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On the social epistemological nature of questions
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Kwon, Hannah. On the social epistemological nature of questions. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T36Q20DB

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TitleOn the social epistemological nature of questions
NameKwon, Hannah (author); Todd, Ross (chair); Radford, Marie (internal member); Dalbello, Marija (internal member); Zerubavel, Eviatar (outside member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - New Brunswick
Date Created2016
Other Date2016-05 (degree)
SubjectCommunication, Information and Library Studies, Memory, Information retrieval
Extent1 online resource (x, 363 p. : ill.)
DescriptionIf “information” is a central concept for library and information science, then “questions” are fundamental, for information “informs” relative to the question. But research focusing on questions as a central theoretical concept has been stymied by the paradox of the question, which observes that in order to ask one must know enough to know what one does not know (Flammer, 1981). This dissertation proposes that this paradox results from the limitations of the cognitive approach to questions as indications of individual information need, and that the paradox can be resolved by reframing questions as social epistemological tools of inquiry within knowledge domains. The questions posed by three knowledge domains – neuroscience, literature, and computer engineering – on the common topic of “memory” are analyzed in order to investigate how the domains’ question formulations compare and what the comparisons convey about how to answer and the assumptions upon which question and answer are constructed. A method is developed for identifying the implicit questions that motivate and organize scholarly inquiry by analyzing dissertation abstracts as knowledge products of inquiry. The comparative question analysis of neuroscience, literature, and computer engineering dissertations’ question formulations about “memory” supports the proposition that knowledge domains ask different questions and ask them differently. What they ask, the content of their questions, communicates the indeterminate epistemic situation that each domain has of memory, while the mode of presentation of the question, its form, conveys the epistemic structure of inquiry and the production of knowledge. A social epistemological model of domains’ question formulations is developed that proposes that question content reflects domain ontologies, question form reflects domain epistemologies, and determinations of question relevance reflect domain sociality, which model has implications for document relevance, question negotiation, information retrieval design, and inquiry-based learning.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Hannah Kwon
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T36Q20DB
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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