Question answering in the context of telephone surveys, business interactions, and interviews

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which the QUEST model of question answering (Graesser & Franklin, 1990) can account for the answers to why, how, when, and consequence questions posed in different pragmatic contexts. In Study I, the pragmatic context consisted of a brief telephone survey in which a question was asked about a historical event (e.g., “How did the Titanic sink?”). In Study 2, college students visited businesses in the guise of customers, asked clerks questions (e.g., “How does a person get a credit card?” in a bank), and tape recorded answers. Study 3 was an analysis of questioning in television interviews (e.g., “The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour” and “Nightline with Ted Koppel”) and science films (e.g., The Brain, Conversations with David G. Myers). QUEST could explain most of the answers in these contexts and virtually all of the answers that referred to the topic being queried (e.g., the sinking of the Titanic, the acquiring of a credit card). Answers that were outside of the scope of QUEST c...