DaveC426913
Oct24-06, 10:14 AM
Years ago I read a book that explored what it means to people to satisfactorily "explain" something. There were 5 different levels of "doneness". I'm looking for that book.
In a nutshell, the book explored a lecture hall experiment:
- a cylinder was placed on a table at the front of the room
- after five minutes the cylinder fell over
And that's all.
The audience was asked to give an explanation as to what happened.
The key to the experiment was to analyze the responses and categorize them in terms of the type of answer. Answers seemed to group themselves into five categories - i.e. five types of people who were satsified with the answer they provided.
Category 1 grouped audience members whose answers merely described what happened - a sort of acceptance that how it happened was unnecessary i.e. "The cylinder fell over."
All the way up to Category 5, grouping audience members who gave explicit, detailed explanations - and even diagrams of internal mechanisms - attempting to theorize exactly how the cylinder fell over.
It was irrelevant what the answers were, or whether they were right or not, all that mattered was the tendency of people to decide for themselves what is considered a satisfactory answer to a problem.
Anyway, does anyone recognize this book, and know where I might find it?
(Please move thread to appropriate forum as needed)
In a nutshell, the book explored a lecture hall experiment:
- a cylinder was placed on a table at the front of the room
- after five minutes the cylinder fell over
And that's all.
The audience was asked to give an explanation as to what happened.
The key to the experiment was to analyze the responses and categorize them in terms of the type of answer. Answers seemed to group themselves into five categories - i.e. five types of people who were satsified with the answer they provided.
Category 1 grouped audience members whose answers merely described what happened - a sort of acceptance that how it happened was unnecessary i.e. "The cylinder fell over."
All the way up to Category 5, grouping audience members who gave explicit, detailed explanations - and even diagrams of internal mechanisms - attempting to theorize exactly how the cylinder fell over.
It was irrelevant what the answers were, or whether they were right or not, all that mattered was the tendency of people to decide for themselves what is considered a satisfactory answer to a problem.
Anyway, does anyone recognize this book, and know where I might find it?
(Please move thread to appropriate forum as needed)