The locus of cognition is still shifting: the “owners of meaning” are not easy to locate. Some questions are posed:
1.) What is happening? 2.) Who are the persons? 3.) What has led up to this situation? 4.) What has happened in the past? 5.) What is being thought? 6.) Is action possible? 7.) How do we know what we know? 8.) Should a group find consensus? 9.) How does the test affect the subjects? 10.) How does time work to enhance or undermine the results?
An experiment was conducted to determine whether increasing the number of questions would ultimately lead to a more clear understanding of the nature of the world. If questions lead to answers, it is proposed by the authors that more questions lead to more answers, and that greater knowledge can be harvested from increasing data densities. Undergraduate students (N=80) participated in the study. Half of the subjects studied selected unanswerable questions. The other half studied material to prepare for a test that they would take, regarding answerable questions. A selected number of the first group engaged in actual tutoring sessions. Results indicated that, on some types of tasks, the tutor achieved cognitive gains. The students in group one, however, could still not adequately answer the unanswerable questions, even with tutoring. The second (control) group was tested, and was scored according to standard deviational practice. Results indicated a shift in the Locus of Cognition.
More work needs to be done in the area to further develop the hypothesis regarding density-response matrices, and their use in knowledge construction.
