The Twenty Questions Game as a Form of Problem Solving
Robert S. Siegler · Child Development · 1977
SIEGLER, ROBERT S. The Twenty Questions Game as a Form of Problem Solving. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 395-403. 3 experiments were performed in an attempt to integrate ideas and methods developed in the study of problem solving with those developed specifically to study children's inquiry strategies. The focus was on how experience with isomorphic problems affected subsequent inquiries. In Experiment 1, it was found that the order of presentation of 2 isomorphic problems greatly influenced the types of questions asked by 13and 14-year-olds. In Experiment 2, evidence was produced that this effect was due to the adolescents' conducting only limited searches of their existing knowledge in generating questions. The results of Experiment 3 ruled out 2 possible alternative explanations of the Experiment 2 findings-that they might be due to motivational factors or to superior knowledge about task demands-and also provided an independent replication of the results of Experiment 1. Together, the 3 experiments demonstrated the applicability of such problem-solving concepts as isomorphism, analogy, and depth of search to the study of children's inquiries.