Alternative Linking Hypothesis In Children

Introduction
Cognitive psychologists want to know what mechanisms move children forward from one knowledge state to a more adult-like knowledge state. There is one mechanism that has been explored, which is children’s ability to ask questions to gather the information they need to achieve a more adult-like knowledge state.
Question asking has always been an important source for children to seek out information. For younger children who do not yet possess ability to ask questions verbally, they usually point to the novel object. Questions are useful for children at all ages because they help fill in the information gap that is concerning the child. It helps resolve internal disequilibrium and guide the direction of child’s thoughts when the child is trying to resolve such unbalance. And the disequilibrium in turn motivated the child to ask a question to get information that can …show more content…
I also have a secondary linking hypothesis that younger 3 year olds ask more for the labels of objects, but as they get older, they would focus more on the meaning of the word. This linking hypothesis is consistent with the findings of Deborah et al. (2004).
Alternative Linking Hypothesis
The alternative linking hypothesis is the exact opposite of the primary linking hypothesis. It is also possible that as preschoolers get older, their tendency to ask questions about word meaning increases due to the vocabulary spurt, during which children are actively asking questions to recruit and absorb new information to fill in their information gap. It could prove that children are active learner who constantly map out information using the technique of question asking, rather than simply taking in and memorizing