The effect of different question types on vicarious learning

Abstract

This study explored the role of question types and prior knowledge in vicarious learning with an intelligent tutoring system. In experiment 1, the participants were assigned to three conditions (deep questions, shallow questions, control), the results showed that participants in the deep questions condition had higher retention test scores than those in the shallow questions condition and those in the control condition. In experiment 2, we conducted a 2 (prior knowledge: high, low) × 3 (question types: deep question, shallow question, control) between-subjects experimental design, and participants in the deep question condition again had higher retention test scores than the other conditions. Also, participants in the shallow question condition had higher retention test scores than those in the control condition. Additionally, no interaction between prior knowledge and question types was observed. In conclusion, deep questions can promote learning of experimental design, which replicates prior research results on deep level questions.

Keywords:

• Vicarious learning
• deep question
• shallow question
• cognitive load
• AutoTutor

Acknowledgements

Ziyi Kuang and Xiaxia Jiang contributed equally to the study. They should be regarded as joint first author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant [# 61937001]; the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [#23YJCZH091]; National Natural Social Science Foundation of China Grant [# CAA220307]; the Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project of Henan Province [#2022CJY047]; the Philosophy and Social Science Project of Education Department of Hubei Province [22G06].