Creativity researchers have recently sought to standardize idea assessment via computational measures of semantic distance: the degree of conceptual dissimilarity between words. The relationship between semantic distance and creativity has traditionally been described using linear models, with the embedded assumption that as semantic distance…

Communication in educational and community contexts often hinges not just on what is asked but why and how it is asked. This article introduces Sudhan's Question Intent Matrix, a novel 2x2 framework for interpreting the emotional and intentional layers behind questions. The matrix is defined by two axes -- Emotional Energy (ranging from defensive,…

Children are interviewed to provide information about past events in various contexts (e.g., police interviews, court proceedings, therapeutic interviews). During an interview, various factors may influence the accuracy of children's responses to questions about recent events. However, behavioral research in this area is limited. Sparling et al.…

Quality questions, directed inquiry, and authentic literacy are important tools that enhance students' comprehension, knowledge, and application of what is taught. Learn how to phrase and pose good questions that will ignite inquiring minds and enrich student learning during classroom instruction. Author Erik M. Francis shares a framework for…

Curiosity can be a powerful motivator to learn and retain new information. Evidence shows that high states of curiosity elicited by a specific source (i.e., a trivia question) can promote memory for incidental stimuli (non-target) presented close in time. The spreading effect of curiosity states on memory for other information has potential for…

Between the Fall of 2016 through February of 2022 (the start of the pandemic) the author drove as an independent contractor for both Uber and Lyft--the ridesharing companies. During this time, he provided 4,590 rides (with a 4.97- star rating) in Boston, MA and the neighboring communities. When he decided to drive for these rideshare platforms, he…

Class discussions are the cornerstone of successful instruction and learning--a way to explore complex subject matter and help students develop critical-thinking, listening, and speaking skills. Too often, the questions teachers ask are met not with deep engagement and discovery but blank stares and silence. In order to reap the benefits of…

The Devil's Advocate protocol has been developed to assist making veracity assessments when someone discusses their opinion. The present experiment focused on protester actions rather than controversial issues and also included an adapted version of the Verifiability Approach. Participants told the truth or lied about protester actions and the…

Asking open-ended questions for research purposes might be very tempting because the answers can provide valuable authentic information not only about participants' responses to the asked questions but also about their unintentionally expressed feelings and emotions. However, analyzing answers to open-ended questions given in free form will very…

With the latest advances in conversational agents like Siri and Alexa, and Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and PaLM, Question Answering (QA) systems have become more important. Users submit millions of queries per day and it is up to the system to provide reliable, to-the-point answers. In this dissertation, we explore various aspects to…

Purpose: Previous studies documenting longitudinal linguistic outcomes of children with specific language impairment (SLI) compared to their age peers focus on the property of obligatory finiteness marking in sentences across the age span of 5-18 years. This study evaluates tag questions as syntactically complex sentences that extend the demands…

Early science inquiries and experiences increase young children's awareness and interest for science. The importance of promoting science process skills which bolster children's confidence to formulate and communicate personal ideas have been emphasised by international guidelines. As Loose Parts Play (LPP) is a form of free play involving…

Curiosity motivates the search for missing information, driving learning, scientific discovery, and innovation. Yet, identifying that there is a gap in one's knowledge is itself a critical step, and may demand that one formulate a question to precisely express what is missing. Our work captures the integral role of self-generated questions during…

Asking questions about a text enhances comprehension whether the questions are self-generated by the reader or asked by another. Previous parent training studies have focused on Latino parents with low-income and low-levels of formal education and have noted that during shared reading, immigrant Latino parents ask few questions. In contrast, we…

Questions, and more specifically authentic questions, are at the core of dialogue-based learning and teaching. However, what is a question, and how can it be authentic? This paper addresses this problem by analyzing the distinct dimensions of questions, showing how their pragmatic nature is interwoven with the syntactic and semantic one, and how…