Finding the (most efficient) way out of a maze is easier than asking (good) questions.

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. In Experiment 1, 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, 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. We found that children made more informative queries in the maze-exploration game than in the 20-questions game. Children’s performance in the 20-questions game improved with age, whereas there were no age-related differences in the spatial task. In Experiment 2, we introduced a non-verbal version of the 20-questions game, in which children had to select which features to query (e.g., color) in order to identify the target monster. We found that children performed equally well in both tasks, with no age-related performance differences. Our results demonstrate that efficient search strategies emerge much earlier than previously assumed, suggesting that young children’s difficulties in the 20-questions game are directly related to the verbal requirements of the task. 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.

Smart or just lucky? Inferring question-asking competence from strategies’ efficiency versus effectiveness.

“…In addition, we wanted to investigate to what extent TÖRÖK, SWABODA, AND RUGGERI 10 children's difficulties in Experiment 1 were task-specific, that is, related to the question-asking paradigm we used. We therefore also presented children with a spatial search game (maze-exploration game, adapted from Swaboda et al, 2021), in which agents did not make queries by asking questions, but by looking under a set of cards concealing the passages of a two-dimensional maze. This task was designed such that the strategies (3CS vs. 3HS) were equivalent in efficiency and effectiveness to the strategies in the 20-questions game.…”

“…What's more, recent work shows that in nonverbal tasks that do not involve question-asking at all, children are able to implement efficient search strategies themselves much earlier. For example, Swaboda et al (2021) showed that 4-year-olds searched as efficiently as 7-year-olds in a spatial search task, where they had to find the path through a partially blocked maze by uncovering its concealed passages (Swaboda et al, 2021). In another study, children (ages 3 to 5 years) searched for an egg shaker hidden in one of two boxes after learning that it was either always hidden in the same box, or in a different box.…”

“…Maze-Exploration Game. Participants watched two monsters, Nima and Puk, play a maze-exploration game (adapted from Swaboda et al, 2021). The goal of this game was to find the path leading through a partially blocked maze in order to retrieve the treasure hidden in its center.…”

“…Previous work employing the 20-questions game has shown that children do not begin to generate more efficient constraint-seeking questions before entering primary school (Herwig, 1982;Mosher & Hornsby, 1966;Ruggeri et al, 2015Ruggeri et al, , 2016Ruggeri & Feufel, 2015). However, in tasks that do not rely on question generation, they are able to identify and implement the more efficient of two actions from a much younger age (e.g., Domberg et al, 2020;Ruggeri et al, 2017;Swaboda et al, 2021). For instance, Ruggeri et al (2017) presented 5-year-olds with a 20-questions game, where two monsters attempted to find out why their friend Toma had been late for school and asked questions with different informativeness.…”

Pengembangan Media Tempel Aku Untuk Meningkatkan Kemampuan Berpikir Simbolik Anak

“…Permainan ini dibuat dengan menggunakan maze sehingga anak-anak harus melewati maze tersebut dengan berbagai tantangan yang ada. Menurut (Swaboda, Meder, & Ruggeri, 2020) mengatakan bahwa kemampuan anak secara fleksibel dapat menggolongkan suatu objek berdasarkan fitur alternatif untuk memprediksi seberapa besar anak memainkan permainan. Berdasarkan beberapa pendapat tersebut, maka permainan dapat didefinisikan sebagai usaha keterampilan pengetahuan pada permainan maze untuk menemukan jalan keluar yang tersulit agar mencapai tujuan yang dicapainya.…”