- Children are often asked questions, and it’s generally important that they understand the nature of the question and give an appropriate answer.
- Previous research has shown children may misinterpret questions (Donaldson, 1978), slight wording changes can affect responses (Dale, Loftus, & Rathburn 1978), and that children may answer differently to the same question on separate occasions (Donaldson, 1978).
- Also it has been shown that children are susceptible to misleading questions, and can be confused by unfamiliar words (i.e. “lawyerese”)
- It has been found that children will try and answer “bizarre” questions (Hughes and Grieve, 1980)
- Research so far has focused on “yes/no” questions
- Predictions: Children will try to answer nonsensical questions but not scrambled questions.
Experiment
1:
- Three sensible closed (yes/no) and open questions, three nonsensible open and closed questions, two scrambled questions
- 73 kids, selected from three grades of a UK school.
- Explicitly explained that saying “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand” are ok answers.
- Three weeks later – same questions - sensible/silly judgement task – afterwards they were asked to explain judgement
Results:
- Results for task I in Table I
- Effects for age, question type, question format
- Interaction b/t question type and question format (figure 1)
- More correct responses to scrambled questions then to nonsensical closed questions
- Results for task II in table II
- 6 year olds did worse than 7 or 8 year olds
Discussion
Task I
- Nearly all children answered the sensible questions
- Majority tried to answer nonsensible questions closed questions
- Children rarely tried to answer nonsensible open questions
- They suggest that children may not try to answer all nonsensical questions, just the closed ones.
Task II
- Almost all children judged the sensible questions sensible, and nonsensical questions to be silly.
- It can’t be inferred that because children answered a nonsensical question they thought it was a sensible one.
Main Conclusion
of Experiment I:
Children did not try to answer all nonsensical questions, mostly just the closed ones, and they did so despite realizing that the questions were silly.
Experiment
2:
- Experiment 1’s nonsensical closed questions all involved comparisons. So results may have come from format or nature of the questions.
- Three sensible closed questions, non-comparitive, and three sensible open questions, comparitive. Also three nonsensical closed non-comparitive questions and three nonsensical open comparitive questions that had been rated as “silly” used.
- Procedure identical to experiment I, except kids asked 24 questions
Results:
Task I
- Task I results in Table 3
- Effects for question type, question format, comparison.
- For sensible questions, open, non-comparison questions were answered better. But for closed questions, no difference. For nonsensical questions, no difference.
- Majority of children who did answer particular nonsensical question later judged these questions to be silly.
Task II
- Results in Table 4
- High proportion of correct responses for all types of question
Experiment
II Discussion
- Children sometimes failed to give an answer to sensible open comparative questions. May have been difficult for them.
- Only ¼ of responses to nonsensical closed questions were appropriate
- No significant effect for the comparative nature of questions with nonsensical questions.
Main Experiment
2 Conclusion:
Reinforces notion that children try to answer nonsensical closed questions more than nonsensical open questions.
General Discussion
- Found children generally only answer closed nonsensical questions. Previous research may have overstated children’s tendency to answer ‘bizarre’ questions
- Hypothesize that high percentage of correct answers to open nonsensical questions to pre-test instructions of “I don’t know” answers, but then say that it is unlikely since the same effect was not observed on all questions.
- Children may not have monitored their comprehension of the questions enough. Closed questions only require a yes or no answer to be generated, but open questions are more complicated, and may need further comprehension monitoring.
- Interviewers should phrase questions in an open format and be sure the child knows that saying “I don’t know” is ok to reduce accuracy errors and ensure a child understands a particular question.
|
|
|
|
|
|