Journal of&hool PJychology, Vol. 29, pp. 81-88, 1991 Pergamon Press pie. Printed in the USA,

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Use of Modeling to Enhance Children's Interrogative Strategies

Kathleen M. Johnson, Terry B. Gutkin, and Barbara S. Plake University of Nebraska-Lincoln

This study investigated the use of modeling procedures to teach constraint-seeking interrogative strategies to ch!ldren 6½-7 ½ and 10 ½-11½ years old. The subjects were 114 randomly selected nonhandicapped elementary school children. The game of Twenty Questions was used to model and to test the subjects' question- asking behaviors. The results indicated that modeling procedures were effective in helping children in both age groups learn how to use constraint-seeking interroga- tive strategies, although better results were produced by cognitive than by exem- plary modeling procedures. Regardless of the type of modeling that was provided, the older children learned this complex cognitive behavior more thoroughly than their younger counterparts.

T r a i n i n g children to use complex cognit ive processes is an impor tan t educa- t ional goal. O v e r the past several years, research efforts have focused increas- ingly on the deve lopment of strategies for teaching students rule-governed, cognit ive behaviors (Pal incsar and Brown, 1987). O f par t icular interest for this s tudy has been the use of model ing/observat ional l ea rn ing processes (Zim- m e r m a n & Rosenthal , 1974). Abst rac t mode l ing (Bandura , 1986) refers to processes from which observers derive the principles or rules under ly ing spe- cific modeled performances . This informat ion is then used by the observers to generate appropr ia te behaviora l responses of their own that may go beyond the specifics of what was actually seen or heard .

Observa t iona l learn ing techniques have been uti l ized to t ra in and modify complex cognit ive strategies. In this area, previous research (e.g. , Kazdin , 1979) supports the idea that the avai labi l i ty of an organized format or rule for a modeled response tends to enhance re tent ion of informat ion and thus en- hance model ing effects. Sarason (1973) refers to such procedures as "cognitive model ing," whereby a model verbalizes the strategies ut i l ized to de te rmine and /o r exhibit a solution to a problem.

Behavioral examples alone may not be adequate in demons t ra t ing complex cognit ive skills to observers (Bruch, 1978). The results of a var ie ty of cognitive model ing studies indicate the efficacy of cognit ive mode l ing and rehearsal

Received September 26, 1989; final revision received July 30, 1990. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Terry B. Gutkin, Department of Educational

Psychology, 117 Bancroft Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588. This article is a condensed version of the first author's dissertation, dirvcted under the super,'i-

sion of the second author. 81

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techniques in fostering generalized improvement in problem solving for hy- peractive and impulsive children (e.g., Reid & Borkowski, 1987), as well as children with academic or other cognitive difficulties (e.g., Genshaft, 1982). Cognitive modeling has tended to be more successful than exemplary model- ing with children (Denney, 1975), whereas the two have usually been shown to be very nearly equal in effect for adults (Denney & Denney, 1974; Revels & Gutkin, 1983).

Given the importance of question-asklng for children's learning, the refine- ment of children's interrogative strategies has been among those cognitive processes that have drawn much attention in prior research. Of particular interest has been the successful work of researchers employing modeling pro- cedures to modify children's behavior in this domain (e.g., Denney, 1975; Ronning, 1977). Other efforts aimed at altering interrogative and cognitive strategies have focused on preschool children (Denney & Conners, 1974), special populations (Copeland & Weissbrod, 1983; Kendall, Borkowski, & Cavanaugh, 1980), and adults (Cleven & Gutkin, 1988; Denney, Jones, & Krigel, 1979). Because previous research has suggested that age level is rele- vant to the acquisition of cognitive strategies, further investigation is needed with regard to the differential responsiveness of observers varying in age to information presented by strategy models.

Two general types of question-asking strategies have been identified in the literature: (!) constraint-seeking, and (2) hypothesis-seeking. Hypothesis- seeking questions test specific, self-sufficient hypotheses each of which has no relationship to other questions (e.g., "Is it a dog?"; "Is it a car?"). Constraint- seeking questions are more categorical, the answers serving to eliminate more than one single hypothesis at a time and provide a means of quickly narrowing the alternatives in an array of choices (e.g., "Is it larger than a bread box?"). Constraint-seeking questions are thus more efficient than hypothesis-seeking questions from a cognitive perspective.

Unlike several prior studies that focused on improvements in children's question-answering behaviors (Morrow, 1984; Raphael & McKinney, 1983; Raphael & Pearson, 1985; Raphael & Wonnacott, 1985), the current study sought to examine children's question-asking strategies. Specifically, the study was designed to determine (1) if constraint-seeking interrogative strategies could be taught to school-age children by modeling, and (2) what types of modeling would be most effective in helping children to learn constraint- seeking interrogative strategies. In accordance with the taxonomy of training strategies suggested by Brown and Palincsar (1982), low-, intermediate-, and high-information cognitive modeling procedures were employed and com- pared. Secondarily, in light of research that has indicated that children's re- sponsiveness to modeling may vary with their developmental level (Denney, 1975; Denney & Conners, 1974; Denney et al., 1979; Kuhn, 1973; Ronning, 1977), the current research sought to determine if the modeling of interroga- tive strategies for children was influenced by the observer's age.

Johnson et al. 83

METHODS

Subiects

The subjects were 114 regular education children with no known handicap- ping conditions from elementary schools in a midwestern city. Within each school, the subjects were divided into younger and older age groups. The former group consisted of 54 subjects randomly selected from those available between the ages of 6½ and 7½ (M = 6.98, SD = 0.30). The latter group consisted of 60 subjects randomly selected from those available between the ages of 10½ and 11 ½ (M = 11.06, SD = 0.25). The total sample consisted of 57 male and 57 female subjects.

Procedure

The subjects' interrogative strategies were examined through their success at solving Twenty Questions (TQ) tasks. Each T Q task included a visual array of 15 noun pictures. The goal of each T O problem was to solve it by asking questions that could be answered with a "yes" or "no" and determining the target element in as few questions as possible. Each T Q array contained pictures that could be classified into five or more general categories for which constraint-seeking questions could be generate d (e.g., Is it a triangle?; Is it red?).

Treatment Groups. Within each age group, the subjects were randomly as- signed to one of three experimental groups or a control condition. Each child was seen individually by a naive research assistant. After establishing rapport, a T Q array was presented and the child listened to a tape-recorded model of another child solving the TQprob l em. The verbalizations of this model varied according to the experimental and control conditions. Subsequently, a second T Q p r o b l e m and model was presented to each child. Following the completion of this modeling procedure, each child was given the opportunity to solve three similar T Q problems and instructed to do so using as few questions as possible. All subjects were given up to 20 questions to arrive at the correct answer. If a subject failed to solve the problem in 20 questions, he or she was told the correct answer. The subjects were verbally praised for their work after each of the three T Q tasks. All of their responses were audiotaped.

Experimental Groups. The model for each of the experimental groups solved the two T Q problems by using only constraint-seeking questions until the point at which the correct answer could be chosen by categorical elimination. The three experimental groups differed as follows:

I. Low Information Level: The model provided examples of constraint- seeking questions but verbalized no cognitive explanations of how or why

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t'hese questions were formulated. For example, the model asked, "Is it a square?"; "Is it a red one?"

2. Intermediate Information Level: In addition to providing examples of constraint-seeking questions, the model verbalized task-specific cognitive ex- planations of the constraint-seeking process necessary to solve the TQ. prob- lem. For example, the model said, "I see that all three of these pictures are triangles, so I could ask, 'Is it a triangle?'"

3. High Information Level: In addition to providing examples of constraint-seeking questions and verbalizing task-specific cognitive explana- tions, the model verbalized the rule-based cognitive strategy necessary to solve the TQ. problem. For example, the model said, "I have to figure out which picture is the right one. I 'm going to try to group a few pictures together, ones that fit together, and then ask a question about the whole group. I see all three of these pictures are red. Is it a red one?"

Control Group. Each of the subjects in the control group listened to a model who simply described the items in the TQ. array. For example, the model said, "In row number 1 I see that the first picture is a big red circle. It's at least two inches across. A small blue triangle is the second picture."

Scoring of Subjects ' Responses. The questions asked by the subjects were transcribed from the tapes to individual index cards with one question per card. Two naive scorers independently sorted the questions into three catego- ries: (1) constraint-seeking questions, which were those that had the potential to eliminate more than one picture from the T Q a r r a y (e.g., "Is it a circle?"); (9) pseudo-constraint-seeking questions, which were questions that were phrased like constraint-seeking questions but did not have the potential to eliminate more than one picture in the TQ. array (e.g., asking, "Is it green?" when there is only one green picture); and (3) hypothesis-seeking questions, which were those for which the "yes" or "no" answer told the subject nothing about any of the other pictures in the T Q array other than the one that was directly addressed (e.g., "Is it the small red circle in the last row?"). For those responses for which there was a disagreement, a classification was mutually determined by the scorers.

Research Design The experimental design was a 4 X 2 (Treatment) X (Age group) factorial with approximately 14 subjects per cell. There were two dependent variables. The first was the percentage of constraint-seeking questions (CSQ.) asked by each subject, calculated by dividing the number of constraint-seeking ques- tions asked by the total number of questions asked. The second dependent variable was the mean number of questions asked by each subject to reach solution (QtoS) for the three TQ. problems presented to them. Subjects who failed to solve a T Q problem were assigned a Q.toS score of 20 for that problem.

Johnson et al. 85

RESULTS

The initial agreement between the two independent scorers was 91%, 88%, and 100% for the constraint-seeking, pseudo-constraint-seeking, and hypothesis-seeking questions, respectively. Discussion among the scorers re- garding disagreements ultimately lead to 100% agreement for all three types of questions. Approximately 55%, 26%, and 18% of the subjects' responses fell into the categories of constraint-seeking, pseudo-constraint-seeking, and hypothesls-seeking, respectively. The intercorrelation between the two depen- dent variables was statistically significant (r = - . 3 3 , p < .05), thus indicat- ing the need for a M A N O V A rather than an ANOVA procedure. Given the primary purpose of this study, namely to assess the ability of children to model constraint-seeking questions, the OSQ. variable was entered prior to the QtoS variable in the M A N O V A procedure.

The multivariate tests of main effects for both treatment (multivariate/7(6, 210) = 2.53, p < .05) and age (multivariate F(2, 105) = 38.43, p < .05) were significant, but the interaction was not (multivariate F(6, 210) = 0.39 p > .05). A step-down F test for the treatment dimension revealed that sub- jects in the experimental groups scored significantly higher on the CSQ. vari- able (M = 35.08, SD = 24.53) and significantly lower on the Q toS variable (M = 6.88, SD = 2.50) than those in the control group ( C S Q M = 29.76, SD = 27.52; Q toS M = 8.44, SD = 3.43). Follow-up a priori contrasts re- vealed that the intermediate information group (M = 34.15, SD = 25.26) had significantly higher C S Q scores than the low information group (M = 27.96, SD = 20.77) (t = 2.21, p < .05), whereas there were no differences between the high information (M = 43.12, SD = 27.56) and the intermedi- ate information groups (M = 34.15, SD = 25.26) (t = 1.31, p > .05). For the residualized Q toS dependent variable, neither the contrast of the low information (M = 6.60, SD = 1.85) with the intermediate information group (M = 6.88, SD = 2.89) (t = 0.76, p > .05) nor the contrast of the intermediate information (M = 6.88, SD = 2.89) with the high information g roup(M = 7.17, SD = 2.76)(t = 0.39, p > .05)reached statistical signifi- cance. Regarding the age-level independent variable, step-down F tests re- vealed that the subjects in the older age group (M = 54.51, SD = 22.61) scored significantly higher on the C S Q variable than those in the younger group (M = 12.98, SD = 27.94) (F = 75.18, p < .05), although there was no difference on the residualized QtoS variable (F = 1.40, p > .05).

DISCUSSION

The results of this investigation, which were consistent with the findings of prior researchers (e.g., Zimrnerman and Rosenthal, 1974), indicate that com- plex cognitive behaviors can be facilitated through modeling procedures. Sub- jects exposed to modeling procedures (experimental groups) displayed signifi- cantly more of the target interrogative strategy behaviors than those in a control group.

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Beyond the main effect that was attributable to modeling, it was discovered that the subjects who received exemplary modeling plus task-specific cognitive explanations (intermediate information group) used constraint-seeking ques- tions significantly more often than the subjects who received exemplary mod- eling only (low information group), regardless of age. This finding supports prior work that suggests that cognitive modeling is more successful than exem- plary modeling with children (Denney, 1975; Denney & Conners, 1974; Den- ney et al., 1979) and that models are more effective when they increase the level of task structure and task clarity, thus providing the observer with enough information to derive a rule or strategy for generating specific re- sponses (Marlatt, 1972; Thelen, Dollinger, & Kirkland, 1979).

The equal effectiveness of the intermediate and high information groups also fits well with prior research. Specifically, several authors (e.g., Marlatt, 1972; Masters & Branch, 1969; Thelen et al., 1979) have hypothesized that observational learning is best facilitated when the observer must indepen- dently derive the strategy rule. The high information treatment, in which the subjects were provided with rule-based cognitive strategies in addition to exemplary and task-specific cognitive modeling may thus have provided little additional useful information to the subjects beyond what they received in the intermediate information group. The findings of this study do not support Bandura's (1972) opinion that direct instruction in the "rules of the game" may be superior to modeling without this type of information.

The results of this study also indicate that the older subjects (10½-11 ½ years of age) imitated the use of constraint-seeking questions more than the younger subjects (6 ½-7 ½ years of age), regardless of their treatment group. The significant main effect for age lends support to prior research that indi- cates that younger children (e.g., preschool, kindergarten, first grade) are less successful in comprehending and imitating cognitive strategies than older children (e.g., upper grade levels) (e.g., Denney, 1975; Denney & Conners, 1974; Denney et al., 1979; Kuhn, 1973; Ronning, 1977).

In summary, the major findings of this study are as follows: (a) Modeling procedures can be used to facilitate children's learning of constraint-seeking interrogative skills; (b) modeling that includes cognitive process explanations is more effective than exemplary modeling alone for helping both younger and older children learn a constraint-seeking interrogative strategy; and (c) older children display a greater capacity for learning interrogative strategies through modeling. Although the reader must be cautious in generalizing the laboratory findings of this study to actual classroom situations, there are some noteworthy implications for practicing school psychologists. Specifically, it would appear that teaching new skills or concepts by providing examples only may be a less than optimal method for enhancing observational learning, especially if the desired response is a complex and cognitive one such as learning to use a constraint-seeking interrogative strategy. Teachers can po- tentially improve observational, learning effects by providing detailed cogni-

Johnson et al. 87

tive explanations of the skills being modeled in addition to examples. Curricu- lar domains such as mathematics and reading, in which students must learn and employ systematically a broad variety of strategies to solve instructional problems, may be particularly fertile ground for the cognitive modeling ap- proaches investigated in this study.

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