Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Children are motivated to explore and learn about the world,but they vary in their degree of perseverance duringexploration. A growing body of literature suggests that ismalleable from an early age. Here, we ask whetherpedagogical questions empower children to persevere duringa difficult problem-solving task with a blicket detectormachine. Previous research has shown that when presentedwith a blicket detector, asking children “pedagogicalquestions” promotes more exploratory behaviors compared todirect instruction. A pedagogical question is a question askedby a knowledgeable person, whose intention is to teach ratherthan to seek an answer to that question. The current studyexamines whether pedagogical questions influence theamount of time children spend problem-solving beforeseeking help, compared to direct instruction, overheardpedagogical questions, and overheard questions asked by anaive other. We predicted that children who were asked apedagogical question prior to having the opportunity to playwith a machine would persevere longer in trying to make itwork, and would be less likely to ask for help. Results suggestthat pedagogical questioning encourages children to attemptmore hypothesis-test interventions in an effort to make themachine work. Results will be discussed in terms of the roleof pedagogical questioning in promoting perseverance duringproblem-solving.