Eighty-eight college students were invited to cook a chocolate mousse and were allowed first to ask any question that seemed helpful to completing the task. The questions were answered immediately according to a predetermined schema: in one condition the subjects were told that the task would be rather easy, in the other condition they were told that the task would be difficult. The subjects in the first group asked fewer questions than those in the second group. Also, the proportion of the second group's questions asking for action criteria was greater than the proportion of action criteria questions of the first group. The more the subjects were knowledgeable in matters of cooking, the greater their proportion of criteria questions was. The total number of questions correlated negatively with the relevant preknowledge. (German text with English abstract.) (Author/HTH)