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Question‐driven Explanatory Reasoning
Author(s) -
GRAESSER ARTHUR C.,
BAGGETT WILLIAM,
WILLIAMS KENT
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199611)10:7<17::aid-acp435>3.0.co;2-7
Subject(s) - causal reasoning , psychology , cognitive science , cognition , action (physics) , epistemology , deductive reasoning , analytic reasoning , logical reasoning , plan (archaeology) , psychology of reasoning , cognitive psychology , verbal reasoning , mathematics education , neuroscience , philosophy , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , history
The primary claim in this paper is that questions are one of the fundamental cognitive components that guide human reasoning. That is, threads of coherent reasoning are built around the questions that humans ask and their answers to these questions. Explanatory reasoning is elicited by particular classes of questions (such as why , how , and what ‐ if ) that invite the construction of causal chains, goal‐plan‐action hierarchies, and logical justifications. This paper identifies the psychological mechanisms that underlie human question asking and question answering, along with some empirical findings that support these mechanisms. We also discuss some ways that educational software can be designed to facilitate question‐driven explanatory reasoning. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.