meder, Björn; Ruggeri, Azzurra
Titel	Finding the (Most Efficient) Way out of a Maze Is Easier than Asking (Good) Questions
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 58 (2022) 9, S.1730-1746 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Swaboda, Nora) ORCID (Meder, Björn) ORCID (Ruggeri, Azzurra)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/dev0001386
Schlagwörter	Task Analysis; Spatial Ability; Preschool Children; Information Seeking; Computer Games; Verbal Communication; Questioning Techniques; Difficulty Level; Museums; Scaffolding (Teaching Technique); Foreign Countries; Germany (Berlin) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Aufgabenanalyse; Räumliches Vorstellungsvermögen; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Informationserschließung; Computer game; Computerspiel; Computerspiele; Befragungstechnik; Fragetechnik; Schwierigkeitsgrad; Museum; Museumswesen; Museen; Ausland
Abstract	We investigate whether a spatial representation of a search task supports 4- to 7-year-old children's information-search strategies, relative to their performance in a question-asking game. Children played two computationally and structurally analogous search games: a spatial search task, the maze-exploration game, in which they had to discover the path through a maze by removing masks covering its passages; and a "verbal search task," the 20-questions game, where they had to identify a target monster from a set of eight monsters by asking yes-no questions. Across four experiments, we found that children searched more efficiently when they could make queries nonverbally (Experiments 1 and 2a). We also found that merely providing children with a visual conceptual aid that supports their representation of the hypothesis space (Experiment 2b), or familiarizing them with the hypothesis-space structure (Experiment 3) was not sufficient to improve their search strategies. Together, our results suggest that young children's difficulties in the 20-questions game are mainly driven by the verbal requirements of the task. However, they also demonstrate that efficient search strategies emerge much earlier than previously assumed in tasks that do not rely on verbal question generation. These findings highlight the importance of developing age-appropriate paradigms that capture children's early competence, in order to gain a more comprehensive picture of their emerging information-search abilities. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01