When Children Ask, “What Is It?” What Do They Want to Know About Artifacts?

Abstract

When children ask, "What is it?" are they seeking information about what something is called or what kind of thing it is? To find out, we gave 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds (32 at each age) the opportunity to inquire about unfamiliar artifacts. An ambiguous question was answered with a name or with functional information, depending on the group to which the children were assigned. Children were inclined to follow up with additional questions about the object when they had been told its name, but seemed satisfied with the answer when they had been told the object's function. Moreover, children in the name condition tended to substitute questions about function for ambiguous questions over the course of the session. These results indicate that children are motivated to discover what kinds of things novel artifacts are, and that young children, like adults, conceive of artifact kinds in terms of their functions.

Knowing when to doubt: Developing a critical stance when learning from others.

“…Although children sometimes show remarkable and appropriate skepticism, we must be careful not to overstate young children’s ability to detect reasons to doubt, as doing so may inadvertently put them in harm’s way. That said, we also must recognize that children do have a strong desire to fully understand the world around them (e.g., Gopnik, 1998), being unsatisfied with incomplete or wrong answers to their questions (e.g., Frazier, Gelman, & Wellman, 2009; Kemler Nelson, Egan, & Holt, 2004). Thus, even young children show a clear desire to discover the truth.…”

Generic language use reveals domain differences in young children's expectations about animal and artifact categories

“…However, it remains to be seen whether children have more fine-tuned expectations. For example, previous research has shown that object function is viewed as a central aspect of artifact concepts even for young children (Bloom, 1996; Greif, Kemler Nelson, Keil, & Gutierrez, 2006; Kemler Nelson, Egan, & Holt, 2004) and that children expect objects of the same kind to share functional features (Davidson & Gelman, 1990; Gelman, 1988; Welder & Graham, 2001; Gelman, 1988). Thus, children may view object function as a feature that is particularly likely to be homogeneous in artifacts.…”

Question, Explanation, Follow‐Up: A Mechanism for Learning From Others?

“…One study systematically explored children's reactions to responses given to the child's "What is it?" questions about a novel artifact (Kemler Nelson, Chan, & Holt, 2004). Children were more likely to ask follow-up questions when they received an object label than when given the object's function.…”